[ 111 ] 



COMMITTEE OX BOTANICAL ^YORK 



CARRIED OX AT THE 



NATUR^^L HISTORY MUSEUM, 



AXn AT THE 



ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 



APPENDIX No. 1. 



A SrMMAUT of previous Enquiries into the Management 

 of the Botanical Department of the Bbitish MrsEUii, 

 and of KJEW ; prepared for the Committee of Enquiry. 

 appointed ty the Lords Commissioners of Her 

 Majesty's Treasury, 1900. 



ORIGIN OF THE BRITISH ilCSEUM. 



The British Museum collections date from the death 

 of Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., "who died on 11th January, 

 1753, by his will leaving his collections to the nation, on 

 a payment of £20,000. Trhich was estimated to be about 

 one-fourth of the actual value of the collections them- 

 selves. The Act of Incorporation, 26th Geo. II., was 

 passed in 1753 ; it included in its scope the Cottonian 

 and Harleian manuscripts, to which the Royal Library 

 was added in 1'^?. These additional collections were as 

 follows : — 



Sir Robert Bruce Cotton's manuscripts, presented 

 to the nation by William III. in 1700 ; about bbl 

 volumes, some injured by fiie. 



2. The Harleian collection of 10.000 volumes of 

 manuscripts and 16,000 rolls and charters, formed 

 by Robert Harley of Hereford, afterwards Earl of 

 Oxford and Mortimer ; it was bought by the nation 

 in the same year as the Sloane collection. 



3. The Old Royal Library, whicli had been in 

 course of ^rowth from the time of Henry VII., made 

 over by George II. to the British Museum in the 

 year 1757. 



Montague House received these various collections in 

 1754-57, and on 15th January, 1759, ft was opened to the 

 public. The Departments then existing were : (1) 

 Manuscripts and Medals ; (2) Natural and Artificial 

 Productions ; and (3) Printed Books. In consequence of 

 this preponderance of literary material, the chief officer 

 was styled Principal Librarian, his subordinates in charge 

 of the three departments being termed Under- 

 Libraiians, and their immediate subordinates. Assistant- 

 Librarians. 



The botanical portion of the British Museum then con- 

 sisted of the Sloane herbaria, with the plants pasted into 

 folio volumes, frequently without any attempt at a 

 systematic arrangement, the only guide to the contents 

 of the said volumes being a large paper copy of RayV 

 Historia Plantarum, in which index entries had been made 

 by Sloane himself, the process of reference being to find 

 the name of the plant as given by Ray in his work, then 

 to ascertain the volume and folio of the dried plant itself. 

 Besides these volumes were fruits, woods, gums, and 

 similar vegetable productions. 



The collection under this head does not appear to have 

 increased much during the sixty years following the open- 

 ing of the British Museum, that is, during the lifetime of 

 George HI. and Sir Joseph Banks, who acted as the 

 monarch's scientific adviser, which his position as presi- 

 dent of the Royal Society amply warranted. The library 

 and herbarium of Banks became the centre of botanic 

 activity in the kingdom, under the skilful conduct of his 

 successive librarians, D.C. Solander, Jonas Dryander, and 

 Robert. Brown. 



Sir Joseph Banks, whose connection with the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew will be given on a subsequent page, died 

 on 19th June, 1820. He left an annuity to hLs librarian 

 Robert Brown, with a Ufe-interest in his library and 



collections, and the reversion of them to the nation, as 

 given in the evidence cited below, and on pages 114-117. 



In 1823 the May number of the "Edinburgh Review" 

 had a very severe article on the state of the natural 

 history contained in the British Museum, which 

 evidently made a deep impression on the public mind, 

 for it is to be found constantly quoted in the pro- 

 ceedings before the Select Committee of the House of 

 Commons in 1835-36. That part which bears on the 

 botanical portion of the collections was as follows: — 



"As a supplement to the devastation which has 

 taken place in the zoological collections of the 

 Maseum, we shall ofi'er a few remarks on the state 

 of Sloane's collection of vegetable nature. Of the 

 12,506 specimens of vegetable substances, includ- 

 ing woods, seeds, gums, resins, roots, etc., the con- 

 dition is not satisfactory ; for a small part of them 

 only can now be seen, and these in a very slovenly 

 state. This immense herbarium filled 334 volumes, 

 including what he himself had collected in the West 

 Indies, and the horti sicci of some distinguished 

 botanists. About fifty or sixty volumes only are 

 now visible, piled up on some lofty shelves in 

 one of the rooms, on a level with the library ; and 

 these are black with the dust of half a centuiy, 

 which has not only defiled their exterior, but has 

 penetrated into their inmost recesses : while the 

 leaves and the plants are equally the prey of 

 worms, undisturbed in their sacrilegious banquets. 

 Such a collection should have been j)reserved in 

 well closed cases ; and how long they may thus be 

 kept unimpaired, can be well understood by those- 

 who have witnessed the perfect preservation of the 

 herbarium of the celebrated Linnaeus, in the hands 

 of the distinguished botanist [Sir J. E. Smith] who 

 has enriched his country by the acquisition of this 

 treasure. ... In short, the whole Zoological 

 and Botanical Department of the Museum is dis- 

 graceful to the nation, and very discreditable tc 

 the Trustees, to whose charge it has been con- 

 signed." (p. 390). 



The author of this article was Dr. Thomas Stewart 

 TraUl, of Liverpool, on information supplied by WiUiam 

 Swainson, as eliown by the Swainson correspondence in_ 

 the possession of the Linnean SocieW. 



ENQUIRT INTO THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN 

 TECE BRITLSH ilUSEUM. 



In the Report of the Select Committee of the House of 

 Commons which was printed in 1835, is given the 

 evidence as to the state of the botanical collections in 

 the British Museum, from which the following is taken, 

 omitting matter now irrelevant by effluxion of time and 

 other reasons. 



Mr. Charles Konig, Under-Librarian of Natural 

 History, asked if any eminent naturalists were offici- 

 ally connected with the British Museum, replied that 

 they had 'Sir. BrowTi, " the greatest botanist in the 

 world." His position was quite independent of Mr. 

 Konig. inasmuch as he administered the department 

 of the Banksian collections, but the Trustees had quite 

 recently decided, to hand over to Sir. Brown the care of 

 the botanical department of the Museum. 



Mr. Robert Brown, in his evidence, stated that he was 



