MIXUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



53 



wliv I asked the question ? — I should sar -nith regard to 

 that that I do not think there is any inconvenience, and 

 you must in such a case consult both expert zoologists 

 and expert botanists, and it -would Ibe an advantage 

 Laving the matter dealt with in the t^o ini^titutions which 

 could give tlio best information on each side of the 

 question. 



1192. Pursuing that one step further, supposing the 

 botanical collections were removed from your care, your 

 duty -with regard to Boai-d of Agriculture questions on 

 zoology would not be interfered with ? — No, it would not 

 be interfered with. 



1193. (Chairman.) Tou said, I think, that there were 

 consider;i)ble claims for housing collections of strati- 

 graphical geology at the British Museum ? — Tes. 



1194. That is one of the things which might be con- 

 sidea-ed as having claims ? — ^Tes. 



1195. For that there would be a considerable use of 

 fossil plants ? — Xo doubt. 



1196. But you do not think that the transference of the /^/-of /•' li 

 present collection of fossil plants to Kew would seri- l.ankester 

 ously interfere with, say, the ultimate installation of i,i,.n., f. it.s. 



collections illustrative of stratigraphical geology? — 



Xo, because I should say that the present collec- 28 Nov. 1900. 



tion of fossil plants has been alwayte kept 



as a coUeotion of fossil plants, and it would not be 

 desirable to breaJc that up to use it as illustrating geo- 

 logical plienomena. It is now got together as a special 

 series from the botanical point of view. Collections 

 which come in illustrating particular places or particular 

 localities from the geological point of view, containing 

 necessarily their oi\Tt plants and their own animal re- 

 mains, would be kept together as such. Probably any 

 striotly geological museum would always be ready, or 

 ought by the controlling authorities to be made ready, to 

 hand over to a strictly botanical or strictly zoological 

 museum any very fine specimens illusti'ative of zoology 

 or botany which are not really needed from the point of 

 view of the study of geology. 



SEVENTH DAY. 



WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL. 



Thursday, 29th November, 1900. 



PRESENT : 



Sir Michael Foster, k.c.b., m.p., sec.r.s. (in the Chair). 



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

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

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



Mr. Frederick Du Cane Godman. 



Mr. Horace Alfred Damer Seymour, c.b. 



Mr. Stephen Edward Spring Rice, c.b. 



Mr. Benjamin Daydon Jackson, Secretary. 



Mr. William BottesG HemslbTjF.R.S. 



Keeper of the Herbarium and Library of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 

 called ; and examined. 



1197. {Chairman.) Tou are at present Keeper of the 

 Herbarium and Library of the Royal Gardens, Kew?— 

 Yes. 



1198. And you have been so for some considerable time ? 

 — No, not quite two years. 



1199. But previous toi that were you engaged in. the Her- 

 barium ? — Yes ; I held the position of first assistant for 

 nine years. 



1200. So that your knowledge of the Herbarium ex- 

 tends over a considerable period? — ^Forty years, I may 

 say. 



1201. And therefore you are thoroughly cognisant of the 

 uses to which the Herbarium is put ? — ^I should be — yes. 



1202. I suppose we may divide those uses, roughly, into 

 external and internal ; I mean it is used by the establish- 

 ment itself in economic and other questions, and it is 

 also used in reference to the garden ? — Yes, one of the 

 principal functions of the Herbarium is to name and 

 verify the names of plants cultivated in the garden. 



1203. And it is also used by what we may call external 

 people for purposes of botanical research ? — ^Yes. 



1204. And used very largely ? — To a very great extent, 

 especially in the way of inquiries with regard to economic 

 plants and naming plants generally. We have daily 

 numerous specimens sent for determination. 



1205. So that there is continued and great activity in 

 the Herbarium ? — ^Yes. 



1206. Are you acquainted with the Herbarium at the 

 British Museum ? — ^Yes ; I frequently go there myself. 



1207. That differs in some respects from your her- 

 barium, does not it ? There are certain groups of plants 

 represented in that collection more adequately than in 

 your own? — They have the old collections at the British 

 Museum. 



1208. Do you mean the pre-Lixmean ?— No, I will not 

 say pre-Linnean especially. 



1209. The old collections incorporated in the general 

 herbarium? — ^Collections made on Cook's voyages, in ^J^- W. B. 

 the E^nksian herbarium, and others. ° Hemsley, 



P -D O 



1210. It frt^quently happens that persons engaged in " 



scientific research, pft<^r having been working for some 29 Nov. 19 



time in your herbarium, ul order to complete that research 



have to have recourse to the'i-'^^barium at the British 

 Museum ? — That is so ; we have to Uo '^ ourselves. 



1211. It has been represented to us ia vanoa- Quarters 

 that It would be for the benefit of t)otanical science if the 

 general herbarium of the British Museum and your own 

 herbarium at Kew were amalgamated together ; and it 

 has been propo.sed, on the one hand, that the amalgama- 

 tion should take pla6e at the British Museum by the 

 transference of your herbarium in general, or in part, to 

 the British Museum, and, on the other hand, that 'the 

 amalgamation should take place at Kew. Taking the 

 latter hypothesis, that the amalgamation takes place at 

 Kew, would you consider it an advantage, a complete ad- 

 vantage, an advantage accompanied by disadvantao-es, or 

 wholly a disadvantage, that the herbarium at the British 

 Museum should be amalgamated with your own, speakino- 

 in the interests of your own herbarium at Kew'— Speak^ 

 mg generally, I should say it would be an advantage to 

 amalgamate the collections. 



'1212 An advantage not only to botanical science in 



general -?— As a matter of fact in all our work we have 



to go to and fro between Kew and the British Museum. 



1213. So that it would be an advantage to the establish- 

 ment at Kew ?— It would, decidedly, because you see th^y 

 have the types of the early collections, especially the 

 Banksian. •' 



1214. Would there be any disadvantage to Kew con- 

 nected with the transference ?— I do not anticipate any. 

 I cannot te 1 what might be done, but I do not antici- 

 pate any disadvantages. . 



..i?i\ ^T r^ ^"y/^T.s as to how the amalgamation 

 could be effected, and which manner of amalgamation 



