14 Notices of European Herbaria^ 



those required for the general herbarium are removed to that col- 

 lection. The ancient herbarium of Vaillant forms the basis of 

 the general collection : the specimens, which are all labelled by 

 his own hand, are in excellent preservation, and among them 

 plants derived from Cornuti or Dr. Sarrasin, may occasionally be 

 met with. This collection, augmented to many times its original 

 extent, by the plants of Commerson, Dombey. Poiteau, Lesche- 

 nault, &c., and by the duplicates from the special herbaria, proba- 

 bly contains at this time thirty or forty thousand species. Of the 

 separate herbaria, the most interesting to us, is that made in this 

 country by the elder Michaux, from whose specimens and notes 

 the learned Richard prepared the Flora Boreali-Aniericana. 



Michaux himself, although an excellent and industrious collec- 

 tor and observer, was by no means quahfied for authorship ; and 

 it is to L. C. Richard that the sagacious observations, and the ele- 

 ,gant, terse, and highly characteristic specific phrases of this work 

 are entirely due. There is also the very complete Newfound- 

 land collection of La Pylaie, comprising about 300 species, and a 

 set of Berlandier's Texan and Mexican plants, as well as numer- 

 ous herbaria less directly connected with North American botany, 

 which we have not room to enumerate. Here, however, we do 

 not find the herbaria of several authors, which we should have 

 expected. That of Lamarck, for instance, is in the possession of 

 Prof. Roeper at Rostock, on the shores of the Baltic ; that of 

 Poiret belongs to Moquin-Tandon of Toulouse ; that of Bosc, to 

 Prof. Moretti of Pavia ; and the proper herbarium of the late Des- 

 fontaines, which, however, still remains at Paris, now forms a 

 part of the very large and valuable collections of Mr. Webb. 

 The herbarium of Mr. Webb, although of recent establishment, 

 is only second to that of Baron Delessert ; the two being far the 

 largest private collections in France, and comprising not only 

 many older herbaria, but also, as far as possible, full sets of the 

 plants of recent collectors. The former contains many of Mi- 

 chaux's plants, (derived from the herbarium of Desfontaines,) a 

 North American collection, sent by Nuttall to the late Mr. Mercier 

 of Geneva, a full set of Drummond's collections in the United 

 States and Texas, &c. The latter also comprises many plants of 

 Michaux, derived from Ventenat's herbarium, complete sets of 

 Drummond's collections, (fcc. But a more important, because 

 original and perhaps complete, set of the plants of Michaux is 



