2 COMMERCIAL BOTANY. 



J. D. Hooker ; or Captain Reliefs voyage of the Herald, 

 after which appeared "The Botany of H.M.S. Herald 

 during the years 1845 to 1851," by Berthold Seemann; or 

 in still later times Captain Nares' Challenger Expedition 

 from 1873 to 1876, the botany of which occupies two large 

 volumes, principally the work of Mr. W. B. Hemsley, 

 F.R.S. Not that these expeditions have resulted directly in 

 the introduction of any one useful plant either for general 

 culture or commerce, but they have been instrumental in im- 

 parting a knowledge of the resources of the several countries 

 visited, and m this way have awakened an interest in them. 

 Important, indeed, as these expeditions have been in elu- 

 cidating the botany of the world, still more so has been the 

 formation of the several museums in the principal centres of 

 the United Kingdom for the especial purpose of developing 

 the economic resources of the vegetable, animal, and mineral 

 kingdoms, such as the Food Collection, first At South 

 Kensington in 1857 and later at Bethnal Green, the In- 

 dustrial Museum at Edinburgh, and the Museums of 

 Economic Botany at Kew, founded in 1847. These, to- 

 gether with the Royal Botanic Society of London, founded 

 in 1839, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 

 founded in 1841, must always be considered the centres 

 from which knowledge on these points has flowed, and 

 continues to flow. Nor must we forget the several Inter- 

 national Exhibitions since 1851, where the vegetable 

 resources of the globe, especially of our colonies, have been 

 prominently brought to the notice of millions of people. 

 Then, in connection with these museums and exhibitions 

 is the literature which emanates from them, such as the 

 handbooks and guides, in which, though published mostly 

 for a few pence, a mass of valuable information is given. 

 We cannot leave this part of the subject without a word of 

 high commendation on the handbooks and catalogues issued 

 by the several colonies at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 



