SUiMMAllV OF PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



119 



185S. 



Sir \v. apartments with the dried plants, add to the utility and 

 HooKEH. facility of working there. 



There is a very extensive library at Kew. It consists 

 of : 1. My own private libraiy, which I have been up- 

 wards of fifty years in forming, regardless of cost ; it is 

 a veiy extensive and complete botanical library, and is at 

 present available to the public. 2. The very valuable 

 public library, consisting of a donation of 1.200 volumes 

 of works of the greatest practical utility to botanists, by 

 Mr. Bentham ; of a legacy of 600 volumes, including 

 m;iny costly illustrated works by Dr. IJromfield ; ;uia, 

 lastly, of additions by purchase with £100 a year annually 

 granted by Government for that purpose. 



The specimens are of recent plants generally. We 

 have only a very few fossil plants in the Museum of 

 Economic Botany attached to the Botanical Gardens. 



There would .be no .particular inconvenience if the 

 Sloane collection were retained at the British Museum, 

 the other collections being removed, to Kew, but the value 

 of tiie transfer would be diminished. The fcjloanean col- 

 lection is chiefly of historic value, and that is very great. 



It is not likely that there would be any danger of in- 

 jury to the botanical collections in removing them from 

 the British Museum to Kew. 



The plants in the herbaria at Kew, for the most part, 

 are my own private property. My private collection is 

 perhaps from four to five times more extensive than the 

 public one. The building in which the herbaria are now 

 contained is the private property of the Queen ; I have 

 the use of it by special favour from Her Majesty, upon 

 the condition of my giving every facility for scientific 

 botanists (who are properly recommended as such) to work 

 in it and make proper use of it. On mj' taking office at 

 Kew there were no libraries or herbaria, and I was obliged 

 myself to keep these up, chiefly for the use of the estab- 

 lishment ; in consideration of this the Government allowed 

 me first house rent for the accommodation of the her- 

 barium, and latterly (on my being transferred to an 

 ofBcial residence) the building to which I have alluded was 

 assigned to its aocommodation. Mr. Bentham's her- 

 barium and library, and Dr. Bromfield's, were at a sub- 

 sequent period deposited in the same building." 



venience to have to go into town to consult that of the ur 

 British Museum." hookbr. 



John Joseph Bennett, Esq., was then sent for, and 

 examined. 



1858. 



Dr. 



Dr. Sodker examined. 



'• I can corroborate everything that Sir W. Hooker has 

 HooKKr. said. There are two circumstances which I think the 

 Trustees should bear in mind in dealing with the question 

 of the transference of the botanical collections from the 

 British aiuseum to Kew. 1. That it is in one sense im- 

 material to us at Kew what becomes of the British 

 Museum herbarium ; for a first-rate herbarium and library 

 must be maintained at Kew, and are indeed essential to 

 Kew for naming the plants in the garden and museums of 

 Economic Botany, and for giving to botanists and gar- 

 deners the information daily demanded of us. The gar- 

 den cannot exist as a scientific establishment without 

 these adjuncts. 2. That tlheir being indispensaible to 

 Kew, and in constant use for the garden purposes, is no 

 obstacle to their being consulted to any extent by other 

 botanists, nor does it at all interfere with the facility of 

 considtation. A herbarium and library of such value and 

 extent as that at Kew must be, though originally main- 

 tamed expressly for the use of the garden, cannot with 

 propriety be closed to scientific botanists. 



That portion of the library that belongs to Government 

 reqiures increasing, upon which increase we expend an 

 annual allowance of £100, but we do not increase it to 

 the extent we might, because we can avail ourselves of 

 Sir W. Hooker's library, and do not, therefore, feel justi- 

 fied in asking for a larger allowance." 



The separation of this herbarium from the British 

 Museum library will cause "no practical inconvenience, 

 as we are now circumstanced at Kew, for we have now 

 as I have stated, an excellent library there, and which 

 is quite sufficient for all the ordinarv purposes of 

 scientific botany." 



With regard to the comparative facilities for consult- 

 ing the herbaria at the British Museum and at Kew ; 

 "it IS generally admitted by botanists that it is not 

 practically more inconvenient to consult the collections 

 at Kevs- than at the British Museum, on account of the 

 easier access to the library at Kew, and on account of 

 the much greater extent of the named herbarium there, 

 though it takes a longer time to go to Kew : the time 

 thus occupied is far more than saved by the facilities of 

 consultation at Kew. The proof of this is that foreio-n 

 botanists coming to this country for the purpose "of 

 study invariably reside at Kew for the sake of beincr 

 near the herbarium there ; and find it to be an incon° 



3499. 



The Hermann Herbarium '■ forms part of the Bank- j j 

 sian. Part of Mr. Brown's collection made during Bknnbtt 

 Flinders's voyage has been laid in, in the general col- 

 lection ; a very large proportion of those plants which 

 were loose at Sir Joseph's death has also been laid in." 



Mr. Brown, with reference to the future destination 

 of the botanical collections, " expressed his strong desire 

 that they should remain at the Museum ; recently, 

 and to the very last." 



The Sloanean collection remained in this Museum for 

 the greater part of a century without a botanical 

 department, '• it has been a good deal consulted by Mr. 

 Brown and myself, but scarcely at all by anv other 

 botanist, unless his attention was called to it by us." 



Mr. Bennett then withdrew. 



Dr. Lindhy examined. 



With regard to transferring the botanical collections Dr 

 to Kew without the Banksian Library, " I consider that I-indmv. 

 the transfer would be of the greatest advantage. The 

 herbarium at Kew being made up of two of the greatest 

 herbaria m the world, must, necessarily, be cons Lilted 

 by botanists. It is very desirable, in many cases, that 

 the Banksian Herbarium should be consulted also • 

 you have, therefore, two centres to which a botanist 

 must go, one here, and the other at Kew. It is ex- 

 tremely inconvenient to come from Kew to the British 

 Museum, because the same materials are not found at 

 the Museum as at Kew. The great value of the Bank- 

 sian Herbarium IS, that it contains a large quantity of 

 authentic materials which require to be compared 

 with others not at the British Museum. Comparison 

 ot objects at distant points is difficult, and attended 

 with great loss of time. Were the collections together 

 comparison would be easy, and much time saved.'' 



It is extremely desirable that herbaria should be ir 

 establishments in connection with livino- plants "I 

 have been a working botanist for 40 years, and the 

 result of my experience is, that the power of consultin<^ 

 living plants, in connection with the dry ones of a 

 herbarium, can hardly be over-estimated. 



■f 11 ^°c-i"°^ ^^^"^ ^^^^'® would be much inconvenience" 

 It the Sloane collection were retained at the British 

 Museum, the other collections being removed to Kew 

 though there might be some. I understand the Sloane 

 collection to be principally valuable on account of the 

 West Indian plants it contains. In the case of a 

 botanist working on a West Indian Flora, it would be 

 inconvenient to him to be obliged to come from Kew to 

 the British Museum to study what he might find here in 

 the Sloanean collection ; but this is an exceptional case 

 It would be better, on the whole, that the collections 

 should be together. 



I agree with what has been said by Sir William and 

 J Hooker, that persons go to live at Kew to study 



and that there IS, therefore, no practical inconvenience 



telt by the collections being kept there." 



Sir W. Hooker, Dr. Hooker, and Dr. Lindley, having 



withdrawn, 



Professor Owen was called in and examined. 



He was "of opinion that the botanical collections %%fr 

 might be removed to Kew without anv material dis- 

 advantage to the other great natural history collections 

 now m the Museum. The only disadvantage would 

 arise trom the loss of certain specimens of recent botanv 

 that are required to illustrate fossil plants ; in specifv- 

 mg which disadvantage I speak merely as the superin- 

 tendent of the Natural History Collections, and not in 

 reference to the wider questions of the relations of a 

 national collection of botany in the British Museum 

 to the advancement of that science. 



• ^■s^.s'i "How far are you of opinion that the transfer- 

 ring the botanical collections to Kew without the Bank- 

 .sian Library would, or would not. prove of advantage 

 to science ?_Replied" Assuming that the botanical 

 collection at Kew fulfils at present, in a certain degree 

 the functions of a national collection of botanv the 

 advaiitage which it would derive from the addition to 

 It of the collection of botany now at the British 

 Museam, woiil^d be m the ratio of the species of plants 

 new to the Kew collection, and in the ratio of the 

 Q2 



