EUROPEAN HERBARIA. 9 



The Linnaean Society also possesses the proper herbarium 

 of its founder and first president, Sir James E. Smith, which 

 is a beautiful collection and in perfect preservation. The 

 specimens are attached to fine and strong paper, after the 

 method now common in England. In North American bot- 

 any, the chief contributors are Menzies, for the plants of 

 California and the Northwest coast ; and Muhlenberg, Bige- 

 low, Torrey, and Boott, for those of the United States. Here 

 also we find the Cryptogamic collections of Acharius, con- 

 taining the authentic specimens described in his works on 

 the Lichens, and the magnificent East Indian herbarium of 

 Wallich, presented some years since by the East India Com- 

 pany. 



The collections preserved in the British Museum are 

 scarcely inferior in importance to the Linnaean herbarium 

 itself, in aiding the determination of the species of Linnaeus 

 and other early authors. Here we meet with the authentic 

 herbarium of the " Hortus Cliffortianus," one of the earliest 

 works of Linnaeus, which comprises some plants which are 

 not to be found in his own proper herbarium. Here also is 

 the herbarium of Plunkenet, which consists of a great num- 

 ber of small specimens crowded, without apparent order, upon 

 the pages of a dozen large folio volumes. With due atten- 

 tion, the originals of many figures in the " Almagestum " and 

 " Amaltheum Botanicum," etc., may be recognized, and many 

 Linnaean species thereby authenticated. The herbarium of 

 Sloane, also, is not without interest to the North American 

 botanist, since many plants described in the " Voyage to 

 Jamaica," etc., and the " Catalogue of the Plants of Jamaica," 

 were united by Linnaeus, in almost every instance incorrectly, 

 with species peculiar to the United States and Canada. But 

 still more important is the herbarium of Clayton, from whose 

 notes and specimens Gronovius edited the " Flora Virgin- 

 ica." l Many Linnaean species are founded on the plants 



the same alpine plants are found there as in Europe." Who can this 

 American student have been ? Kuhn did not visit Linnseus until more 

 than fifteen years after the date of this letter. 



1 "Flora Virginica, exhibens plantas quas J. Clayton in Virgin'- col- 



