BOTANICAL PLATES, EXPEDITION OF ' ASTROLABE ' AND ' Z^L^E.' 269 



chase, the trustees did not then acquire them. In 1844 Mr. 

 Sowerby again offered them, and then, on the recommendation of 

 Mr. Brown, they were purchased for £70. 



They were received into the Museum in April, 1844, and were 

 in due time mounted by Frederick Nichols, with the care which has 

 characterized all his work in the department, since he was asso- 

 ciated with it under Mr. Brown nearly half-a-century ago. 



As Mr. Smith says, the greater number are made of pij)e-clay, 

 without being burnt, and are consequently very brittle ; but though 

 in moving them they suffered some injuries, none of them were 

 destroyed, and all the injuries were dexterously repaired by a 

 formatore from Brucciani's, before they were placed in the hands of 

 Mr. Smith. A composition called Cond's Artificial Stone was 

 employed by Mr. Sowerby for some of his models, one or two 

 were made of wax, and in some the stipes were of wood or wire. 



The collection as it now exists contains, besides Sowerby's 

 models, sixty published German models, and one of a fine large 

 mushroom, modelled by the late J. C. V. Musgrave, formerly an 

 attendant in the department. The whole have been most carefully 

 painted by Mr. Smith, than whom no one was better fitted to do 

 this work, for in addition to his accurate knowledge of the species, 

 he has a remarkable appreciation of their different colours. He 

 had already prepared a great series of water-colour drawings of 

 the British species, now preserved in the Botanical Department of 

 the British Museum. By his deft manipulation he has now con- 

 verted these accurate models, which were covered with the dust of 

 nearly a century, and consequently presented a uniform absence of 

 colour, into faithful representations of the living organisms ; and 

 having supplied the accidents of their native habitats he has placed 

 in an instructive manner before the student and the public perma- 

 nent lifelike forms of these evanescent plants. 



NOTE on the BOTANICAL PLATES of the EXPEDITION 



of the ■ ASTROLABE ' and the ' 



By B. Daydon Jackson, Sec. L. S. 



The following statement is published in correction of Pritzel's 

 mis-description in his ' Index Iconum,' p. xxvi, and ■ Thesaurus,' 

 ed. ii. p. 148, n. 4193. The botanical results of the former voyage 

 of the * Astrolabe' (182G-29) were worked up by A. Richard, and 

 Pritzel has confounded this production with the later voyage of the 

 * Astrolabe,' accompanied by the ' Zelee'( 1837-40). Furthermore, the 

 collation given in the • Index Iconum,' on the page cited, is evidently 

 taken from an imperfect copy, of which there appear to be several 

 issued. I have given the contents of each plate, the contents of 

 each number (livraison), and the dates of each number when 

 received at the British Museum, Bloomsbury. The authority 

 " nob" on the plates refers to Hombron, who began the issue of the 

 Botany of the expedition, but, he dying before its completion, the 

 text was issued by Decaisne. 



