Oct. 3, 1872] 



NATURE 



451 



single specimen herbarium proposed in Nature would 

 meet all the requirements at Kew, and this could be kept 

 up as suggested by Mr. Bentham from the duplicates not 

 required in the great National Herbarium, all being accu- 

 rately named before being sent. 



4. The practical difficulties in the administration of two 

 separate, and to some extent independent, herbaria would 

 be numerous and serious, and in the course of time a con- 

 dition of things similar to what at present exists would 

 result. It is needless to speak of a London herbarium, 

 consisting of single specimens of each species, because 

 such a herbarium, if practicable, would, as I have already 

 shown, ht utterly worthless for tlie purposes to which it is 

 proposed to be applied. If the London herbarium were 

 to contain only specimens sent by the keeper of a her- 

 barium, whose notion of the science of botany was con- 

 fined to the " accurate determination and practical 

 classification " of herbarium specimens, it is obvious that 

 the pala-ontologist would not find there the materials for 

 prosecuting his work. If, on the other hand, the London 

 herbarium were constituted to be of real use to the pa- 

 laeontologist, the keeper must have the power of acquiring 

 as opportunity offered the suitable materials, and he would 

 necessarily secure collections which a future agitator 

 might demand to be transferred to Kew, with as pertinent 

 reasons as those Mr. Bentham now employs. 



5. It is not an unimportant consideration that the con- 

 tinued separate existence of these two great herbaria is a 

 great security against their destruction by fire. 



6. The expense of the two herbaria is very small. I am 

 unacquainted with the amount granted for Kew herbarium, 

 but it cannot greatly differ from that required by the Na- 

 tional Herbarium, which amounted for the financial year 

 lately completed to 1,767/. 1 know of no way in which 

 the country can at once advance the interests of science 

 and encourage its students, at a smaller cost and with 

 more important results than by maintaining in their full 

 efficiency the two botanical collections at present existing. 



But, secondly, it must be admitted that the formation 

 of a single great national botanical establishment, com- 

 prising the two public herbaria now existing within a 

 comparatively small distance from each other, is a very 

 attractive scheme, and should the Commissioners think 

 thit its realisation is desirable, 1 submit the following 

 considerations as in my opinion essential : — 



1. It must form part of the National Museum of Natural 

 History. Such a museum, as far as it is an exhibition of 

 biological science, will consist of animals and plants, both 

 existing and extinct. It is absolutely necessary in the 

 study of geology that the plant remains should not be 

 separated from the animal remains ; and further, it is as 

 necessary for the satisfactory interpretation of the fossil 

 plants, as well as for forming a true estimate of the vege- 

 table kingdom that the recent plants should not be sepa- 

 rated from the fossil. The separation of any one depart- 

 ment would be a serious injury to all. 



2. It must represent the whole science of botany, and 

 not consist of only dried foliage and flowers, which con- 

 stitute a herbarium properly so called ; and consequently 

 it must be formed on the principle adopted by Robert 

 Brown, and exhibited in the Botanical Department of the 

 British Museum, and not on the imperfect plan advocated 

 by Mr. Bentham. 



3. It must be placed in the position in which it will be 

 most serviceable to the public and most accessible to 

 botanists, and that place is beyond all question London. 

 The statistics which I submitted on the occasion of my 

 former examination establish this, by showing the extent 

 to which the botanical collections at the British Museum 

 are made use of Further, it is universally acknowledged 

 that a herbarium for scientific use must exist in London. 

 The long experience of Mr. Brown and Mr. Bennett in 

 the National Herbarium made them entertain and ex- 

 press very decided views as to this necessity. My shorter 



experience has been long enough to convince me that 

 its removal to Kew would be practically placing it out of 

 the reach of the busy men who frequently use it to the 

 advantage of science. Of course the working botanist 

 who devotes himself exclusively to the science would 

 follow the collections wherever they went ; but the active 

 professional man, and the man of business, who devote 

 their spare hours to botany, would be deprived of the 

 assistance necessary to their work which they now obtain 

 at the British Museum. That such men do a large pro- 

 portion of the scientific work of the country may be 

 shown in many ways, as for instance, by the fact that out 

 of the nineteen botanical memoirs contained in the last 

 two volumes of the Linnean Transactions, four are pro- 

 duced by professional botanists, and fifteen by others. 



The late Prof. Henfrey, as representing the botanical 

 teachers of London, Sir Charles Lyell, for the palaeonto- 

 logists, and Dr. Falconer, Mr. Bentham, and Dr. Hooker, 

 have recorded it as their decided opinion that the interests 

 of science require that a public herbarium should exist in 

 London. Such a herbarium, even if used only by palaeon- 

 tologists, must be, as I have shown, as extensive as 

 possible ; otherwise, it will tend to mislead, like all other 

 imperfect sources of information. 



1 would further add in favour of London being the 

 proper site for the national botanical collections, that im- 

 portant collections of plants, both recent and fossil, acces- 

 sible to students, but not to the general public, now exist 

 and must still remain in London. These are : (l) the 

 Linnean herbarium, containing the plants described by 

 Linniuus ; (2) the great Wallichian herbarium ; (3) the 

 Smithian herbarium of British plants ; all belonging to 

 the Linnean Society ; (4) the collection of fossil plants 

 belonging to the Geological Society ; and (5) the extensive 

 public collection of fossil plants in the Museum of 

 Practical Geology. The removal of the National Botanical 

 Collection from London would so separate them from 

 these collections as seriously to injure their value to 

 scientific investigators. 



4. The accommodation provided for the Botanical 

 Department in the New Museum of Natural History, the 

 plans of which have been accepted by the trustees of the 

 British Museum, will be in every way superior to any that 

 exist in the world, and will be amply sufficient to accom- 

 modate the proposed single national herbarium, as well 

 as fully to display the structural, histological, and palaeon- 

 tological departments of the science. All the requisites 

 specified by Mr. Bentham for the close study of plants, 

 excepting the connection with a garden, exist to a greater 

 or less degree at the Biitish Museum, and some of them 

 in a greater degree than at Kew. That living plants are 

 a requisite adjunct to a herbarium is in opposition to the 

 testimony of Mr. Brown and Dr. Falconer, to the effect 

 that there is no necessary connection between a herbarium 

 and a garden ; and is opposed moreover to the testimony 

 of Mr. Bentham himself, as well as to his declaration that 

 his extensive systematic labours have all been based on 

 herbarium specimens, although they have been carried 

 on in close proximity to the finest scieniific garden in 

 existence. 



In the event then of its being resolved to maintain only 

 one great national botanical collection, I would submit 

 that it should not be cut off from the allied biological 

 collections, but be placed with them in the same building 

 in London. And that for this end the collections pre- 

 sented by Mr. Bentham to the public, and all that have 

 been added to them by purchase or presentation, be re- 

 moved to London and incorporated with the national 

 herbarium ; and further, that the extensive botanical 

 library formed at the national expense at Kew be made, 

 with tlie Banksian library, the foundation of that national 

 natural history library which will be required for the 

 National Museum of Natural History. 



It is necessary, in dealing with Mr. Bentham's printed 



