MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, 



45 



with the rest?— No doubt if they were sold they would 

 realise as much as they cost, or perliaps a bit more. 

 There would be no loss on them surely. 



1047. {Mr. Duriciii.) I suppose you have some kiiow- 

 . ledge of the motliods followed by commercial hortacul- 



turTsts in getting their things? — Yes. 



1048. Do you find they go to the British Museum or 

 to Kew for naming ?— I never heard of their going to the 

 British IMuseum— I do not say they do not. I know that 

 the principal importers and introducers of new plants 

 take their livin-^ plants to Kew, and usually go there for 

 the sake of getting them named, and when their collectors 

 brinrr home herbaria, which they verjr often do, and I 

 believe will do much more in the future, they naturally 

 go to Kew. 



1049. They do not, as a fact, make any great use of the 

 British Museum ?— I cannot say whether they do or do 

 not, because I do not know. 



1050. {Jilr. Sprijig Bice.) You said that in the subject 

 which you had studied specially there M-as practically no- 

 thing at the British Museum which there was not at Kew ? 

 There may be things there, but they have never come to 

 my knowledge. In my researches no such specimens 

 came to my knowledge. 



1051. We have been told that in the case of the flora 

 of India the Kew collection is very much richer than that 

 of the British Museum, but the British Museum have 

 some things which they have not got at Kew. A man 

 wanting to study the subject thoroughly has to get most 

 of it at Kew, and then go to the British Sluseum ? — I 

 should ask Mr. C. B. Clarke, he is the best authority. 



1052. Assuming that to be so, should you consider that 

 a serious injury to scientific work ? — Certainly. 'If a man 

 has to go to two places to do his work you are doubling 

 his time and trouble. I should like to see everything 

 worth taking from the British Museum, which may not 

 be much, sent to Kew. No doubt any conscientious 



monographer who knows of the existence of specimens, 



Indian or any other, at the British Museum, would have v,.. //. J. 

 to "o there to see them. I should like to see that put E/irct, K.K.s. 



a stop to. 



1053. You consider it is an appreciable injury?— Cer- 

 tainly it is. Y^ou may draw a specimen, and take the 

 drawing back with you, but you cannot compare it so 

 well as when you have the two things side by side on 

 the table. 



1054. Do you live in London ? — Xo. 



1055. I ask you then, as a non-resident in London, is 

 the locality of Kew appreciably more inconvenient to you 

 as compared with Soutli Kensington ?— That depends. 

 When I come from home I get out at Paddmgton, 

 «nd get to Kew as quickly as I can get to the British 

 Museiim. When I am in town I can get to the British 

 Museum quicker than I can get to Kew. It may make 

 ten minutes difference and possibly costs 6d. more. But 

 it is not to my mind a question to be considered having 

 regard to the much greater amount you can see when 

 you get to Kew. If I had to go two hours instead of 

 20 minutes I should still go to Kew. 



1056. (Chairman.) Have you been lately at Kew 

 working there? — Not working. I have not had time to 

 go there as often as I should like, but I am going there 

 now if I can get away in time. I was there last week, and 

 the week before last. 



1057. Do you think tlie present accommodation of the 

 Herbarium there is adequate ? — ^Possibly not, but I should 

 not like to say that. I have been very little in the Her- 

 barium of late years. It was perfectly adequate when I 

 was working there, and I have not heard any complaints 

 on the subject. But no doubt they would have to make 

 extensions if large fresh accessions came to them. I 

 should imagine it could be done at a low cost. The build- 

 ing at Kew is not a very elaborate one, and would not 

 require very expensive architectural alterations. 



1058. Are you aware that it is not fire-proof? — ^I have 

 heard that, but the regulations against fire are very strict 

 as I know to my cost. 



15 Nov. 191)0. 



SIXTH DAY. 



Wednesday, •28t/i November, 1900. 



PRESENT : 



Sir Michael Fostee, k.c.b., m.p., sec.r.s., &c. (in tlie Chair). 



:Sir John Kirk, g.c.m.g., k.c.b., f.r.s. 

 Professor Isaac Bayley Balfour, d. sc, f.r.s. 

 Mr. Francis Darwin, m.b., f.r.s. 



Mr. Frederick Du Cane Godman, f.r.s. 

 Mr. Horace Alfred Damer Seymour, c.b. 

 Mr. Stephen Edward Spring Rice, c.b. 



Mr. Benjamin Daydon Jackson, Secretary. 



J)x. Henry Woodward, F.B.S., Keeper of Geology, British Museum (Natural History), called; and 



examined. 



1059. {Chairman.) You are the Keeper of the Depart- 

 -ment of Geology of the British Museum (Natural His- 

 tory) ? — Yes. 



1060. There are collections of fossil plants in your 

 . Department ? — There are. 



1061. Are those all of the same kind and origin, or 

 are there differences ? There are, I believe, collections 

 that have been there for some time, and others that have 

 been placed there more recently ? — The collection was 

 formed prior to Mr. Konig's time, when he was keeper ; 

 that is to say, prior to 1815. He was keeper until 

 1851, and during the time he was there he described 

 many fossil plants that are in the collection in a work 

 ho published, called "Icones Fossilium Sectiles" (1820), 

 and that is good evidence that the collection then 

 existed. 



1062. He was the keeper ? — He was the_ keeper of the 



• Geological and Mineralogioal Department in those 

 days.^ He was succeeded by Mr. Waterhouse in 1851, 



^Mineralogy was separated from Geology in 1857, 

 and made into a Department under Professor Story 

 Maskelyne, F.R.S.— H. W. 



who remained keeper till 1880, when I took over the 

 charge. I had been an assistant from 1858, and had 

 worked at fossil botany under his direction at that 

 time. The collection is a very large one, consisting 

 of 30,300 odd, specimens. 



1063. Were there not collections placed in your 

 department aboat 1898 ?— In 1898, three years after 

 Mr. Carruthers retired, Mr. George Murray handed 

 over to me all the specimens which Mr. Carruthers had 

 borrowed to describe in the years during which he was 

 working at fossil botany, between 1860 and 1890. 

 During that time he described a very large number of 

 fossil plants. He was Keeper of the Botanic Depart- 

 ment the latter part of the time, after Mr. Bennett's 

 retirement. With those returned specimens, which 

 were originally borrowed from the Geological Depart- 

 ment, he handed over to me two small cabinets, one 

 containing the Robert Brown collection of fossil plants, 

 principally consisting of sections of fossil plants 

 mounted on glass, and a series prepared by 8.^r Joseph 

 Hooker, which also formed a small collection in the 

 Department. The slides amounted to 1773, nnd the 

 miscellaneous specimens to 2170. I should say that 



Dr. H. 



Woodward, 



F.R.S. 



•28 Nov. 1900, 



