350 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [November , 



The observer, especially if a tyro, will do well if he adheres 

 rigidly to facts and forbears drawing inferences ; he cannot com- 

 municate too many of the former, he may do something nearly 

 as foolish as running his head against a lamp-post if he meddles 

 with the latter. The natural historian has to record facts and 

 to observe the appearances and circumstances of things, and to 

 report them in sincerity and simplicity, without infringing on the 

 borders of the natural philosopher. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Important Sale 



Of dried specimms of Plants, an extensive Herbarium, ayid a, Botanical 

 Library, at Stevens s. King Street, Covent Garden, on Friday, October 

 2lst, 1859. 



Several lots and separate collections of dried plants from all parts of the 

 world, amounting in all to sixty-four lots, were sold in prices varying from 

 25. to 47s. 6^. The whole did not realize much above £.30. 



Lot 65 was the Herbarium thus described in the Catalogue. The bid- 

 dings for this important lot began at £50, and it was pm-chased by Mr. 

 Pamplin for £205. It was generally understood that it is for a Public 

 Institution, and that not an English one. 



" A most extensive and valuable arranged Herbarium, containing more than 

 38,000 species of Phsenogamous plants, i. e. more than one-half the known number 

 of that division of the Vegetable Kingdom. 



" Each species is, in most cases, represented by several (sometimes as many as a 

 score, or even more) well-presei-ved specimens from various countries and by various 

 collectors ; the plants are, generally speaking, in excellent order and preservation ; 

 they are arranged in their natural families, and are placed within (but not fastened 

 down to) separate sheets of paper ; they are strapped up in convenient-sized 

 bundles, of which, the number amomits to upwards of four hundred and thu-ty 

 parcels. 



" Each plant is accompanied by a ticket, either manuscript, printed, or litho- 

 graphed (named on the authority of the Paris Museum Herbarium), with locality, 

 soin'ce whence derived, and is often accompanied by memoranda or annotations of 

 the original collector or former possessor. 



" It may with safety be aiErmed that a collection so important, so extensive, so 

 valuable, has never before been offered for pubhc sale, in one lot. The nearest ap- 

 proach to this Herbarium in importance being that left by the late Mr. Feilding, 

 of Lancaster, and which was by that gentleman's munificent liberality bequeathed 

 to and is now deposited in the University of Oxford ; but the present Herbarium 

 is in some respects an advance over that : it is of very considerably larger extent, 

 which a few details of its contents will at once show, as follows : — 



" Embodied in the collection will be found a perfect and complete collection of 

 the plants of Europe, especially rich as regards number of examples in the Floras 

 of Italy, Portugal, and Spain. 



" A fine collection of plants (formerly belonging to Professor Ledebour) from 

 the Eussian Empire, not European only, but from Asiatic, American, and Arctic 

 Kussia. 



" Somerfeldt's plants of Sweden, etc. 



