66 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK : 



Sir W. T. 



Thisdton- 



B'yer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.E.S. 



29i>fov. 1900 



Among the visitors who worked at the botany of the 

 British Islands were : — ' 



Mr. Leslie Stephen. 



Mr. G. C. Druce. 



Mr. Arthur Bennett. 



Mr. E. A. £. B'atters. 



Mr. E. C. Horrell. 



Foreign botanists who used the herbarium for a con- 

 siderable time in 1899 : — 



Prof. W. G. Farlow, of Harvard University, spent some 

 weeks studying the Crj^togamic collections. 



Dr. E. A. Burt, Professor of Natural History, Middle- 

 burg College, New York, worked at the Thele- 

 phorecc. 



Captain J. Donnell Smith, of Baliimore : Flora of 

 Guatemala. 



Mr. Drake del Castillo, the owner of a_ large private 

 herbarium in Paris, studied the Madagascar col- 

 lections. 



Prof. M. Cornu, Director of the Jardin des Plantes, 

 Paris : Chinese plants. 



Mr. Eugene Poisson : Rubber-producing plants. 

 Mr. Godefroy-Lebojuf : Rubber-producing plants. 

 Count zu Solms-Laubach, Director of the Strassburg 



■Botanic Garden : General work. 

 Dr. A. Yoight, of Hamburg : Apocynacece. 



Dr. J. Briquet, Director of the Botanic Garden, Geneva : 

 Labiatce. 



Dr. G. Hochreutiner, of Geneva, spent six or seven 

 months studying the Malvacece. 



3'Ir. M. Micheli, a private gentleman of Geneva : Legu- 

 viinosce of Central America. 



Dr. Hugo de Vries, Director of the Botanical Laboratory 

 of the University of Amsterdam : General studies. 



Dr. J. E. Lange, of Copenhagen : Parasitic Fungi. 



^Dr. M. Foslie, Curator of the Botanical Department of 

 the Natural History Society of Trondhjem : 

 Marine Algce. 



. Mr. B. Fedtschenko and Mrs. Fedtschenko, of Moscow : 

 The plants of Russian Turkestan. 



By an arrangement with the Royal Geograpliical 



Society technical instruction is given to persons about to 

 engage in expeditions. 



C. — Mttsetjms. — These differ from the library and 

 herbarium in being open to public inspection. They 

 are closed during the morning hours, but are then 

 accessible on application to students and persons who 

 wish to examine the specimens in the cases. 



As already explained, the museums are partly an 

 adjunct to the herbarium, partly an independent economic 



. collection. The latter is in constant use in connection 

 ^vith the daily correspondence and the identification of 

 specimens sent by commercial enquirers and others. 



' There is probably no industry in the country which uses 

 vegetable materials which does not have recourse to 

 Kew at some time or other. A prolonged investigation 

 was undertaken on behalf of the War Office in connection 

 with the Lee-Metford rifle. An examjale of a commer- 

 ..cial application is enclosed : — 



W. T. Henley's Telegraph Woeks Co., LrE„> to 

 Royal Gardens, Kew. 



27, Martiji'i! L^ie, Cannon Street, 



London, E.C., 18th Sept., 1900. 

 Sir, — We enclose copy of an extract from the consular 

 report on the trade of Zanzibar for the year 1899 ; and' 

 the Foreign Ofiice has suggested that we should com- 

 municate with you with regard to the matter. We shall 

 be obliged if you will kindly inform us if you have re- 

 ceived any samples of the gum referred to, and if so, 

 whether you could supply us with a sample in order 

 that we may experiment with it with a view to ascertain- 

 ing if the material is likely tobe of any ccm.mercial value. 



Tours truly, 

 (Signed) G. Sutton, 



Managing Director. 



The Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 



Constant communication is kept up with the leading 

 brokers in the City : the technical information supplied , 

 l)y Kew is thus completed by commercial data. 



Surplus material and duplicates are systematically dis- 

 tributed to elementary schools throngnont the country 

 as available. From June 1, 1890, to June 1, 1900, 

 7,252 duplicate specimens have been distributed to 342 

 schools. The accompanying application will sufliciently 

 illustrate the nature of this braaich of work. 



City of Nottingham School Boaiifi. 

 Offices, Victoria Street, 



Nottingham, 4th July, 1900. 

 Ihe Director, Royal Gardens, Kew. 



Sir, — Inasmuch as we are informed that you have 

 presented to the Todmorden School Board the very 

 valuable set of botanical specimens detailed in the 

 enclosed list, my Board venture to ask whether you will 

 extend your kindness to us by granting us a similar 

 set for our Central Peripatetic Science Department, the 

 instructors of which would make use of them in their 

 visits to the various schools of the Board, Avhich has 

 about 40,000 children on its registers. 



I am, Sir, yours faithfully, 



W. J. Abel, 



Clerk. 



ToDMOEDEN School Board. 



List of specimens presented to the Board by the Director 



of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 29th May, 1900. 



1. Wood of Coesalpinia Sappan. Java. 



2. Veneer of Pear Wood (Fyriis communis). 



3. Wood of Fithecolobium pruinosum. New South 

 Wales. 



4. Crabwood (Carapa guianensis). Lagos. 



5. African Mahogany {Khaya senegalensis). Lagos. 



6. Cutch, from Acacia Catechu. Burma. 



7. Roots of long pepper {Piper longum). India. 



8. Fibrous bark of Bcehmeria macrophyUa. Used for 

 fishing nets. . N.W. Provinces and Oudh. 



9. Raffia, the cuticle of the leaves of Baphia vinifera. 

 iSierra Leone. ^ 



10. Sea Island Cotton. Grown in Natal. 



11. Bark from old branches of " Sal " {Shorea robusta). 

 Used for tanning. Central Provinces, India. 



12. Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria juncca). Berar, India. 



13. Bark of Adhatoda Vasica — employed in medicine, 

 Bengal. 



14. Roots of Bryonia dioica — known as Mandrake roots. 



15. Seeds of " Tengkawang toengkoel " (Shorea steno- 

 ptera), used as an oilseed. Borneo. 



16. Bark of Queensland Sassafras {Beilschmiedia ohtusi- 

 follu). Queensland. 



17. Job's Tears {Coix Lachryma-Jobi). Burma. 



18. Vegetable Ivory Nuts — Seeds of Fhytelephas macro- 

 carpa. Guayaquil. 



19. Fibre from Triumfetta rhomboidea. Saharunpore, 

 India. 



20. Fibre of Sida carpinifolia. India. 



21. Bark of Terminalia tomentosa. N.W. Provinces, 

 India. 



James Whitehead, 



Clerk. 



The course of instruction in economic botany to , gar- 

 deners in training, as already stated, is given in the 

 museums, and takes the form of practical demonstrations 

 on the specimens in the cases. 



D. — Laboratory. — This is only open for purposes of 

 research by properly qualified persons, as far as space 

 will allow. It has been occupied by a long series of 

 investigators, much of whose work has been communi- 

 oated to the Royal Society. [A list of published re- 

 ^ searches which have em'anated from the Laboratory 

 since 1876 has been handed in. This, however, does 

 not include work done in it by numerous persons, the 

 results of which have not been printed. In 1885 the 

 Laboratory was occupied by the advanced class from 

 the Science Schools at South Kensington under Prof. 

 Bower, and in 1886-7 under Dr. Scott. It has also 

 been used on several occasions .for the practical exami- 

 nation for the degree of science (in Botany) of the Uni- 

 versity of London.] It is also used for mycological 

 ii.; investigations arising out of the study of the diseases 

 'fi of cultivated^* plants referred to Kew for report either 



