Notices of European Herbaria. 9 



The collection is nearly complete, but the specimens were not 

 well prepared, and are therefore not always in perfect preserva- 

 tion. A collection of Catesby's plants exists also in the British 

 Museum, but probably the larger portion remains at Oxford. 

 There is besides, among the separate collections, a small but very 

 interesting parcel selected by the elder Bartram, from his collec- 

 tions made in Georgia and Florida almost a century ago, and pre- 

 sented to Q.ueen Charlotte, with a letter of touching simplicity. 

 At the time this fasciculus was prepared, nearly all the plants it 

 comprised were undescribed, and many were of entirely new 

 genera ; several, indeed, have only been published very recently, 

 and a few are not yet recorded as natives of North America. 

 Among the latter we may mention Petiveria alliacea and Ximi- 

 nea Americana^ which last has again recently been collected in 

 the same region. This small parcel contains the Elliottia, Muhl., 

 Polypteris, Nutt., Baldwinia, Nutt., Macranthera, Torr., Glot- 

 tidium, Mayaca, Chaptalia, Befaria, Eriogoniim tomentosum, 

 Polygonum polygamuni, Yent., Gardoquia IIooke?^i, Benth,, 

 Satureia [Pycnothymiis) rigida, Cliftonia, Hypericum aureum, 

 Galactia Elliottii, Krameria lanceolata, Torr., Waldsteinia {Co- 

 Qnaropsis) lobafa, Torr. 6& Gr., the Dolichos? multiflorus, Torr. 

 & Gr., the Chapmannia, Torr. & Gr., Psoralea Lupmellus, and 

 others of almost equal interest or rarity, which it is much to be 

 regretted were not long ago made known from Bartram's discov- 

 eries. 



The herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, now in the British Mu- 

 seum, is probably the oldest one prepared in the manner common- 

 ly adopted in England, of which, therefore, it may serve as a 

 specimen. The plants are glued fast to half-sheets of very thick 

 and firm white paper of excellent quality, (similar to that em- 

 ployed for merchants' ledgers, &c.,) all carefully cut to the same 

 size, which is usually 16J inches by lOf, and the name of the 

 species is written on the lower right-hand corner. All the spe- 

 cies of a genus, if they be few in number, or any convenient 

 subdivision of a larger genus, are enclosed in a whole sheet of 

 the same quality, and labelled at the lower left-hand corner. 

 These parcels, properly arranged, are preserved in cases or closets, 

 with folding doors made to shut as closely as possible, being laid 

 horizontally into compartments just wide enough to receive them, 

 and of any convenient depth. In the Banksian herbarium, the 



Vol. XL, No. 1.— Oct.-Dec. 1840. 2 



