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DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK 



Sir W. 1. 



Thiseltoyi 

 Dyer, 



K.C.M.G., 

 F.R.S. 



Nov: 1900. 



^ A relaxation of the general rule does not, however, 

 always lead to satisfactory results. On very earnest per- 

 suasion I lent to Mr. Arthur Lister, Berkeley's types of 

 Myxomycetes for the purpose of an important mono- 

 graph of the group, on the ground that he could not 

 satisfactorily study them except at home. What he 

 actually produced was not the expected monograph, but 

 what professed to be "a descriptive catalogue of the 

 species in the herbarium of the British Museum." 

 These were not, however, at the time the catalogue was 

 made, actually in the possession of that institution, but 

 were largely, as I understand, subsequently contributed 

 by Mr. Lister himself. A complete catalogue of the 

 specimens both at Kew and at Cromwell Road would 

 have been of value. But the catalogue only partially 

 enumerates the Kew material, while it credits the British 

 Museum with, what the writer added to it, including, as 

 I am informed, a series of preparations made from the 

 Kew types. On the whole, science has jjrobably gained 

 by the transaction, but the mode in which it was carried 

 out leaves a good deal to desire. And it cannot be said 

 that the promise of an ample monograph which was the 

 ground on which an altogether exceptional privilege was 

 extended to Mr. Lister has been fulfilled by the produc- 

 tion of the catalogue. 



The number of specialists who can be attached to 

 such an institution as Kew is necessarily limited. Their 

 services are nevertheless often required for the correct 

 •discrimination of special groups. To meet the difficulty 

 a small grant of £100 a year is at the disposal of the 

 Director. Undetermined collections, say, of Liverworts, 

 are sent on arrival to a specialist, usually abroad, who 

 gives them the necessary preparation, determines them, 

 and returns them in a state ready for intercalation in 

 the herbarium. 



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1. Bulky carpological and structural specimens and 

 woods generally are preserved and exposed to the public 

 in the museums ; those belonging to Dicotyledons and 

 Coniferse in Museum No. I. ; to Monocotyledons and 

 Cryptogams in Museum No. II. ; and timber specimens 

 of large size in Museum No. III. 



The arrangement is not wholly satisfactory, though 

 it works fairly well in practice. Many specimens of 

 technical value and importance are of insufficient general 

 interest for public examination. Space which might 

 be put to better account is therefore needlessly occupied. 

 It would be .desirable that such specimens should be 

 withdrawn from public exliibition and preserved in 

 presses with drawers at the herbarium. This has only 

 been done so far in the case of saxicolous lichens. Any 

 extension of the system is at present impossible for want 

 of space. 



2. The specimens are all poisoned with a solution 

 of corrosive sublimate in methylated spirit. This has 

 ansT/ered well for more than half a century. E-ecently, 

 however, in a few cases the sheets have been found to 

 be blackened by the reduction of the mercury salt. The 

 Principal of the Government Laboratory obligingly took 

 much trouble in looking into the matter, and the mischief 

 was apparently traced to some wood-pulp paper supplied 

 by the Stationery Office which was admitted to contain 

 free .sulphurous acid. The Stationery Office promised 

 to take special precautions to prevent this in future, and 

 it is hoped there will be no recurrence of the trouble. 



3. The specimens are all "glued" down. The ideal 

 arrangement for purposes of study is to have the 

 specimens loose so that they can be examined conve- 

 niently from either side. In many public herbaria and 

 in most private ones on the continent this is the method 

 adopted. Botanical specimens with adequate care may 

 apparently be preserved indefinitely. Kew possesses 

 some from Egyptian tombs which are believed to be 4,000 

 years old, and are still undeteriorated. _ On the other 

 hand, botanical specimens are mostly rather brittle and 

 liable to disintegration, and therefore to more or less 

 destruction from frequent handling. In a herbarium 

 in frequent use there is practically no choice but to pro- 

 tect the specimens by securely "glueing" them to sheets 

 of stout paper. They will then last practically indefi- 

 nitely. No other system is practicable in a, large public 

 herbarium which is in constant use. 



There is a further advantage. In no other way can 

 a large number of specimens be spreadout for co:n- 

 parison with so much convenience. There is some 

 reason for thinking that much of the imperfect sys- 



tematic work which is produced in foreign countries is 

 really due not to want of ability, but to the physiciil 

 difficulties of properly dealing with the material under 

 review. 



There is also another advantage in the Kew system 

 which, though a little painful to mention, cannot be 

 overlooked. Amongst the large body of persons who 

 engage in research at the herbarium' there is now and 

 again aii individual who cannot resist the temptation of 

 appropriating a portion of a type-specimen. Even glue- 

 ing down will not absolutely prevent this; but it i& 

 a great aid to the preservation of a type-specimen in 

 its integrity, and makes any wilful mutilation compara- 

 tively easy of detection. 



The final aim of herbarium administration is not 

 merely to preserve its contents, but to aid research. 

 Loose and detached fragments, such as flowers, fruits, 

 etc., are, when available, preserved in separate envelopes 

 ("capsules") on the sheets, and these, with the per- 

 mission of the keeper, may be used for investigation. 



The accompanying notice is placed inside every 

 cabinet. 



Visitors studying in the 

 Herbarium are requested 

 to observe that the remov- 

 al of specimens, or of any 

 portions of them, from the 

 sheets is absolutely prohib- 

 ited without the permission 

 of the Keeper. No flower, 

 fruit, or leaf is on any 

 account to be detached for 

 analysis without his ap- 

 proval. 



Memoranda and draw- 

 ings should not be made 

 upon the sheets but upon 

 separate slips of paper. 

 These after being authen- 

 ticated by the author's sig- 

 nature, may be pinned to 

 the sheets with the speci- 

 mens to which they refer. 

 W. T. Thiselton-Dyee, 



Director. 

 May 16th, 1890. 



Messieurs les etrangers 

 venant etudier dans I'Her- 

 bier sont pries de se rappeler 

 qu'il est absolument defen- 

 du de soustraire les speci- 

 mens ou aucune partie des 

 specimens des f euilles cpii les 

 contiennent. II n'est permis 

 sous aucun pretexte de de- 

 tacher les feuilles, les fruits 

 ou les fleurs pour les exami- 

 ner, sans le consentement 

 expres du Conservateur. 



Les notes et esquisses 

 qu'on aura occasion de faire 

 clevront toujours occuper 

 des cartons separes. Ces 

 cartons, revetus de la signa- 

 ture de I'auteur, pourront 

 etre attaches avec des epin- 

 gles aux feuilles contenant 

 les specimens, mais il est 

 clef endu d'ecrire quoi Ciue ce 

 soit ou de dessiner sur les 

 feuilles memes. 



W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 

 Directeur. 

 le 16 Mai, 1890. 



4. The principle pursued at Kew which differentiates- 

 its herbarium from any other, and has largely con- 

 tributed to the esteem which it enjoys, is to get every 

 specimen, which after comparison it appears desirable 

 to keep, into its approximate taxonomic place in the 

 herbarium. The determination is carried down in- 

 variably as far as the generic position. Further than 

 this, it frequently cannot be carried with the existing 

 available staff. The ideal arrangement would be to at 

 once, if new, name it and publish a description. This 

 no doubt is what contributors of important collections 

 would usually desire. But without a larger staff this 

 is impracticable. The whole object of a large herbarium 

 is to arrive at a recorded knowledge of the existing 

 vegetable kingdom. All that can be practically at- 

 tained under existing conditions is to present to a 

 monographer in an accessible form, approximately 

 worked up, all the material available at Kew for the 

 study of a particular group. 



The accumulation of unmounted material at Kew is 

 consequently always a minimum. Its amount neces- 

 sarily varies with the varying rate of influx of new col- 

 lections. But unmounted collections are ordinarily not 

 available till incorporated in the herbarium for 

 " botanic use." Under very special circumstances to 

 obtain the advantage of the . assistance of a mono- 

 grapher it may be worth while to sort out from un- 

 incorporated material specimens belonging to the group 

 at which he is working for his inspection and opinion. 



5. The specimens of fossil plants at Kew are few, 

 and are confined to a limited number, exhibited in the 

 Museums as illustrations of extinct types. They are, 

 therefore, intercalated in the series of recent specimens. 

 Kew possessed a few miscellaneous but inconsiderable 

 collecticris, accumulated mainly by Sir Joseph Hooker, 



