184 Notices of European Herbaria. 



work, and is therefore interesting to the lovers of that large and 

 difficult genus. The American specimens were mostly derived from 

 Willdenow, who obtained the greater portion from Muhlenberg. 



The royal Prussian herbarium is deposited at Schoneberg (a little 

 village in the environs of Berlin), opposite the royal botanic garden, 

 and in the garden of the Horticultural Society. It occupies a very 

 convenient building erected for its reception, and is under the super- 

 intendence of Dr. Klotzsch, a very zealous and promising botanist. 

 It comprises three separate herbaria, viz. the general herbarium, the 

 herbarium of Willdenow, and the Brazilian herbarium of Sello. The 

 principal contributions of the plants of this country to the general 

 herbarium, garden specimens excepted, consist of the collections of 

 the late Mr. Beyrich, who died in Western Arkansas while accom- 

 panying Col. Dodge's dragoon expedition, and a collection of the 

 plants of Missouri and Arkansas, by Dr. Engelmann, now of St. 

 Louis ; to which a line selection of North American plants, recently 

 presented by Sir William Hooker, has been added. The botanical 

 collections made by Chamisso, who accompanied RomanzofF in his 

 voyage round the world, also enrich this herbarium ; many are from 

 the coast of Russitui America and from California ; and they have 

 mostly been published conjointly by the late Von Chamisso and Pro- 

 fessor Schlechtendal in the ' Linnsea,' edited by the latter. 



The late Professor Willdenow enjoyed for many years the corre- 

 spondence of Muhlenberg, from whom he received the greater part of 

 his North American specimens, a considerable portion of which are 

 authentic for the North American plants of his edition of the ' Species 

 Plantarum.' In addition to these, we find in his herbarium many 

 of Michaux's plants, communicated by Desfontaines, several from 

 the German collector Kinn, and perhaps all the American sjiecies 

 described by Willdenow from the Berlin garden. It also comprises 

 a portion of the herbarium of Pallas, the Siberian plants of Stephen, 

 and a tolerable set of Humboldt's plants. This herbarium is in good 

 preservation, and is kept in perfect order and extreme neatness. As 

 left by Willdenow, the specimens were loose in the covers, into which 

 additional specimens had sometimes been thrown, and the labels 

 often mixed ; so that much caution is requisite to ascertain which are 

 really authentic for the Willdenovian species. To prevent further 

 sources of error, and to secure the collection from injury, it was care- 

 fully revised by Professor Schlechtendal while under his manage- 

 ment, and the specimens attached by slips of paper to single sheets ; 

 and all those that Willdenow had left under one cover, as the same 

 species, are enclosed in a double sheet of neat blue paper. ITiese 

 covers are numbered continuously throughout the herbarium, and 

 the individual sheets or specimens in each are also numbered, so that 

 any plant may be referred to by quoting the number of the cover and 

 that of the sheet to which it is attached. The aiTangement of the 

 herbai'ium is unchanged, and it precisely accords with this author's 

 edition of the 'Species Plantai'um.' Like the general herbarium, it 

 is kept in neat portfolios, the back of which consists of three pieces 

 of broad tape, which, passing through slits near each edge of the 



