60 LIFE OF FLOWER 



and the difficulties of procuring suitable specimens 

 permitted, gradually assumed the shape and character 

 familiar to all visitors of the building, not that in these 

 respects it exactly followed the lines suggested by 

 Owen. In place of being, as was originally proposed, 

 a sort of epitome or index of the main collections in 

 the galleries, it developed rather into something " more 

 like the general introduction preceding the systematic 

 portion of treatises on any branch of natural history." 



Whether, in view of this departure from the original 

 conception, Sir William, if starting de novo, would have 

 grouped all these separate collections in a single apart- 

 ment, or whether he would have split them up and 

 placed them at the commencement of the various series 

 in the exhibition galleries to which they respectively 

 pertain, may be a moot point. But, at anyrate, no 

 detriment to his work would ensue if such a splitting-up 

 should be thought desirable in the future. And con- 

 siderable advantages would undoubtedly result if the 

 series displaying the general morphology and anatomy 

 of the mammals were placed at the entrance of the 

 mammalian gallery, and so on with the other series at 

 present exhibited in the Index Museum. 



Be this as it may, the series of specimens and pre- 

 parations arranged in the Index Museum under the 

 immediate superintendence of Flower is probably 

 unrivalled in its way, and displays in a marked manner 

 that attention to detail and that eye to artistic effect 

 which were among his special attributes. In the " bay " 

 devoted to mammals, special attention was given to the 

 display of specimens illustrating the various forms 

 assumed by the teeth in the different orders and 



