Notices^of European Herbaria. 1 S 1 



The botanical collections occupy a portion of this new building. A 

 large room on the first floor, handsomely fitted up with glass cases, 

 contains the cabinet of fruits, seeds, sections of stems, and curious 

 examples of vegetable structure from every part of the known world. 

 Among them we find an interesting suite of specimens of the wood, 

 and another comprising the fruits or nuts of nearly all the trees of 

 this countn,-, both collected and prepared by the younger Michaux. 

 The herbaria now occupy a large room or hall, immediately over the 

 former, perhaps SO feet long and 30 feet wide above the galleries, and 

 very conveniently lighted from the roof. Beneath the galleries are 

 four or five small rooms on each side, lighted from the exterior, used 

 as cabinets for study and for separate herbaria ; and above them the 

 same number of smaller rooms or closets, occupied by duplicate and 

 unarranged collections. The cases which contain the herbaria oc- 

 cupy the walls of the large hall and of the side rooms. Their j)lan 

 may ser%'e as a specimen of that generally adopted in France. The 

 shelves are divided into compartments in the usual manner ; but in- 

 stead of doors, the cabinet is closed by a curtain of thick and coarse 

 brown linen, kept extended by a hea\'y bar attached to the bottom, 

 which is counterpoised by concealed weights, and the curtain is 

 raised or dropt by a pulley. Paper of a very ordinary qualit}' is gene- 

 rally used, and the specimens are attached, either to half sheets or 

 to double sheets, by slips of gummed paper, or by pins, or some- 

 times the specimen itself is glued to the paper. Genera or other 

 divisions are separated by interposed sheets, having the name written 

 on a projecting slip. 



According to the excellent plan adopted in the arrangement of 

 these collections, which is due to Desfontaines, three kinds of her- 

 baria have been instituted; viz. 1. The general herbarium. 2. The 

 herbaria of particular works or celebrated authors, which are kept 

 distinct, the duplicates alone being distributed in the general collec- 

 tion. 3. Separate herbaria of ditferent countries, which are com- 

 posed of the duplicates taken from the general herbarium. To these, 

 new accessions from different countries are added, which from time 

 to time are assorted and examined, and those required for the gene- 

 ral herbarium are removed to that collection. The ancient herba- 

 rium of VaiUant forms the basis of the general collection : the speci- 

 mens, which are fdl labelled by his own hand, are in excellent preser\-a- 

 tion, and among them plants derived from Comuti or Dr. Sarrasin, 

 may occasionally be met with. This collection, augmented to many 

 times its original extent by the plants of Commerson, Dombey, Poi- 

 teau, Leschenault, etc., and by the duplicates from the special her- 

 baria, probably contains at this time thirtj" or fort)' thousand species. 

 Of the separate herbaria, the most interesting to us is that made in 

 this countr)'' by the elder Michaux, from whose specimens and notes 

 the learned Richard prepared the ' Flora Boreali- Americana.' 

 - Michaux himself, although an excellent and industrious collector 

 and obsen-er, was by no means quaUfied for authorship ; and it is to 

 L. C. Richard that the sagacious obsen-ations, and the elegant, terse, 

 and highly characteristic specific phrases of this work are entirely dug^ 



