EUROPEAN HERBARIA, 15 



over the former, perhaps eighty feet long and thirty 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 or unarranged 

 collections. The cases which contain the herbaria occupy the 

 walls of the large hall and of the side rooms. Their plan may 

 serve as a specimen of that generally adopted in France. The 

 shelves are divided into compartments in the usual manner : 

 but instead of doors the cabinet is closed by a curtain of thick 

 and coarse brown linen, kept extended by a heavy bar at- 

 tached to the bottom, which is counterpoised by concealed 

 weights, and the curtain is raised or dropped by a pulley. 

 Paper of very ordinary quality is generally used, and the 

 specimens are attached, either to half sheets or to double 

 sheets, by slips of gummed paper, or by pins, or sometimes 

 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 herbaria have been instituted, namely : 1. The general her- 

 barium. 2. The herbaria of particular works or celebrated 

 authors, which are kept distinct, the duplicates alone being- 

 distributed in the general collection. 3. Separate herbaria of 

 different countries, which are composed 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 general her- 

 barium are removed to that collection. The ancient herbarium 

 of Vaillant forms the basis of the general collection; the speci- 

 mens, which are all labelled by his own hand, are in excellent 

 preservation, and among them plants derived from Cornuti or 

 Dr. Surrasin may occasionally be met with. This collection, 

 augmented to many times its original extent, by the plants of 

 Commerson, Dombey, Poiteau, Leschenault, etc., and by the 

 duplicates from the special herbaria, probably contains at this 



