40 



of sheer inattention to the " Regulations," which expressly direct that 

 specimens exceeding fifteen inches in length are to be folded or bent 

 within that compass while fresh. The latter defect is more frequently 

 to be attributed to botanical inexperience ; for young botanists often 

 seem totally unaware of the importance of full-length specimens. 

 They send the flowering tops of plants, culms of grasses without 

 leaves, the catkins of willows without the foliage, orchises without 

 roots, or fragments of some sort, such as often prove quite insufficient 

 to distinguish one species from another nearly allied species. 



In addition, there is so much of inconvenience and extra trouble 

 caused by sending the specimens labelled contrary to the "Regula- 

 tions, ,, that all so sent are now destroyed at once, unless they chance 

 to be examples of some very local species which the Society cannot 

 well afford to throw away at the time. In this case the specimens 

 may be retained and distributed ; the negligent contributor possibly 

 receiving a less ample return for them, through getting a lower chance 

 for rarities or novelties received in scanty numbers. I will give one 

 example in illustration of the loss of time caused by an apparently 

 slight neglect of the Society's " Regulations." The duplicates are of 

 course kept in the same arrangement as that in which their names are 

 placed in the ' London Catalogue of British Plants,' which is the key 

 to the Society's distributions. As fresh parcels accumulate on hand, 

 the specimens are taken out and reduced into the same arrangement, 

 preparatory to the placing of them in the general store. Under the 

 most favourable circumstances, it occupies much time to sort and 

 arrange the thousands upon thousands of specimens annually received 

 from contributors. The process is done partly by the generic and spe- 

 cific names, partly by their Nos. ; and it thus becomes a point of much 

 importance that the names and Nos. should instantly catch the eye, as 

 sheet after sheet is raised in succession, and brings into view the spe- 

 cimens on the sheet underneath. But, where the names and Nos. are 

 obscured or concealed by the specimens, an interruption occurs in the 

 process of sorting and arranging the sheets of specimens, by the ne- 

 cessity of stopping in order to raise the specimens from the paper, and 

 examine the labels behind or beneath them. Experience alone can 

 give any clear conception of the enormous waste of time that is caused 

 by this one apparently trivial defect in the position of the labels. 

 Equally troublesome is the omission of the Nos. altogether ; for in 

 that case the process of sorting is arrested until a copy of the ' Lon- 

 don Catalogue ' may be got at, the proper No. ascertained, and then 

 probably written on each of the defective labels. Now, as it is quite 



