INTRODUCTION. 15 



museum was Sir W. Hooker's private collection, 

 formed at Glasgow. 'No sooner was the establish- 

 ment and aim of the museum generally made known 

 than contributions to it poured in from all quarters of 

 the globe, until, in a few years, the ten rooms of the 

 building, with its passages and corners, were absolutely 

 crammed with specimens. Its appreciation by the 

 public being thus demonstrated, application was made 

 to Parliament for a grant to defray the expense of an 

 additional building.'* The economic collection, mainly 

 from the British Empire in forming which Sir W, J. 

 Hooker was much assisted by Professor J. S. Henslow 

 is now in three buildings at Kew, one of which is 

 exclusively devoted to timber. 



The blow received by British agriculture in 1845, 

 on the appearance and rapid spread of the Potato 

 disease, undoubtedly directed attention during the 

 next few years to new plants as articles for food or 

 for cultivation. Though New Zealand Flax (Pkormium 

 tenax, Willd.), failed as a crop in Ireland, the increased 

 importation of Maize (Zea Mays, L.), as an article of 

 food, from 1846, and its partly successful introduction 

 at least as a fodder-crop, together with the far more 

 satisfactory introduction of Italian Rye-grass (Lolium 

 italicum\ especially for sewage farming, may be 

 partly attributed to this cause. But, in spite of the 

 stimulus of a rapidly increasing foreign competition 

 since the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1845, it must 

 be admitted that British agriculture during the last 

 half-century has shown very little of that elasticity 



* ' Official Guide to the Museums of Economic Botany,' 

 P- 4- 1883. 



