914 REPORT—1899. 
Such, then, is the machinery by which Systematic and Geographical, as distin- 
guished from Economic and Physiclogical, Botany is carried on within the Indian 
Empire. But the work donein India itself by no means represents all that is 
being carried on in connection with the elucidation of the Flora of the Empire 
of India. On the contrary the bulk of the work of elaborating the materials 
sent from India in the shape of dried specimens has always been, and must 
always be, done in a large Herbarium; and until lately no Herbarium in Asia 
has been sufficiently extensive. The last word on every difficult taxonomic 
question must still lie in Europe. A very large number of the Herbarium 
specimens collected in India have found their way to the various centres of 
Botanical activity in Europe, and have been described by Botanists of many 
nationalities. The lion’s share of these specimens has naturally come to the two 
great national Herbaria in the British Museum and at Kew, but especially to the 
latter. It was in the Kew Herbarium that Sir Joseph Hooker and his collaborateurs 
prepared the Flora of British India. And it isin the Kew Herbarium that are 
to be found the types of an overwhelming proportion of the new species described 
for the first time in that monumental work. The Kew Herbarium is therefore to 
the Indian Botanist the most important that exists. Imust apologise for diverging 
for a moment to remind you what a type specimen is. It is the very one on which 
an author has founded any species to which he has given a name. And in order 
to determine absolutely what is the specific form to which the author meant his 
name to apply, it is often necessary to examine his type. This necessity increases 
in urgency with the extension of our knowledge of the Flora of the world. 
The preservation in good condition of a type specimen is therefore, from the 
point of view of a Systematic Botanist, as important as is the preservation to the 
British merchant of the standard pound weight and the standard yard measure on 
which the operations of British commerce depend. ‘Types’ also stand to the 
Systematic Botanist much in the same relation as the national records do to the 
national historian. The latter are guarded in the Record Office, I understand, 
with all the skill which the makers of fire-proof, damp-proof, and burglar-proof 
depositories can suggest. If, however, the type of a species happens to be 
deposited at Kew, what are the probabilities of its preservation? Such a type at 
Kew is incorporated in what is admitted to be in every sense the largest and, for 
its size, the most accurately named, the most easily consulted, and therefore the 
most valuable Herbarium in the world, the destruction of which would be a 
calamity commensurate in extent with that of the burning of the Library at 
Alexandria. One might therefore reasonably expect that a people who rather 
resent being called a ‘nation of shopkeepers’ would feel pride in providing for 
this priceless national collection a home which, although perhaps somewhat 
inferior to that provided for the National Historical Records, might at least be 
safe from fire. This expectation is not fulfilled. The infinitely valuable Kew 
Herbarium and library have no safer home than an old dwelling-house on Kew 
Green, to which a cheap additional wing has been built. The floor, galleries, and 
open inner roof of this additional wing are constructed of pine coated with an 
inflammable varnish, and on the floor and galleries are arranged cabinets (also made 
of pine-wood), in which the specimens (which are mounted on paper) are lodged. 
The provision of a fireproof building, capable of expansion as the collections extend, 
is surely not beyond the means of an exchequer which last year netted over one 
hundred and six millions sterling of revenue. On behalf of the Flora of India, I 
venture to express the hope that the provision of a proper home for its types may 
receive early and favourable consideration by the holders of the national purse- 
strings. But India is by no means the only portion of the Empire interested in 
this matter, for the types of the Australasian Floras, those of a large part of the 
North American Flora,and those of many species inhabiting countries outside British 
rule or influence, find their resting-place at Kew. ‘The safe custody of the Kew 
Herbarium is, therefore, not merely a national, but a cosmopolitan responsibility. 
In this Address I have hitherto made little reference to Cryptogamic and 
Kconomic Botany. As regards Cryptogamic Botany there is little to relate. 
Except Griffith, no Indian Botanist of the earlier of the two periods into which 
