14 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK; 



Sir G. King, by preference, because the best collection of Indian and 

 K.C.I.E., Malayan -plants is there. But all the specimens, of 

 F.R.s. Malayan plants are not there, so that after having finished 

 _ ^ ;„„ , at Kew, I have to go to the British Museum to see if 

 ' J-^ov^JUU. there is anything there which I have not seen at Kew. 

 To do that properly, .and to amive at conclusions Tvhich 

 have some chance of being accurate, you must take your 

 raaJterial with you. If you are working at a iarge order 

 that means that you have to take a lot of plants up to the 

 British Museum to compare them, and all that would be 

 saved if the two collections were under the same roof. 

 There is, of course, a waste of time, and also touch in- 

 convenience. If you do not go to the British Museum 

 you are apt to make mistakes. You ought to have all 

 the possible maJteriai before you, so that you can piece 

 out the whole thing at one time. Of course, you cannot 

 work simurltaneously at two places, and you have either 

 to begin at Kew and go on to the British Museum, or 

 begin at the British Museum and go on to Kew. There- 

 fore, the separation is very inconvenient, and a source 

 of iDOssible mistakes. 



208. Confining yourself at present to tJie General 

 Herbarium of the British Museum, because I imagine 

 that is the one that you consult 1 — Yes, that is the one I 

 consult. 



209. Would you recommend that the whoJe of that her- 

 bardum should be transferred to Kew? — In the General 

 Herbarium do you mean to include the HeribaTium of 

 British Plants? 



210. I was distinguishing between the General Her- 

 barium and the British Herbarium I — ^The General Her- 

 barium ought to be put in the same pJace with the con- 

 tents of the Kew Her^barium. Wherever you locate the 

 present two collections they ought to be in one building 

 OT in contiguous buildling-s, buildings so near that it is 

 possible to go from one to the other without much .trouble. 



211. Would it be sufficient, in your opinion, if the pre- 

 semt Kew Heifbarium was in one building a.nd the present 

 General Herbarium of tlie British Museum in another 

 building, provided those buildings were oontiguo'UB and 

 easy of access from one to the other ? — ^Hardly. 



212. It is not necessary, in your opinion, that the 

 whole of the two collections should be absolutely incor- 

 porated together? — ^I db not know about incorporation, 

 but it would be much better to have them side by side. 

 For instance, in the elaboration of any natural order at 

 Kew, take an illustration. .Suppose that I am working 

 at the Liliacese. The specimens of Liliaceae that are now 

 in Kew .O'Ught to be oilose by the specimens in the British 

 Museum of that .Order. That is tlie best possible arrange- 

 ment — to have them together. B.ut it is complicated by 

 the fact that the two herbaria are mounted on different 

 sizes of paper. The British heifbarium is on a larger 

 sized paper than that of Kew, and they would not incor- 

 porate well. You would either have to cut down the 

 British Museum specimens and put them o.n sheets 

 the size of Kew, or paste the Kew sheets on to paper 

 of the British Museum size, in order to incorporate 

 them. 



213. WouJd that imean a considerable la.bour and con- 

 siderable expense? — In this .matter I never consider ex- 

 pense, because it is a trifling thing. We are such a rich 

 country that I do not think it is worth listening to ques- 

 tions of ex.pense or entertaining them. 



214. But you would be quite satisfied with a mere loca- 

 tion of the two herbaria in two contiguous buildings? — ■ 

 I would be satisfied, but I would be much better 

 satisfied if you put the natural families together — if you 

 incorporated them. That would be the best possible 

 arrangement. Short- of that it wo.uld be be'tter to put 

 them together, the caJbineta with the Liliaceae of the 

 British 'Museum in one place, and those of Kew of the 

 same family by their side, so that anyone examining 

 tliem would not have to walk a long 

 from one to the other. 



distance to go 



215. That fe, a common housing without absolute in- 

 corporation ? — ^Yes, but do not put them in different roo.ms 

 or buildings if you can help it. Do not divide them up ; 

 put the c'aV>inets side by side, or as near to each other as 

 possible. Of course, that is the second best plan. The 

 best plan of ail is absolute incorporation. But, as I 

 have just said, that implies the remounting or cutting 

 dow.n and putting on different papers. To take the 

 specimens off the present paper and put them on new 

 paper would be the worst thing you could do, because it 

 would spoil the specimens. 



216. Supposing that your views were carried out, and 

 that the two collections were put together at the British 



Museum in Orom.well Road, would you be content that 

 Kew should b'e left without any heVbarium ? — Certainly 

 not. Kew Gardens ought to have a large and good her- 

 barium, with all the species represented in it. You 

 cannot work a big 'botanic^;! garden without a heriDarium ; 

 the tiling is impossible. 



217. That is to say, in the case of the two henbaria 

 being placed together in Cromwell Road, it would be 

 absolutely necessaiy thait .there should be prepared in 

 con.nection with Kew a complete Reference Heiflbamum ; 

 is tlitat what you mean ? — ^I .do not quite know wihat you 

 mean by "Reference Herbarium." Every heifbarium is 

 a reference herbarium. 



218. Yes, but a herbariu.m consists, does not it, to a ■ 

 certain extent, of types which have to be consulted by 

 the anonogr^.pher? — Yes. 



219. Do yo.u wish under those circumstances that a 

 coleotio.n of type.s should be maintained .at Kew?— If 

 there was any difficulty about a name at Kew, and -tEe 

 type was at the British Museum, the man working would 

 not be on safe ground in naming his plant without going 

 and seeing the type. The big reference herbarium, the 

 working hei'barium, the scientific heiibarium, ought, in 

 my opinion, to be near the botanical garden. 



'220. That is to say, in your opinion these two herbaria 

 of which we are speaifcinig should be put together, not 

 at Cromwell Road, but at Kew ? — Yes, at Kew. 



221. Then supposing that were done, and the whole 

 of the general herbarium at present at the British 

 Museum were removed to Kew, and placed there under 

 the circumstances that you desire, would it be sufficient 

 to leave at the British Museum, in the interests of 

 botanical science, and the interests of the nation 

 generally, simply the galleries for popular exposition? 

 — No, I would not say that. I would leave the 

 galleries for popular exposition — if by them you mean 

 the galleries in which there is a mounted set of British 

 plants ? 



222. Yes, and various illustrations in botany? — I 

 would certainiy leave these, and would attach' to them 

 as near as possible a full and complete British herbar- 

 ium, a well-named collection of British plants. That, 

 I think, is only fair to the public. There are a great 

 many people who might have an hour or two on a 

 Sunday afternoon, or on a Saturday afternoon, to 

 spend, who could not go to Kew, and who could find 

 what they want at the British Museum, especially if 

 it was kept open in the evening. 



223. But do you think that should be limited to 

 the British herbarium ? — No, certainly not. I would 

 have a representative herbarimn of India, and of 

 every British Colony, and I would have them in separate 

 cabinets, so that a man wanting to see the plants 

 of Australia would find them in a limited number ot 

 cabinets, and would not hare to toil through a herb- 

 arium arranged systematically irrespective of geography j 

 so that a man wanting to get an idea of the flora of India 

 could do it with as little trouble as possible. I would 

 have these collections accessible to the public without 

 any restriction, such as being seen only between 3 and 

 5, -or 5 and 7, or any nonsense of that kind. They should 

 be open all day, and I would allow people to handle the 

 plants. That, of course, would im.ply a certain amount 

 of wear and tear among the .S'pecimens, and such destruc- 

 tion would have to be made good from Kew, or wherever 

 the big herbarium is 'located. 



224. These naturally would not be valuable speci- 

 mens? — 'Njo, the collection would 'be a popular one, 



considering tiie present state of neglect into which sys- 

 tematic botany has fallen, this ought certainly to be 

 done. The coillection need not be located in the Natural 

 History building : there is a college of science some- 

 where there in sheds, but when they get better accom- 

 modation there might be a. herbarium there, if 

 necessary. 



225. But why would you 'limit this to a British herba- 

 rium and to those of India and the Colonies ? For in- 

 stance, ought not the flora of Europe to be there ? — That 

 m.ight be done, certainly, but I thought expense was an 

 important featuxe. For instance, I would have myself 

 a flora of Switzerland. 



226. All these floras would be more or less geographi- 

 cal, would they not? — They would be arranged geo- 

 graphically. That is to say, you would have the 

 plants of Switzerland in a certain number of cabinets, 

 the plants of Great Britain in other cabinets : ao 



