1012 



Without explaiuiug all the steps of the process, and the various ex- 

 pedients for facilitating the troublesome labour of distribution on so 

 large a scale, it may still be advisable for me to advert briefly to the 

 present routine, in order to give botanists the means of judging for 

 themselves how far they may now safely trust the labels sent to them 

 from the Botanical Society of London. Our rule is, for the contri- 

 butor himself to label the British specimens which he transmits in 

 duplicate to London for distribution. As the parcels are received they 

 are deposited in a large box in Bedford Street, which in due time is 

 despatched to me here, at Ditton, filled with the parcels. My first 

 work is to take out all the specimens from the various parcels, and re- 

 move them to paper of one uniform size ; this preliminary step being 

 indispensable for the after sorting and arranging, by which they would 

 be much chipped and broken, if turned about upon sheets of unequal 

 size. Any specimens which may be required for the Society's herba- 

 rium, or for any other special purpose, are then selected ; and (as may 

 be shrewdly guessed) I take the same opportunity of attending to the 

 wants of " No. 1 ; " but these being much less numerous than the 

 contributions made to the Society by said " No. 1," the abstractions 

 are more than repaid. The specimens are afterwards sorted out and 

 arranged, so as to bring all those of the same species together, and to 

 place the whole in the same order of succession or sequence as that in 

 which their names are printed and numbered in the ' London Cata- 

 logue of British Plants.' In the course of sorting and so on, various 

 changes and corrections of name have usually to be made ; fresh labels 

 being written for such specimens as may have been incorrectly named, 

 or for others sent un-labelled by botanists who are not members, and 

 therefore not amenable to the rules. Invariably, hitherto, numerous 

 specimens have required to be taken out and destroyed, or else re- 

 turned to the member who sent them ; being insuflicient fragments, or 

 very badly dried, or too long for the paper, or labelled contrary to rule, 

 or objectionable in some other sort. Ultimately, the rest are again 

 boxed, and returned to London, where the ever-working Secretary (in 

 the want of a Curator) introduces them, species by species, into their 

 proper places among the general store of duplicates for distribution ; 

 and from which he selects the desiderata of members, with such 

 additional help as he may be fortunate enough to obtain from other 

 resident members in town. 



From these explanations, although not very full or complete, it 

 wiil be understood that the labels of British specimens, distributed 

 latterly (during about three or four years) from the London Society, 



