MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



3 



(2.) The collections, both in the galleries and herbaria 

 are constantly made use of by students from colleges, 

 e.g., the Royal College of Science, University College, 

 Royal Veterinary College, the Kirkbeck Institution, 

 Toynbee Hall, etc. Special exhibitions have frequently 

 been made on behalf of students at the Royal College 

 of Science and University College. The staff are also 

 consulted daily by private persons in search of botanical 

 information. In fact, the Botanical Department has 

 become widely known as a centre of reference and is bo 

 used by all classes. The collections, the library, and the 

 ^xpert knowledge of the staff are used by students of 

 botany and others in much the same way as the literary 

 and journalistic profession use the Reading Room of the 

 British Museum. 



(3.) This is of an extensive character and consists not 

 only in giving facilities and help to investigators on the 

 spot, but ako in correspondence with botanists working 

 in all the important colonial and foreign centres. Tra- 

 vellers are frequently instructed in the collection and 

 preparation of specimens, and a pamphlet has been 

 printed for their use. This has resulted in valuable 

 collections being presented to the Museum. 



(4.) Since the main object of the Botanical Depart- 

 ment is the study and illustration of pure, and not 

 applied botany, the instances of work under Government 

 requisition are naturally rare. 



IV. During the last nine years the following accessions 

 have been received : 



By purchase 

 By exchange 

 By gift - 



154,199 specimens. 



8,620 

 79,515 „ 



V. Owing to the removal from Bloomsbury to Crom- 

 well Road, the Department secured much additional 

 space, permitting of extensive growth and development 

 in all directions, but particularly in the Cryptogamic 

 Herbarium, which in 1875 barely existed ; in the creation 

 of a great botanical librarj^, used extensively by the 

 public, and the formation of the teaching collections, 

 exhibited to the public. 



The facilities for study and reference have been 

 enormously increased and visitors have appreciated the 

 fact by an attendance which has more than doubled 

 since 1875. (In 1875 the visitors were 1,118 in number, 

 in 1899 they were 2,649 in number.) The teaching 

 collections formed under the direction of my predecessor 

 and myself, and being still steadily improved and added 

 to, are plainly a most useful guide to the students of 

 botany. I rarely pass through the Central Hall or the 

 Botanical Gallery without seeing serious use being made 

 of these collections by students or parties of students 

 working together. Students using these public collec- 

 tions are not included in the annual return of visitors to 

 the Herbarium for consultation and research. 



VI. During the last nine years the figures have been 

 as follows : — 



1891 



1892 



1893 



1894 



1895 



1896 



1897 



1898- 



1899 



During the same period the number of specimens in- 

 corporated into the Herbarium w-ere — 



39,440 specimens. 



31,953 





50,541 





10,427 





20,303 





33,815 





13,084 





16,916 





25,855 





1891 

 1892 



1893 

 1894 

 1895 

 1896 

 1897 

 1898 

 1899 



41,875 

 29,658 

 17,677 

 20,670 

 17,720 

 19,438 

 22,827 

 28,340 

 20,800 



VII. To a large extent this question has already been 

 answered under paragraph III., but the following addi- 

 tions may be made : — 



(1.) In addition to the official catalogues, which are in 

 reality monographs for the use of expert botanists, there 

 have been published cheap guide-books to portions of the 

 collection. Of one Guide, viz., to " Sowerby's Models of 

 British Fungi," an edition of 2,000 was vSold in a few 

 years ; and another, Lister's " British Mycetozoa " has an 

 extremely satisfactory sale. Further guides, especially to 

 the illustrations of Plant Adaptations, are at present de- 

 signed. 



(2.) A list of visitors to the Herbarium for consultation 

 and research since the opening of the Natural History 

 Museum is given. This takes no account of those who 

 visit the teaching collections of the exhibited series of 

 British lalants. 



Return of number of visitors to the Herbarium for 

 scientific research and enquiry : — 



Mr. G. R. M. 



Mun-ay, 



F.R.S. 



— — -fla 

 1 Nov. i900. 



Year. 



Number. 





1881 



704 





1882 



803 





1883 



1,023 





1884 



993 





1885 



1,105 





1886 



1,026 





1887 



1,483 





1888 



2,214 





1889 

 1890 



1,3-14 



1,244 



\ During these years 

 •^ there was re- 



1891 



2,226 



1892 



2,585 



painting, &c., go- 



1893 



2,274 



ing on, first in 



1894 



" ) — 



2,129 



one herbarium. 



1895 



2,206 



then in the other. 



1896 



2,555 



and the recon- 



1897 



2,718 



struction of the 



1898 



2,940 



Cryptogamic 



1899 



2,649 



Room. 



•— ~ —^ — 



(3). The assistance to research is continuous and of 

 daily occurrence. It is impossible for any systematist 

 to carry out an investigation of any extent A\'ithout con- 

 sulting the Museum herbarium personally or by corre- 

 spondence, and assistance of both kinds is constantly 

 acknowledged by botanists of this country and abroad 

 with great cordiality. The accessibility of the herbarium 

 from its situation in London makes it useful to the large 

 class of botanists who are engaged daily in their own 

 professions, and who are often dependent on occasional 

 hours of leisure to prosecute their study. 



VIII. The possession by the British Museum of the 

 pre-Linnean herbaria (such as the Sloane Herbarium) on 

 which Systematic Botany is largely based, and the her- 

 baria of Sir Joseph Banks, Robert Brown, and others of 

 the end of the last, and earlier portion of the present 

 century, which make the collection a continuous record 

 of Systematic Botany to the present time. 



The association of the plants in the same building 

 with the palasontological collection. 



The arrangement of the fruits and woods in cabinets 

 adjacent to the corresponding cabinets of the general 

 herbarium, thereby greatly facilitating reference. 



IX. It is recognised by those responsil^le that certain 

 collections go more fitly to Kew, and others to the 

 British Museum. For example, collections of living 

 seeds have occasionally been transferred to the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew, and the Director of those Gardens a few 

 years ago transferred Ferro's pre-Linnean herbarium to 

 the British Museum. The circumstances are, however, 

 in general, almost entirely of a personal character. Our 

 collectors are different from the Kew collectors, and are 

 largely gained by the association of this Department 

 with the other Natural History Departments in the 

 Museum. 



X. (a.) Salaries and Wages, £2,880 (for 1899). 

 (bi.) £400. 



(b".) Purchase of Books, £180 ; reduced to £15 

 this year. 

 Binding, £45. 

 (c.) Preparing, £450. 



Printing Catalogues, £350. 

 Furniture, Fittings, and service of Carpenter 

 £300 raised to £350. 



A 2 



