PHTSTOLOGT AND NATUEAL HISTOET. 59 



directly responsible to one of her Majesty's Ministers, or under an organization si- 

 milar to that which is practically found so efficient in regard to Botany, 



That the Museum of Economic Zoology at South Kensington be further deve- 

 loped. 



Your Memorialists recommend that the whole of the Kew Herbarium become 

 the property of, and be maintaired by, the State, as is now the case with a por- 

 tion of it — that the Banksian Herbarium and the Fossil Plants be transferred to it 

 from the British Museum — and that a permanent building be provided for the 

 accommodation at Kew of the Scientific Museum of Botany so formed. 



This consolidation of the Herbaria of Kew with those of the British Museum 

 would afford the means of including in the Botanical Scientific Museum a Geogra- 

 phical Botanical Collection for the illustration of the Colonial Vegetation of the 

 British Empire, which, considering the extreme importance of vegetable products 

 to the commerce of this country, your Memorialists are convinced would be felt 

 to be a great advantage. 



Tour Memorialists recommend further, that in place of the Banksian Herbarium 

 and other miscellaneous Botanical Colleciions now in the British Museum and closed 

 to the public, a Typical or Popular Micseum of Botany be formed in the same 

 building as that proposed for the Typical or Popular Museum of Zoology, and, like 

 it, be open daily to the Public. 



Such a Collection would require no great spacd ; it would be inexpensive, besides 

 being in the highest degree instructive ; and, like the Typical or Popular Zoological 

 Collection, it would be of the greatest value to the public, and to the Teachers and 

 Students of the Metropolitan Colleges. 



That the Botanical Scientific Museum and its Library, the Museum of Economic 

 Botany &nA the Botanic Garden, remain, as at present, under one head, directly 

 responsible to one of her Majesty's Ministers. 



The undersigned Memorialists, consisting wholly of Zoologists and Botanists, have 

 offered no suggestion respecting the very valuable Mineralogieal Collection in the 

 British Museum, although aware that, in case it should be resolved that the Natu- 

 ral History Collections generally should be removed to another locality, the dispo- 

 sal of the Minerals also will probably come under consideration. 

 Noveniber 18, 1858. 



George Bentham, V.P.L.S. 

 George Busk, F.R.S. and Z.S., Professor of Comparative Anatomy and 



Physiology to the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 

 "William B. Carpenter, M.D., F.R.S., and Z.S., Registrar of the Univer- 

 sity of London. 

 Chas. Darwin, F.R.S., L.S., and G.S. 



"W. H. Harvet, M.D., F.R.S. and Z.S., &c., Professor of Botany, Univer- 

 sity of Dublin. 

 Arthur Henfret, F.R.S., L.S., &c., Professor of Botany, King's College* 

 London. 



