Notices of European Herbaria. 139 



cies are founded on the jjlants here described, for which thi.-* herba- 

 rium is alone authentic; for Linneeus, as we have ahx-ady remarked, 

 possessed very few of Clayton's plants. The collection is nearly 

 complete, but the specimens were not well prepared, and are there- 

 fore not always in perfect preservation. A collection of Catesby's 

 plants exists also in the British Museum, but probably the larger 

 portion remains at Oxford. There is besides, among the separate 

 collections, a small but very interesting parcel, selected by the elder 

 Bartram from his collections made in Georgia and Florida almost 

 a century ago, and presented to Queen Charlotte with a letter of 

 touching siraplicitj'. At the time this fasciculus was prepared, 

 nearly all the plants it comprised were undescribed, and many were 

 of entirely new genera ; several, indeed, have only been published 

 very recently, and a few are not yet recorded as natives of North 

 America. Among the latter we may mention Petiveria alliacea and 

 Xhninea Americana, which last has again recently been collected in 

 the same region. This small parcel contains the EUiottia, Muhl., 

 Polypteris, Nutt., Ba'du-inia, Nutt., Mucranthera, Torr., Glottidium , 

 Mayaca, Chaptalia, Befaria, Eriogonum tomentosum. Polygonum poly- 

 gamvm, 'V^ent., Gardoquia Hookeri, Benth., Satureia (Pyc no thymus) 

 rigida, Cliftonia, Hypericum aureum, Galactia EUiottii, Krameria 

 lanceoluta, Torr., IValdsteinia (^Comaropsis) lobata, 'i'orr. and Gr., 

 the Dolichos ? multijlorus, Torr. and Gr., the Cfiapmannia, Torr. and 

 Gr., Psoralea Lupinellus, and others of almost equal interest or 

 rarity, which it is much to be regretted were not long ago made 

 known from Bartram's discoveries. 



The herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, now in the British Museum, 

 is probably the oldest one prepared in the manner commonly adopted 

 in England, of which, therefore, it may serve as a specimen. The 

 plants are glued fast to half- sheets of very thick and firm white 

 paper of excellent quality (similar to that employed for merchants' 

 ledgers, etc.), all carefully cut to the same size, which is usually 

 16^ inches by 10|-, and the name of the species is written on the 

 lower right-hand corner. All the species of a genus, if they be few 

 in number, or any convenient subdivision of a larger genus, are 

 enclosed in a whole sheet of the same quality, and labelled at the 

 lower left-hand corner. These parcels, properly arranged, are pre- 

 served in cases or closets, with folding doors made to shut as closely 

 as possible, being laid horizontally into compartments just wide 

 enough to receive them, and of any convenient depth. In the 

 Banksian herbarium, the shelves are also made to draw out like a 

 case of drawers. This method is unrivalled for elegance, and the 

 facility with which the specimens may be found and inspected, 

 which to a working botanist with a large collection is a matter of 

 the greatest consequence. The only objection is the expense, 

 which becomes very considerable when paper worth at least ten 

 dollars per ream is employed for the purpose, which is the case 

 with the principal herbaria in England ; but a cheaper paper, if it 

 be only sufficiently thick and firm, will answer nearly as well. The 

 Banksian herbarium contains authentic specimens of nearly all the 

 plants of Alton's ' Hortus Kewensis,' in which many North American 



