136 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 343. 



alone to furnish them with the science of 

 one-sided and therefore false somatology. 

 George V. N. Dearborn. 

 Tufts College Medical School. 



THE BOTANICAL WORK COMSIITTEE* 

 A Blue-book (205) of 247 pages has 

 been issued containing the report of the 

 committee on botanical work and collec- 

 tions at the British Museum and at Kew. 

 The Committee was appointed by the 

 Treasury on February 1, 1900, ' to consider 

 the present arrangements under which 

 botanical work is done and collections 

 maintained by the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, and ,, under the First Commis- 

 sioner of Works at Kew respectively ; and 

 to report what changes (if any) in those 

 arrangements are necessary or desirable in 

 order to avoid duplication of work and col- 

 lections at the two institutions.' The chair- 

 man of the committee was Sir Michael 

 Foster, M.P., and the other members were 

 ;{jord Avebury and Mr. F. D. Godman, 

 representing the Trustees of the British 

 Museum, Mr. S. E. Spring Eice, C.B., Mr. 

 H. A. D. Seymour, C.B., Professor I. B. 

 Balfour, Queen's botanist for Scotland, 

 Mr. F. Darwin, reader in botany in the 

 University of Cambridge, and Sir John 

 Kirk. Mr. B. D. Jackson, secretary of the 

 Linnean Society, was afterwards appointed 

 secretary to the committee. The report 

 opens by pointing out the essential differ- 

 ences between the Botanical Department of 

 the British Museum and the Eoyal Botanic 

 Gardens at Kew. 



The former is a collection of such objects 

 as can be placed in a museum, and is not con- 

 cerned with the applications of botany ; 

 whereas the latter, besides constituting a 

 public garden, is an organization which 

 gives assistance to the government on ques- 

 tions involving botanic science in all parts 

 of the Empire. Both possess herbaria with 

 *From the London Times. 



libraries attached ; and the two herbaria, 

 though each possessing some special fea- 

 tures, are to a very large extent duplicates 

 of one another. This duplication of speci- 

 mens entails, of course, a duplication not 

 only of housing room, but of scientific 

 work and of the scientific stafi"; and the 

 existence of this waste is a strong 'prima 

 facie argument against the maintenance of 

 the collections in their present form. The 

 report observes that the question of amalga- 

 mating the two collections has been con- 

 sidered by committees again and again, and 

 after considering the arguments urged on 

 both sides, the Committee, with the excep- 

 tion of Lord Avebury, pronounce in favor 

 of their union. Their report discusses at 

 length the possible methods of union, the 

 relative convenience of Kew and the British 

 Museum as sites, and the question of con- 

 stituting a special advisory board, on which 

 the Trustees of the British Museum should 

 be adequatel}^ represented, in the event of 

 the removal of the greater part of the British 

 Museum collections to Kew. The recom- 

 mendations on these points are summed 

 up as follows : 



(1) That the whole of the botanic col- 

 lections at the British Museum now ad- 

 ministered by the Keeper of the Depart- 

 ment of Botany under the Trustees, with 

 the exception of the collections exhibited 

 to the public, be transferred to the Eoyal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, and placed in the 

 charge of the First Commissioner of his 

 Majesty's Works and Public Buildings 

 under conditions indicated below, adequate 

 accommodation being there provided for 

 them. (2) That a board, on which the 

 Trustees of the British Museum, the Royal 

 Society, and certain departments of his 

 Majesty's government should be directly 

 represented, be established in order to ad- 

 vise on all questions of a scientific nature 

 arising out of the administration of the 

 gardens, the powers and duties of the 



