36 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK 



ProJ. J. B. 

 Farmer, 



F.R.S. 



14 Nov. 1900. 



it would be necessary to go down, but I have no verr 

 speolal knowledge on that point. 



801. Do you think it would be necessary to compare 

 fossil leaves, for instance, with existing leaves, or fossil 

 fruits with existing fruits, to determine the species 1 — 

 It might be on certain occasions. 



302. (ilir. Seymour.) Do you maJje use of other col- 

 lections besides those of the British Museum and Kerw 

 for the purpose of vour education at the College of 

 Science? — Yes, for live plants. We draw on the Chel- 

 sea Physic Garden as well. 



803. Do you make any use of the Botanical Gardens 

 at Regent's Park? — Hardly ever. In practice it wastes 

 too much time to send up there, because it is rather 

 inaccessible to us. 



804. In connection with the College of Science, have 

 you a botanical library? — ^A small one. 



805. Do you consult the library at the British Mu- 

 seum ? — ^Yes. 



806. And at Kew? — ^Yes, whenever I am down atKew. 



807. Do you find any difference betJween Kew and 

 the British Museum in respect to accessibility of the 

 library — is one more readily consulted than the othea-? 

 — I do not think so. 



8U8. {Frof. Balfour.) Speaking of using such things 

 as seaweed which you get at the British Museum, do you 

 get the specimens out? — Yes, when we axe taking sea- 

 weeds, for example, in the course, I generally ask the 

 keeper to let me have access to those tilings, and say 

 what particular kind of things I want to see, and he 

 very kindly gets out a large number of specimens so 

 as to save us time and render them more easy of in- 

 spection. 



809. Then you go to the cryptogamlc room, and look 

 at them there ? — Yes. 



810. Do you get any of their duplicates sent you for 

 use in your establishment? — We have had a few. 



811. There is no general system of distribution? — 

 ifut so far as I know. 



812. And you cannot depend on the supply? — No. 



813. On the supply of cryptogamic or flowering plants ? 

 —No. 



314. What is your conception of an educational her- 

 bariiun ? — That is a very big question to answer. 



81 5. It is; but you used the expression, I think. — 

 I do not remember doing so. 



816. You thought that an educational herbarium 

 miicht be maintained. The question I wish to ask you 

 is this : You have in your establishment no students' 

 herbarium? — Only a very small one_, almost limited to 

 British plants, and with hardly anvtliing outside Europe 

 at all. 



817. It would be a distinct advantage for you to have 

 a larger one? — As I think I said_ to tlie Chairman, we 

 do consult the Natural History Museum to make good 

 the lacunae in our own. 



81S. It would be convenient for you, would it not, 

 to have it nearer your work? — ^Yes. Of course it in- 

 volves the sacrifice of an entire afternoon to go to Kew. 



819. You do go to Kew?— Not to the herbarium, with 

 the studenta. 



320. But you go to the British Siuseum? — ^Yes, 

 always. 



821. Can you get full access to the herbarium there 

 for your students"? — ^I have never had the slightest diffi- 

 •culty. 



8'<;2. Are your students able to handle the plants in 

 the he]fl>arium upon the sheets ?— In the way that sheets 

 are ordinarily used. Of course they would not be al- 

 lowed to detach specimens, or anything of that kind. 



823. (Chairman.) That is always done under your 

 -eyes, is it not ? — ^Yes, unless they go over on their owft 

 account, and then, of course, I do not know. I have 

 never heard them say anything but that they have re- 

 ceived every help. 



824. Students have had access to tTie sheets' of the 

 herbarium by themselves ? — ^Yes, the advanced students, 

 and they are allowed to look at sheets. 



825. {Prof. Balfour.) Even when you are not there? 

 Tes, one or two of them— not a very large number. 



826. With regard to your museum, you hare, you 

 say, a small teaching collection? — A small teaching col- 

 lection to illustrate, lectures, and so forth. 



827. And you find it of very great use to have access 

 to the collection at the British Museum? — -Yes. 



828. Have you a teaching collection of morphological 

 obje(^ts like some of the things they have at the British 

 Museum ? — Yes. 



329. You would like to see that esi;ended, I suppose, 

 as much as possible? — Certainly. 



830. Would not there be a danger of overlapping the 

 work they are doing at the Britisli Museum ? — I should 

 think to a very small extent, because the only space 

 which is available for our own collection is so extremely 

 smaJl that we are obliged to restrict it almost entirely 

 to tilings wanted for very elementary students. 



831. But if you had more space you could develop 

 it to a great extent? — Yes. 



832. If you could develop it to tliat extent, and make 

 it accessible to the public at all times, it would take 

 the place of the collection at the British Museum, and do 

 exactly the same work that the collection there is doing 

 now? — ^I suppose you mean there would be an additional 

 staff, and all that that imphes? But it would be de~ 

 pendent on our having suitable buildings to put it in, 

 which we have not. 



833. But going on upon your present Hnes, you 

 would only overlap the work that is being done at the 

 British Museum to a slight extent ? — ^An extremely slight 

 extent. Our own rooms where we are able to put these 

 tilings are very badly lighted, and the things cannot 

 be well seen. I have always to take them out of the 

 cases to show them. We use them practically for lec- 

 ture purposes, and we have no more than what is just 

 useful to illustrate lectures. With the very small space 

 at Ciur command I am always obKged to restrict it for 

 that purpose. 



834. Supposing a change were made, and an edu- 

 cational collection were developed at the British Museum, 

 the specimens required would be mainly in fluid, would 

 they not? They would not be dried ones? — ^I imagine 

 not ; in the majority of cases, certainly not. 



835. At present in the British Museum a large num- 

 ber of the specimens in the gallery are dried speci- 

 mens, but they would be very much better if they 

 were specimens in fluid, would they not? — In many 

 cases I think they would. 



836. And therefore the question of supply would be 

 more one from a garden than from a herbarium ? — ^Yes. 



837. Therefore it would not be necessary to keep a 

 larj^e stock collection from which you could supply your 

 exhibition? — For that purpose it certainly would not. 



85S. T\Tiat is your estimation of the value of micro- 

 scopic preparations as permanent things ? — That vanes 

 very much with the objects concerned. Many of them 

 keep very well, and in that case they are useful, but in 

 a very large number of cases they deteriorate so much 

 by keeping that unless they have some special interest 

 they become almost valueless. 



839. Do you think it is an advisable thing for any 

 public museum to maintain a large stock; of microscopic 

 specimens, purchasing them as they come into the mar- 

 ket ? — Not for their intrinsic value. I do not think 

 it is a good thing to do. 



840. Did you ever hear of a teratological collection 

 at the College of Surgeons? — -I have heard of it. 



841. Have you ever seen it yourself ? — No. One 

 diificulty is, of course, that that museum is suoh a long 

 way off". 



842. (if)-. iJarwin.) I am not quite sure that I under- 

 stood in what direction you would approve of the teach- 

 ing collection C)f the British Museum being expanded, 

 whether it was in the sort of thing that is now down- 

 stairs, the morphological series, or in the things which 

 are upstairs ? — 1 think it would be desirable that both 

 should be extended. 



843. Which is the one that wants extending most, do 

 you think, the one that is more behindhand as it were ? 

 — The one downstairs is far more exiguous than the 

 one upstairs. 



844. It is smaller than it ought to be, and it is one 

 yon would be specially willing to see enlarged? — Cer- 

 tainly. 



845. There is one question which is perhaps rather 

 a vague question, which I should like to have your 

 answer to. Supposing that the greater part if the re- 

 search material was removed from Cromwell Road, so 

 that the whole establishment became rather devoted 

 to education than to rese;irch, do you think that would 



