12 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK: 



Mr. G. R. M. interest is in Indian botany. He resides in Kew, 



Murray, but he comes, as lie says, and " pitches his tent " with 



F.E.s. us sometimes for a month at a time. But being an 



Indian botanist he resides at Kew, which quite over- 



1 Nov. 1900. whelms us with the excellence of its Indian collection. 



162. And vice versa, an Australian student might 

 come to you ? — Not so much. I could not point to any 

 large region of the earth where we completely outclass 

 Kew in flowering plants, but there are areas here and 

 there where we have certainly a better collection than 

 they have. In the division of the crj^ptogamia, right 

 through, everywhere on the face of the earth, I should 

 say we largely predominate. 



163. And similarly, if a person comes for advice 

 generally, one institution or the other might be better 

 able to give him that advice 1 — As a rule, I think that a 

 man who came for quite casual advice would be equally 

 well served in either place. It is to the researcher that 

 these inequalities are apparent. 



I 164. I mean that probably with regard to a good many 



of the colonies, the West African colonies for instance, 

 there is much more knowledge at the staff at Kew than 

 among your own staff ? — Because that involves economic 

 botany. All these questions are economic questions, 

 and anyone making serious enquiry of the sort, who 

 should come to me, I would advise to go to Kew. I give 

 advice on colonial questions occasionally, but only 

 occasionally. For example, I have a letter from the 

 Agent for the Crown Colonies, and letters from other in- 

 quirers, but they have been always more or less casual. 



165. It appears that the overlapping between the two 

 places is not systematic or logical, but rather accidental 

 and irregular? — The overlapping with regard to 

 economic questions practically does not exist. We do 

 not touch that point at all, whereas it is the primary 

 object at Kew. The overlappings have arisen naturally 

 and unintentionally in the course of the progress of 

 botany, and answer very much to the character of the 

 men who have been employed in the two places. For 

 example, if one man has specialised on a subject, he has 

 advanced the institution to which he belongs very 

 greatly in that respect. That has come about without 

 design. 



166. Tou probably have considered for yourself 

 whether it would be possible to lay down any more 

 reasonable lines of demarcation between the two institu- 

 tions supposing they were kept ap separately ? — ^I have 

 considered it without ever arriving at a definite scheme. 



167. Do you know the recommendations made in the 

 report of the Duke of Devonshire's commission? — ^A 

 definite recommendation was made that Kew should 

 attend to one kind of botany and the British Museum to 

 another, but, as a matter of fact, I think the institu- 

 tions have progressed almost in the very teeth of those 

 recommendations. It was never found to be practicable. 



168. Have those recommendations been carried into 

 efi'ect ? — It has been found impossible to do it. 



169. {Chairman.') Was there any attempt to carry 

 them into efi'ect ? — I think both institutions did try, but 

 the intention has probably lapsed. Might I ask you 

 to read the recommendation. 



170. {Mr. Spring Bice.) Their first reoommenda/tion 

 was, "That the collections at the British Museum be 

 maintained and arranged with special reference to the 



geographical distribution of plants and to palaeontology ; 

 and that the collections at Kew be maintained and 

 arranged with special reference to systematic botany " ? 

 — ^In the illustration of geographical botany I should 

 say that Kew has made great progress indeed. 



171. The nest is, "That all collections of recent 

 plants made by Government expeditions be, in 

 the first instance, sent to Kew, to be there worked out 

 and distribated, a set being reserved for the British 

 Museum, and that all collections of fossil plants made 

 by Government expeditions be sent to the British 

 Museum " ? — That has been carried out. 



172. {Chairman.) Do you mean that the first part has 

 been carried out, " That all collections of recent plants 

 made by Government expeditions be, in the first in- 

 stance, sent tO' Kew, to be there worked out and distri- 

 buted, a set being reserved for the British Museum " ? — 

 That has been carried out. It was on that very matter 

 that you, sir, decided the question of the Scott Elliot 

 collection, but you took into account the fact that Mr. 

 Scott Elliot had expended a deal of money, and, as 



we thought, you very justly recommended the collection 

 to be made as eqaal as possible, according to his ex- 

 pressed wishes. This recommendation says that they 

 should be worked out, at Kew, but that has not been in- 

 variably carried out. We have made, in the interests of 

 economy I think, unwritten working arrangements. If 

 we have a man strong at one particular group, I think 

 almost unintentionally this man would work that group 

 out ; it has not happened often, but it has happened to 

 my knowledge. 



173. {Chairman.) But since the Devojjshire Commis- 

 sion, have you received in the first instance collec- 

 tions made by Government expeditions ? — Xo, except a 

 case of cryptogams collected by myself as the naturalist 

 to an eclipse expedition. Those I made and sent a set 

 to Kew I think. 



174. {2Ir. Spring Bice.) Broadly speaking, those re- 

 commendations have not been carried into eifect, except 

 in a small measure ? — No. I was referring to Para- 

 graph VI. when I said there was an impossibility of 

 carrying that out. 



175. You consider that No. VH. has been carried out ? 

 — Tes, very loyally. 



176. With regard to your library, you mention in 

 No. V. of your answers that since the removal to Crom- 

 well Road there has begun the creation of a great botani- 

 cal library, but is it not a fact that there was already, in 

 the General Library at Bloomsbury a large number of 

 botanical books ? — They remained there. We attempted 

 to get the Banksian library with us, as we understood 

 Sir Joseph Banks had bequeathed it, never contemplat- 

 ing the possibility of its separation from the herbarium, 

 but we could not get it. 



177. The removal has involved the purchase of a 

 duplicate botanical library to some extent, has it ? — To 

 a large extent. ' 



178. That refers not merely to the working library of 

 your department, but to the library of the whole build- 

 ing ? — To the whole building. The libraries of the 

 zoological and other departments of the Natural His- 

 tory Museum are in the same position as ours, and the 

 General Library. Most of those books exist at 

 Bloomsbury. 



179. You have got at South Kensington a general 

 scientific library, and also a working library in the 

 Botanical Department as in the Geological ? — We have a 

 working botanical library — a very excellent one — in the 

 department, and in the General Library there are only 

 those books which are common to more than one depart- 

 ment. 



180. Then the number of volumes in your answer XII. 

 (16) refers to your special botanical library, does it ? — 

 The special Botanical Library only. 



181. In buying the books for that do you confine your- 

 self to books of living scientific interest, leaving the 

 more historical works alone? — The historical works 

 have already been acquired, but when we went to South 

 Kensington, a considerable amount of money had to be 

 spent on getting those historical books. We are now 

 very well off in that way, and it very rarely happens 

 that we buy any such books. I attribute to that the 

 fact that during the last few years I have been able to 

 effect a considerable reduction in my purchase of books. 



182. Have you any standing arrangement with the 

 Royal College of Science as to the use of your collections 

 or your library by any other professor or under his 

 direction? — ^There is no standing arrangement at all. 

 We meet each other almost daily and there is a general 

 disposition to help each other along and to help them 

 along, but there is no official relation whatever. 



183. Speaking without committing you, would you say 

 it was fair to state that the study of botany in the College 

 of Science has the advantage of having your library and 

 collection at hand and always accessible ? — It is an ad- 

 vantage to those students to have the department at hand, 

 because they are amongst our frequent visitors. 



184. Would you say that the collections and the library 

 were practically always accessible to them ? — Yes, that 

 is so. 



185. {Chairman. ) You mean the public galleries ? — 

 No, very frequently the library. Professor Farmer, the 

 Professor of Botany in that institution, has very fre- 

 quently research students, and these have free access to 

 our library and collection, because they are in a state of 

 tuition so far advanced that they can avail themselves 

 of it. 



