LIFE OF FLOWER 79 



to the more important examples of their respective 

 work. 



Before his last illness Flower had in contemplation 

 a plan for treating the reptile and fish galleries (in 

 which the crowded exhibits displayed a monotonous 

 and dismal "khaki" hue) on the above lines, but this 

 work was left for his successor, by whom it is in course 

 of being carried out with characteristic energy and 

 originality. 



There is, however, another section of the zoological 

 department of the museum which owes its conception 

 entirely to Sir William Flower, and which he was for- 

 tunately spared to complete. This is the whale-room, 

 or whale-annexe, as it might be better called ; for it is a 

 temporary structure of galvanised iron, lined with match- 

 boarding built out from the north-west angle of the 

 building, and entered by a passage leading out of the 

 corridor alongside the bird gallery. At the time that 

 Flower took over the Keepership of the Zoological 

 Department, with the exception of a skeleton of the 

 sperm-whale, placed in the middle of the Central Hall, 

 the specimens of Cetacea were housed in a portion of the 

 basement, never intended for a public gallery and very 

 unsuited to that purpose. The collection consisted 

 mainly of skeletons and skulls, together with samples 

 of whalebone and teeth ; for it had been found by 

 experience that it was a practical impossibility to mount 

 the skins of the larger whales for exhibition purposes. 

 Indeed, there is great difficulty in doing this even in 

 the case of the dolphins, porpoises, and smaller whales, 

 owing to the fact that their skins are saturated with 

 oil, which, even after the most careful preparation, is 



