Sept. 24, 1885 | 
intact, will be strictly carried out. No doubt a consider- 
able number of duplicates will be eliminated, and, accord- 
ing to the wish of the donor, of these a complete set has 
to be transmitted to the Museum of Comparative Zoology 
of Harvard College, whilst the remainder are to be utilised 
for the benefit of the ornithological collection generally. 
Ornithologists need not go many years back in recalling 
to their memory the extent of the collection which the 
late Mr. G. R. Gray had arranged in such a handy fashion 
in and about his study in the old building at Bloomsbury. 
What was then regarded a good reference collection has 
since been enriched by the addition of the Wallace collec- 
tion from the Indian Archipelago, Capt. Pinwill’s Malayan 
birds, Sharpe’s African collection, the Gould collection, 
Salvin and Godman’s European, Australian, and American 
collections, the Sclater collection, and now by this im- 
mense collection from every part of the Indian Empire. 
Years of unremitting labour will be required to get these 
vast materials into order and to work them out in a 
manner which will satisfy the aims of so advanced a 
branch of science as ornithology is at the present day. 
ALBERT GUNTHER 
THE FORSTER HERBARIUM 
[50 Bewusts will learn with pleasure that this herb- 
arium, a portion of the collections of Cook’s second 
voyage, has been acquired by exchange from the Liver- 
pool Corporation for the Kew Herbarium ; and it will 
be incorporated in the general collection. From the in- 
troduction to the “ Catalogue of Plants” in the Botanic 
Gardens at Liverpool, published in 1808, it appears that 
the proprietors of that establishment possessed, at that 
date, about 3000 specimens of dried plants, “ collected 
by the late Dr. Forster in his voyages to the South Seas, 
with large and valuable contributions from his friends 
and correspondents.” How these plants came into their 
possession is uncertain, but they could hardly have been 
presented to them by Mr. Shepherd, the Curator, as stated 
by Sir Joseph Hooker in the introductory essay to his 
“Flora Nove-Zealandiz,” or his name would almost 
certainly have been mentioned as the donor. At least 
this may be inferred, because on the very next page a 
very high tribute is paid to Mr. John Shepherd for his 
services to the Garden. Be that as it may, the collection 
will shortly be accessible to botanists generally, thanks 
to the perseverance of Sir Joseph Hooker and the sensible 
view of the matter taken by the present members of the 
Corporation when it was represented to them that these 
dried plants were practically useless where they were, 
but would be valuable at a botanical establishment like 
Kew. This act of the Corporation deserves to be re- 
corded, because some thirty years ago, when Sir Joseph 
Hooker was engaged writing his “Flora Nove-Zea- 
landiz,” he applied to the then custodians of the collec- 
tion to transmit it temporarily to Kew for comparison 
and publication, and his request was refused. 
Botanical investigations in connection with the Cha//- 
enger expedition again brought to mind the existence of 
this interesting collection at Liverpool, and it was deter- 
mined to make another effort to rescue it from oblivion, 
which was fortunately successful. A few words respecting 
the botanical collections of Cook’s voyages generally, and 
of this one in particular, will be welcome to those inter- 
ested in botany. Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander 
accompanied Capt. Cook on his first voyage round the 
world; John Reinhold Forster and George Forster, 
father and son, were the botanists of the second voyage 
(1772-75), and Mr. Anderson, the surgeon of the expe- 
dition, collected a little on the third voyage. From a 
statement in Sparmann’s “Travels in South Africa,” it 
seems that Forster the elder undertook the duties of 
naturalist to the expedition for the sum of 4000/., and he 
took his son with him, then only seventeen years old, as 
NALORE 
501 
an assistant. On arriving at the Cape of Good Hope 
they fell in with Sparmann, who, at the instance and 
expense of Forster, was added to the scientific staff, and 
continued with them until the return to the Cape in 1775. 
Considerable collections of plants were made in New 
Zealand, many parts of Polynesia, and the extreme south 
of America, and smaller collections in some of the 
Atlantic Islands, including St. Helena, Cape Verd Islands, 
and Canaries. On returning to England the Forsters soon 
commenced publishing the botanical results of the expe- 
dition, and an authenticated set of all the published plants 
at least was deposited in the British Museum. The Cape 
plants, however, which they did not publish, are appa- 
rently not represented there. The first botanical work, 
“ Characteres Genera Plantarum,” appeared in 1776, and 
the title-page bears the names of both father and son, and 
this was the only one published in England. For the 
rest, the botany was done by the son alone. His “ Florula 
Insularum Australium Prodromus” appeaied at Gottingen 
in 1786, and “De Plantis Esculentis Insularum Oceani 
Australis” at Berlin in the same year, followed by “ De 
Plantis Magellanicis et Alanticis ” at G6ttingen in 1787. 
These works, we believe, constitute the whole of the 
published botany of the expedition, and, though very 
meagre, are extremely interesting, being the foundation 
of our knowledge of New Zealand, Antarctic, and Poly- 
nesian vegetation. The collection now acquiied for Kew 
is excellently preserved, and the plants mostly named and 
localised. It comprises altogether 1359 species, 785 of 
which were collected on the voyage with Cook, and the 
rest, from various parts of the world, are probably some 
of those alluded to above as having been presented to 
Forster by his friends. The collection includes a large 
proportion of the plants published by the Forsters, but it 
is not complete. Roughly, there are 187 species from 
Polynesia, 119 from New Zealand, 21 from the extreme 
south of America, 23 from the Atlantic Islands, including 
all those described by Forster from St. Helena, and 9 
from Australia. Besides the foregoing, which are all 
phanerogams, there are 36 ferns, but they include only a 
small portion of the species described by Forster. 
In addition to this botanical work George Forster’s 
name appears on the second title-page of the Narrative 
of the second voyage as joint author with James Cook. 
He died, a violent death, we believe, at Paris in 1794, 
four years before the decease of his father. The philo- 
sophical writings of the latter, entitled “ Observations 
made during a Voyage round the World,” London, 1778, 
deserve special mention W. BOTTING HEMSLEY 
THE INTERNATIONAL METEOROLOGICAL 
COMMITTEE 
HIS Committee held its third meeting in Paris at the 
Ministry of Public Instruction on September 1 to 8. 
The Meeting was attended by the President, Prof. Wild 
(Russia) ; the Secretary, Mr. R.H. Scott; Profs. Buys Ballot 
(Holland), Hann (Austria), Mascart (France), Mohn 
(Norway), Dr. Neumayer (Germany), and Prof. Tacchini 
(Italy). M.de Pinto Capello (Portugal), the only remain- 
ing member, was unfortunately unable to be present. 
In addition certain gentlemen were present by invita- 
tions at some of the meetings, among these we may 
mention Brigadier-General Hazen (Chief Signal Officer, 
U.S.A.), Prof. Hildebrandsson (Upsala), and M. Leon 
Teisserenc de Bort. 
The following is a brief notice of the most important 
subjects discussed, with the action taken on each. 
A valuable report on cirrus observations by the Com- 
mittee appointed at Copenhagen (1882), MM. Capello, 
Hildebrandsson, and Ley, was submitted, and will be 
printed. 
The subject of Atlantic telegrams was discussed with 
General Hazen. It was decided to maintain the present 
