DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK: 



Mr. G. E. M. 



Murray, 

 F.R.S. 



Nov. 1900. 



XI. No. According to the Museum Act of Parlia- 

 ment, no specimens of any kind (except duplicates in 

 exchange) are allowed out of the building ; and although 

 this may occasionally cause inconvenience, it secures (which 

 is of far greater importance) the permanent integrity of 

 the collections. 



XII. 1. They are placed in drawers adjacent to the 

 corresponding section of the Herbarium. 



2. They are not poisoned, but camphor is employed. 



3. They are not glued down but gummed and the 

 process of incorporation is continuous. 



4. There are about 150,000 specimens of dried flower- 

 ing plants which are at present unmounted, but they are 

 readily available for use, being sorted systematically and 

 arranged in close proximity to the allied mounted 

 specimens. This series is being reduced rapidly by 

 mounting and incorporation, and especially recently 

 great progress has been made with this work. 



5. The fossil plants at present retained in the Depart- 

 ment are exhibited in order in the Public Gallery. 

 The extensive collections of Robert Brown, Sir Joseph 

 Banks, Sir Joseph Hooker, Mr. Carruthers, and many 

 other palaeontologists were, by arrangement with Sir W. 

 Flower, deposited in the Geological Department, so that 

 the whole British Museum collection might be arranged 

 in one great series. The condition of this transference 

 was that then the whole should be placed under the 

 Keeper of Botany. 



6. The arrangement of the recent Phanerogamous 

 plants is in one series following the sequence of Orders 

 in Bentham and Hooker's " Genera Plantarum." Under 

 Genera the arrangement is usually that of the most 

 recent Monograph. The Ferns are arranged according to 

 the " Synopsis Filicum " ; the other vascular Cryptogams 

 by Baker's " Fern Allies " ; the Mosses by Jaeger and 

 Sauerbeck ; the Hepatics by the " Synopsis Hepati- 

 carum," but at present under re-arrangement according 

 to Stephani ; the Algse according to Agardh, but being 

 re-arranged according to De Toni ; the Fungi according 

 to Saccardo ; the Mycetozoa according to Lister, and 

 the Lichens under re-arrangement. The ordinary 

 geographical arrangement is under species, but excep- 

 tions occur among the Flowering Plants, where a 

 geographical arrangement under larger groups is con- 

 venient. No redundancies occur. 



7. They have moveable trays. 



8. Size of sheets, 17^ x 11^ in. Palms, Ferns and 

 Cycads, 21 x 12| in. 



9. The pre-Linnean collections, such as the Sloane 

 and the British Herbarium, are the only subsidiary 

 collections. The incorporation of the former would be 

 destructive to its historical and practical value ; and the 

 British plants are kept separate for the convenience of 

 the numerous students of the British Flora. 



10. There is every convenience for the examination of 

 plants after boiling, and by all other known laboratory 

 methods. A well equipped laboratory is provided in the 

 department. 



11. Yes. 



12. There is sufficient space for the growth of the 

 collections. It is not likely to become inadequate during 

 the next few years. 



13. The completion of the Museum by the building of 

 the East Return Front would give to Botany adequate 

 room for a United National Herbarium. 



14. There is a very large and useful collection. They 

 are fully available and are constantly consulted in the 

 same way as the Herbarium. 



15. (a) Catalogues and guide-books, 

 (b) Ditto - ditto. 



It is borne by Government. 



16. It contains 14,803 volumes, 



335 volumes of MSS., 



3,931 tracts bound in 241 volumes, 



1,461 tracts unbound. 



This does not include transcripts prepared for use in 

 the Herbarium by the staff ; nor does it include the large 

 number of botanical papers published in academies, and 

 transactions, readily accessible in the general library. 



17. There is a written slip catalogue available for the 

 use of workers. 



18. The staff are generally on the alert and many 

 donations are made. Messrs. Dulau & Co. have been 

 and are of very great service to the staff both in making 

 known new publications and in finding rare books, and 

 their expert knowledge is very highly appreciated. 



10th July, 1900. 



(Signed) Geoege Muekay. 



3. {Chairman.) In your answer to Quesbiom I., speak- 

 ing of tihe collection, you say the her^bariuim coiiisdsts of 

 flowering plants, 975,000 specdmenis. May I ask wfliat 

 you esacftly mean by " specimens ? " Does thalt mean 

 Bpecdeis ? — ^No. Eadi speicdes may be represented by 

 many specimens iUusfcrajting the geographical distribu- 

 tion of thait species tlhrougihout the world. We attempt, 

 as far as possible, to compiletelly iJilusitaiate by actual speci- 

 mens, carefully vouohed for, and properly ticketed, the 

 distribution of the different species of piants, boith 

 flowering plants and cryptogams. 



4. In your answer to question (11.) you speak of the 

 staff. Will you kindly staite more explicitly what the 

 S'taff is 1 — ■! am speaking here principaiHy of the scienttific 

 part of the staff, not the attendants and others. The 

 scdemtific staff oonsisits of two senior assistants, three 

 junior a&sdsitants, and, for the present, one temporary 

 assiiistanit who^m I have permission to employ annually 

 frorm the Treasury. 



5. He is under an annual engagement 1 — Tes ; it is 

 an annual application thiiouigh the Trustees. Three of 

 the permanent assisitants are concerned witih the different 

 groups of flowering plants, as is also the teanpoiary assis- 

 tant. Two are concerned with the cryptogams, as I 

 am myself in whatever time I can spare from my ofiBcial 

 work. 



6. We gather from your answers to II. and m. that the 

 use of the coHedtion and tlie nature of the work done 

 may be considered as coming under one of tliree heads : — 

 (1) Popular instruobion, with the view to exciting imteresit 

 in Botany among people generally, and fumi'Shing gene- 

 ral linformation to the public not speciaily studying 

 Botany, this we wiU speak of as the popular work of 

 the Museum ; (2) the ooUeotions are used and work is 

 entailed in what we may speak of as the educational 

 aspect — students from various pants w^ho come to learn 

 Bo<tany for examination purposes or for other reasons ; 

 (3) the use of the oolleations for research and inquiry in 

 Botany. I undersrtand from (4) of III. that the oolleation 

 is used for inquiry in pure and noit applied Botany ; 

 Economic Botany does not enter into the case at all. 

 N'ow, would you kindly state more explicitly than you 

 have done in your ansrwers what provision is made, what 

 work is done, and how the members of the staff are em- 

 ployed under these three heads, beginning with the 

 popular instruction or general expositdion ? — The popular 

 irstruotion is, as necessarily it nrast be, of a casual kind. 

 It is not organised in any way. But we always feel our- 

 selves at the commaoid of any body — a field club, natu- 

 ralisit's' club, or minor society — which requests one mem- 

 ber or more of the staff to be placed at its disposal as a 

 guide to the exhibited odlectiions. 



7. But you have ceitfaain galleries, have not you, de- 

 voted to that purpose ? — -Yes. I was speaking fii-st as to 

 the popular side of the matter. 



8. You have galleries which are arraaaged, either wholly 

 or partly, with the view to popular instruotdon ? — Yes, 

 with the view both to populaT inatnidtion and to meeting 

 the requirements of students of Botajiy. The gallery 

 appeals to both, firstly, in the systematic series repre- 

 senting aill the naturai orders, and, secondly, in other 

 cases, showing the adaptatiion of pilants of a more popular 

 character. Both of those teaching collections, as we call 

 them, appeal equally to the public and to students who 

 are learning Botany. lin addition to that we offer our- 

 selves as guides to the collections, giving short explana- 

 tory stotements to field clubs and other public bodies, 

 who we consider have a claim upon our services. 



9. By we, do you mean all the members of your staff 1 

 — ^Yes. Sometimes one and someti'mes another. I need 

 not say that it makes no great inroad on our time, as 

 euoh visi'bs are generally paid on a Saturday afternoon, 

 or on a holiday. It is not a daily matter. For example, 

 if a school requested such instruction I should consider 

 very carefully what its daim was, as tliat would be inter- 

 fering witih tlie regular teaching instdtutions close at 



