512 [Assembly 



Jfote by H. Meigs. — Great Britain and Ireland, in 1845, by a 

 report to Parliament, yielded of vegetable and animal value, 

 about 3,000 millions of dollars. It is considered on a fair com- 

 parison between the products of France and England, that the 

 latter raises nearly double products per acre, that of France. 



The botanical work of Mons. LaS(^gue, contains a continuation 

 of the labors of M. Benjamin Delessert, who derived a taste for 

 Botany from J. J. Rousseau, who was a relation of the Delesserts. 

 The famous Herbal, preserved by them so carefully at their 

 country seat, is the work of Rousseau, made by him for his young 

 pupil, Mademoiselle Delessert. This Herbal is open to all per- 

 sons. The names of the plants are written in Latin and French 

 by Rousseau's own hand. 



M. Las^gue proves that the first Botanical Museum was that 

 of Conrad Gesner, at Zurich, Switzerland, in 1560. Afterwards, 

 the museums of Thurneissen, Basle, of Mercati, in Tuscany, about 

 the year 1600, then the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and lastly, 

 Sir Joseph Banks, who owned a rich Herbal and grand library. 

 The Delessert Herbal contains 86,000 species, represented by 

 250,000 specimens. The Herbal of Lemmonnier, ot about 10,000 

 plants, forms a part of the Delessert ; among them are the collec- 

 tion of Commerson, who accompanied Bougainville in his voyage 

 around the world, of Labillardier, who visited Mount Libanus, 

 a chain of mountains in Turkey in Asia, whose summits are al- 

 ways covered with snow. 



Those of Desfontaine,who explored Algeria, and last, of Michaux, 

 who collected in Persia, and the United States ; further, the Her- 

 bal of Burmann, (the father) and the son. In this great collec- 

 tion of Delessert are found a small Herbal, collected in Lapland, 

 by Linns&us himself, with the title Flora Laponica, the Herbal of 

 Humberg, the grand Herbals of Ventenat, of Palisot de Beauvois, 

 of Thuillier — a crowd of plants collected by Gaudichaud, Perro- 

 tet, Sieber, Despreaux, Drege, Blauchet, Le Prieur, Kotschy, 

 Bov6, Aucher, and finally, one of the grand collections given 

 generously by the British East India Company to botanists. 



A list is given of all the exploring botanists, of distinction, in 

 the world. These are men of all nations, 15 English, 9 French, 

 6 German, 2 Swiss, 2 Dutch or Belgian, 4 Italian, 2 Russian, 1 



