SUMMAHV OK PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



117 



According to the resoluticm in question, it is intended 

 that tlie Botanical Department, in the event of its keeper- 

 ship becoiuii:g vacant, shall be materially reduced] in 

 number and appo-intments of its officers. The salary of 

 the future keeper is to be £350, for which he is to give 

 six days' service instead of four, -n-liich the present 

 keeper, having the same salary, gives. He is not to be 

 entitled to apartments, nor to any equivalent such as the 

 present keeper lias, and the uftice of assistant keeper is U> 

 be abolished ; consequently, the assistance he is to have 

 must be of a very inferior description, possibly no other 

 than that of an attendant. Beckoning, therefore, the 

 value of an officer's time as it has always been reckoned 

 in tihe Museum, and the moderate sum of £75, as an 

 equivalent for a house, which I proposed, and which the 

 Trustees appear to have admitted, the emoluments of the 

 future keeper will be £225 less than those of the present, 

 while the senior officer of the other two brandhes of 

 natural liistory, whether he have the charge of the 

 mineralogical or zoological collections, is for the same 

 amount of attendance to have a salaory of £600, with a 

 house that may be reckoned at £125, or rather more than 

 double ; and the junior officex, whose salary is £450, with 

 a house of the same value, somewhat less than double the 

 appointments of the keeper of the botanical branch, whose 

 condition no length or service can improve. It may be 

 assumed, ibowever, (that tiie trustees,, in establishing 

 these three branches of natural history, intended to pro- 

 vide equally for the proper arrangement and increase of 

 their respective coUeotions. To account for this degrada- 

 tion of botany it will hardly be alleged that, as a science, 

 it is inferior to either of the other two 'branches, or that 

 less minute and accurate investigation is required for its 

 advancement. It may, indeed, be allowed that it does 

 not admit of exhibition to the same extent or equally at- 

 tractive ki tlie greneral public, and that hitherto little or 

 none has been attempted in the British Museum. This, 

 however, is not entirely owing to the nature of botanical 

 collections, for fossil vegietable remains, which more 

 properly belong to the botanical than to the mineralo- 

 gical department, where they are now placed, along with 

 illustrative specimens of recent forms and structures, 

 would of themselves form no inconsiderable exhibition, in- 

 dependent of all the other materials of which I have 

 already given a general account to the Commissioners. 

 But, conceding the inferiority of botany in respect to a 

 public exliibition, I venture to state, that tlh-e niimber of 

 really scientific visitors to the botanical branch is nearly 

 equal to that of both the other branches, and that the 

 facility of access to, as well as the accommodation in 

 consulting it, at least, not inferior to either of them. As 

 a botanist, however, among naturahsts is not reckoned 

 inferior in education or intelligence, or in the importance 

 of his siibject, to the zoologist or mineralogist, so the 

 Trustees can hardly expect to secure abilities of the first 

 class for an office which they thus choose to reduce ; 

 neither can they expect that in future they should receive 

 valuable bequests to a department looked upon in so 

 inferior a light. There is certa-inly no scientific establish- 

 ment in Europe in which botany is considered inferior, 

 either in its importance as a subject, or in the appoint- 

 ments of its officers, to the other two departments of 

 natural history. I may cite in proof of this, that in the 

 Jardin des Plantes at Paris there are three professors of 

 botany, all of whom are members of the Academy of 

 Sciences in the Institute of France, and that two of the 

 assistant officers in dharge of the Herbarium are members 

 / of the same Academy, a quality of assistance not existing 

 in any of the otiier departments of that establishment. In 

 St. Petersburg the principal officer in charge of the 

 Herbarium is a member of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences, to which Academy the natural history collec- 

 tions belong. And ait Berlm the Herbarium has a com- 

 petent establisfliment of offifeers, and' is also distinct from 

 the Botanic Garden. For the light in which botany con- 

 tinues to be viewed by the trustees I can no otherwise 

 account than-tbat, for nearly half a century, that is, from 

 the death of Dr. Solander, in 1782. to 1827, it had been 

 almost entirely neglected in the British Museum. It may 

 also be said that the Sloane collections, bound in volumes, 

 in which the specimens were fixed and placed without 

 order, did not admit of any improved arrangement, and 

 could not, therefore, have gained much from the super- 

 intending care of an officer." 



In reply to questions, the witness stated that he was 

 one of the eight foreign members of the Academy of 

 Sciences (Paris) ; that in the paper he had just read, it 

 was his wish to deprecate any measures which in the 

 future would tend to degrade the status of the depart- 

 ment, believing that by the intended reduction its duties 



3499. 



could nut be adequately discharged, nor the proper 

 quaUtications of tlie keeper secured. 



The association of the botanical collection at the Jardin 

 dcs Plantes is in connection with a ijarden of living 

 plants, but that is due to the garden being in the town. 

 Asked if that did not give a great advantage to the collec- 

 tion of dried plants, and render it of greater interest 

 than if the two were separate, he said, " I am not of 

 opinion that it does so with respect to scientific consul- 

 tation. Consulting an herbarium, and visiting a garden 

 are two tilings so entirely different that they are seldom 

 thought of together." He continued, that '' a great many 

 persons at Paris consulted the herbarium without making 

 any reference to the living plants in the Jardin des 

 Plantes." The Berlin collection is not in connection Avith 

 the garden, which is at some distance from it, they being 

 perfectly distinct establishments ; the professors of 

 botany in the University are directors of the garden, but 

 the witness could not state how far they are connected 

 with the herbarium. Furthermore, he considered the 

 fossil plants were Tvrongly placed in the mineralogical col- 

 lection, and considered that they would be better placed 

 in the Botanical Department, in proximity to the recent 

 types ; that is so in Paris, where there is a large collec- 

 tion of fossil plants ; he was not sure whether that proxi- 

 mity could be ensured for the animal fossils, as he con- 

 sidered that outside his province. Fossil botany is almost 

 a new science, which has arisen since the decision of the 

 Trustees as to his department. Lectures on botany were 

 given at the Jardin des Plantes. but in Berlin they were 

 delivered in the University. 



A fine collection of palms exists at Berlin, and another 

 one at Potsdam, the private garden of the King in the 

 Pfauen Insel. 



With reference to his former evidence as to exhibition, 

 he stated that a room had now been assigned' to him, and 

 was in course of being fitted up. The rate of progress was 

 governed by questions of expense. Possibly the exhibition 

 might be opened to the public during the summer of 

 1849, but great additions must be made to it to make it a 

 satisfactory exhibition. 



He reiterated his former opinion that the removal of 

 the herbarium to any garden or establishment at a dis- 

 tance from London, thus removing it from the Museum, 

 where it was in close proximity to the library, would be 

 very detrimental to the science of botany ; it was re- 

 quisite not only to have the " . . . books expressly 

 botanical that you must have, but likewise all periodical 

 publications which profess to have natural history in any 

 degree. You must have the memoirs of academies. . . 

 and you must have voyages and travels ; you must in 

 fact have access to the general library." When he gave 

 up the custody of the Banksian Library, he retained very 



few books " chiefly those which had manuscript 



notes, but very few else, one of my objects being to pre- 

 serve together all the manuscripts that belonged to Sir 

 Joseph Banks, in conformity with my agreement with 

 the trustees." Several of the volumes are still retained 

 by him, 26 in all, bound in 149 volumes, and he believed 

 all of them to be duplicates. 



Mr. John Joseph Bennett, described as secretary of the 

 Linnean Society and assistant to Mr. Brown in the 

 Botanical Department of the Museum, was examined 

 almost entirely with regard to classed catalogues, and 

 Dryander's catalogue in particular. Nearly twenty 

 years before, it was proposed that he should prepare the 

 botanical portion of the general catalogue of the library, 

 but the work was not prosecuted. 



Mr. Antonio Panizzi, in the course of his evidence, 

 repeatedly referred to Dryander's catalogue of the Bank- 

 sian books and manuscripts, but no light was thereby 

 thrown on the subject before this Committee. 



Memorial deprecating breaking up the British Museum 

 Collections. 



In 1858 a memorial was addressed to Her Majesty's 

 Government deprecating any removal of the natural 

 history collections from the rest of the collections and the 

 library ; it was entitled : — 



" Memorial of the Promoters and Cultivators of 

 Science on the subject of the proposed severance 

 from the British Museum of its Natural History 

 collections, addressed to Her Majesty's Government. 



" The report of the Royal Commission appointed 

 to inquire into the best site for a National Gallery, 

 and recent discussions in Parliament having led to 

 the contemplation of breaking up the British 

 jiuseum, by severing from it the Natural History 

 collections, we, the undersigned, promoters and cul- 



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