MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



49 



1116. Do I understand vou would lie in favour of 

 leaving the eollections in the main, especially collec- 

 tions containing type specimens, specimens of value for 

 the purpose of research, and specimens on which cer- 

 tain conclusions have been based, at the British Mu- 

 seum ? — ^I think I should rather suggest a somewhat 

 different line of division. I think a possible line of 

 division might be to transfer to Kew the specimens 

 showing strnctnre, which, I imagine, are the least im- 

 portant geologically and the most important botanically, 

 and also to transfer to Kew a representative collection 

 o£ the specimens showing external characters, leaving 

 the bulk of the ordinary sjiecimens at tlie ^Museum for 

 the puqwses of geologist's. That struck me as a possible 

 line of division in that case. 



1117. Tiiat is to say, the collection of fossil plants 

 4it Kew should be arranged with a view to the wants 



■ tif the botanical investigator? — Precisely. 



1118. And those at the British Museum left to satisfy 

 the wants of the geological investigator? — Exactly. I 

 think that would involve the type specimens remaining 

 at the British Museum, as regards the specimens show- 

 ing external characters and not internal structure. 



1119. You do not think that it is desirable, even 

 from the botanical point of view, that all the fossil 

 plants should be transferred to Kew, supposing that 

 the general botanical collection were sent to Kew? — 

 Xo, I think it would be a distinct loss to separate them 



■ altogether from the other geological and palseonto- 

 logical collections. 



1120. And the division you would make would be 

 according to the lines you have just suggested? — That 

 occurred to me, after some thought, as a reasonable and 

 possible line of division. 



1121. (Mr. Sei/mour.) Supposing the herbarium was 

 removed to Kew from South Kensington, would it be 

 a great loss to those who study fossil botany at the 

 British Museum? — I think if it were removed wholly 

 it would be a great loss, but I think a representative 

 botanical collection, not the great herbarium there is 

 now, but a much smaller one, left at the British 

 Museum would answer the purpose. 



1122. But yoa think it would be necessary to have 

 something ? — Yes, I think it would be quite necessary 

 to have something. 



1123. (Professor Balfour.) Do you think that it would 

 be a distinct advantage to have some of these fossils 

 removed in the way you suggest to Kew, on account of 

 the garden being there — on account of the advantaige 

 of comparing the specimens with living plants ? — ^Tes ; 

 I think the comparison with living plants is very im- 

 portant indeed, quite as important as comparison with 

 the herbarium specimens. 



1124. (2Ir. Darwin.) Do you think it is practicable 



• or possible to divide the specimens according to the line 

 .you have suggested ? — I think as regards the structural 

 specimens there would not be any diTnculty, because 

 the existing catalogues of the British Museum of fossil 

 plants deal hardly at all with structural specimens. 

 At present they hardly come in. As far as they are 



• concerned I think there would be no difficulty. As 

 regards the selection of other specimens, a representa- 

 tive set to show the external characters, it will have to 

 he done with care, and I think as far as possible tBe 

 specimens that have been catalogued for the British 

 Mitseum should remain there — the specimens on which 



' the catalogue is chiefly based. 



1125. In view of palagontological research, is it the 



• case or not the case that vou do want external forms as 



well as structure? — Yes, you do; one must endeavour 

 to correlate the two as far as possible. 



1126. But some workers would want both structure- , 

 specimens and external-form-spcoimens? — ^Yes, but not ' 

 to the same extent. I have worked enormously more 

 with structural si>eeimens than with others, myself. 



1127. Take Mr. Seward he does a great deal of exter- 

 nal form work in his own work, apart from the cata- 

 loguing work? — ^Yes, he would do more than I should, 

 no doubt. The two sides would be more equally 

 balanced. 



1128. Would not the plan you have suggested mean 

 inconvenience? "Would it not be a division of material 

 which would make palreontological work more difficult? 

 — I do not think that would matter practically. At 

 present, taking my own experience, all the structural 

 work is done at Kew or at home, and whatever I do 

 on the external characters is done at the British Mu- 

 seum or on private collections. I have not found that 

 that was any trouble. 



1129. But it does mean going from Kew to the British 

 Museum, whether it is convenient or not? — Yes, but 

 the amount of work on the structural specimens done 

 at the Museum has been on the whole very little at 

 present. 



1130. That is because of the nature of your work, 

 and not because the amount of material is not com- 

 plete there ? — There is magnificent structural material 

 at the British Museum, but I think it has been mostly 

 worked elsewhere up to now. 



1131. (3/r. Spi-ing Bice.) With regard to the exist- 

 ing collection of fossil plants at Kew, is it at all a 

 representative one ? — No ; it is excessively small, and 

 not at all representative, I should say. 



1132. A thing may be small and yet in its limited 

 measure representative ; is it representative or acci- 

 dental ? — I think it is, to a great extent, accidental. 



1133. It merely happens to have gone there, and the 

 question of what is really wanted there has never been 

 considered? — Xo ; I should say it lias never been 

 thoroughly considered. I believe there has been no 

 attempt to form paljeontological collections there at all. 



1134. I presume what is there has been presented? — 

 Yes, except that cjuite recently a few large sections 

 showing structure were acquired by the Director, but 

 only twenty or so. 



1135. Otherwise one may consider it as accidental ? 

 — I think, on the whole, yes, and not, I should think, 

 important, except as regards a few specimens — e.g., 

 Ben nettifcs Gihsonianns. 



1136. (Chairman.) Supposing that ^ the mode of 

 division which yoti have suggested should not prove 

 practicable or desirable, and that it should be decided 

 to romo^-iD the collection of living plants to Kew, there 

 would remain one or two courses : (1) leaving the 

 whole of the fossil plants as they are at present at the 

 British !Museum, and adding to them as time went on, 

 or (2) transferring them to Kew, leaving only a repre- 

 sentative collection for the purpose of geology. Which 

 of those two courses would you recommend? — It is very 

 difficult, on those suppositions, to decide. 



1137. May I put it in this way: that there are not 

 overpowering reasons in favour of one course or the 

 other? — I should certainly say not overpowering. T 

 think I should, on the whole, be inclined, on those 

 assumptions, to leave them at the Museum, but it is 

 a very difficult question indeed to settle. 



Dr. D. H. 



Scott, F.R..S. 



-'8 Nov. 1900. 



Professor Edwix Eat Laxki;ster,_ LL.D., E.E.S., Director of ih& Natural History Departments of the 



British Museum, called ; and examined. 



1138. (Chairman.) The Committee has had under con- 

 sideration the desirability of uniting in one collection, 

 either at the British Museiim or at Kew, the botanical 

 collections now existing at Kew and at the British 

 Museum. May I ask what would be the effect upon 

 the British Museum as a whole, on the one hand, of 

 the transference of the general herbarium, with possiblv 

 the fossil plants, to Kew ; and, on the other hand, 

 the transference to the British Museum of the her- 

 barium now existing at Kew ? — You say " effect " — it 

 is rather difficult exactly to say, if the botanical col- 

 lections were moved from the Natural Historv Museum, 

 what the effect would be. One effect would be a cer- 

 tain amount of vacant space in the Museum. On the 



3499. 



other hand, if the collections were brought from Kew 

 \.o Cromwell Road it would necessitate additional build- 

 ing and additional provision at a certain expense. Also, 

 of course, if the collections were remov_ed there would 

 be less expenditure at Cromwell Eoad, 'and if the col- 

 lections were brought there from Kew there would be 

 additional expenditure. 



1139. In the case of the general herbirinm. at least, 

 now at the British Museum, being transferred to Kew, 

 what effect would that transference have upon the other 

 departments — the Zoological Department and the Geo- 

 logical Department? Do you think, putting aside 

 questions of s-par.c, those departments would suffer 



G 



Prnf. E. 11. 



Lunkcstcr, 



LL.D., F.K.S. 



