﻿packed up in strong blue paper as generally used in Russia, and 

 I think also in other countries, for covering sugar-loaves, bearing 

 the stamp (in Russian) of a grocer's shop, the property of Mr. 

 Shadimirovski. But when I opened the bundle, the plants con- 

 tained in it turned out to belong to Dr. Tatarinov's collection; 

 labels with Tatarinov's handwriting and Fischer's vague determina- 

 tions. This is the fourth bundle of a complete set of Tatarinov's 

 Peking plants (of which Herder mentions only three), originally 

 presented by the latter to his preceptor and friend, P. Horaninov, 

 who for many years was Professor of Botany at the Medico- 

 Ohirurgical Academy. The bulk of Tatarinov's collection was 

 bought by the Imperial Academy of Science in 1857. 



Dr. Herder notices also, in the same Bot. Museum, a collection 

 of Peking plants, gathered by Basilevski. I have seen this vast col- 

 lection, consisting of twenty-one large bundles, which has been handed 

 over to the Museum in 1859, and which bears no traces of ever 

 having been touched upon since Basilevski delivered it. The late 

 C. Maximowicz was not aware of its existence. Dr. S. I. Basilevski 

 from 1849 to 1859 was physician to the Russian Ecclesiastical 

 Mission, Peking. From his labels I see that his plants were col- 

 lected chiefly among the Peking Mountains, on the Po hua shan, &c. 



[Notes on the Foregoing. — Mr. John Weathers, Assistant Secre- 

 tary of the Royal Horticultural Society, ha3 shown me a " journal " 

 kept by Potts (who died at Chiswick, Oct. 5, 1822) from Jan. 1821 

 to Jan. 1822, and one by Parks from Aug. 1823 to 1824. Fortune's 

 journals are not to be found at the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 where I have seen some letters from John Reeves in which he 

 speaks of a collection of Chinese drawings sent by him to the 

 Society : these cannot be traced. 



I have not found much matter concerning the Reeveses additional 

 to what has been summarised in the Biographical Index, the refer- 

 ences in which will supply Dr. Bretschneider with some further 

 information concerning him. There are five letters from him in 

 the Banksian correspondence (1812-15) dealing mainly with the 

 varieties of tea in cultivation in China, but incidentally showing 

 that he was a man of general culture and wide interests. After his 

 return from China, he was on the Committee of the Horticultural 

 Society appointed to arrange for Fortune's departure to China ; he had 

 previously given valuable advice to Parks as to collecting plants, &c. 

 Besides the Chinese drawings of plants referred to by Dr. Bret- 

 schneider, we have in the British Museum (Zoological Department) 

 six folio volumes of Chinese figures of animals, birds, and fishes, 

 executed under Mr. Reeves's superintendence. Dr. Richardson's 

 "Report on the Ichthyology of the Seas of China and Japan" 

 (Brit. Ass. Report, 1845, pp. 187-320) is largely based on the 

 drawings and specimens sent home by Reeves, and his son presented 

 others to the Museum. 



The Horticultural Society never had a herbarium. "The 

 valuable collections of dried plants formed by the travellers em- 

 ployed during the last forty years" was sold at Stevens's on 

 Jan. 29, 1856, and we have in the Botanical Department a 



