DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 1G7 



Department of Botany. 



During the past year 18,350 plants, consisting of 11,500 

 Flowering plants, 75 Vascular Cryptogams, 644 Mosses, 126 

 Hepatics, 153 Lichens, 138 Algae, and 5,714 Fungi, have been 

 mounted and incorporated into the Herbarium. 



In the progress of the work the officers of the Department 

 and others have been occupied as follows : — 



Mr. E. G. Baker has incorporated in the general Herbarium 

 the Polypetalse of various collections — a considerable amount 

 of time being devoted to the Nat. order Umbelliferse. The 

 Polypetalse collected bj^ Dr. Post in Syria, Dr. Rand and 

 R. Schlechter in the Transvaal, Col. H. VV. Feilden at the 

 Cape, P. Sintenis in Persia, T. Kassner in Tropical East 

 Africa, and Mrs. Nichols in the Falkland Islands have been 

 added to the general Herbarium. In certain cases these 

 plants required comparison as they were unidentified, and 

 in the case of T. Kassner, new species have been described 

 from the collection. In almost every case where monographs 

 have appeared dealing with genera or groups of Polypetalse, 

 these genera or groups have been revised, and in many cases 

 rearranged, by the monograph. The Natural order Aceraceae 

 has been revised, and rearranged by Dr. Pax's monograph, 

 and all the previously unarranged plants incorporated with 

 the general Herbarium, and the genera Hedysarum, Tro- 

 psBolum, Lespedeza and Eurya by the respective monographs 

 of B. Fedtschenko, Dr. Buchanan, Dr. Maximowicz, and Dr. 

 Vesque. In return for certain plants presented to the Museum, 

 some South African Crassulaceae were determined and the 

 new species described, for Dr. Schinz, of the Zurich University 

 Herbarium. A revision has been made, the results published, 

 and the novelties described, of the Tropical African and 

 Mascarene species of Turraea (N. O. Meliaceae). The un- 

 arranged plants of the genus Nymphaea have been incorpo- 

 rated, and with the assistance of Dr. Conard, of Philadelphia, 

 the identification of plants of this genus revised. The British 

 Herbarium has also received attention during the year. 



Mr. Britten has been occupied in continuing the prepar- 

 ation of the manuscript to accompany the Illustrations of 

 Australian Plants collected during Cook's First Voyage, and 

 with the examination and comparison of the plants in the 

 Herbarium associated with these collections. He has devoted 

 much time to the preparation of the Catalogue of the 

 collections which form the Herbarium. He has also con- 

 tinued to supervise the preparation of the Catalogue of the 

 Departmental Library, and to read the proof of the botanical 

 entries in the Catalogue of the General Library. He has 

 worked out the collections of Madeiran plants made by early 

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