SUMMARY <)1- PREVIOUS ENQUIRIES. 



121 



■f^woHEK '^'^ •'•limate, temperature, elevation above the sea, and 

 _ other physical conditions under ivhich they occur in 

 1868. nature, it is impractieahlc to embrace the wiiole ransjc 

 of vegeta.ble forms in the living state, in any one botanical 

 garden. The united contejits of all the botanical irardcns 

 in the world will, in all probability, never ])e able to 

 accomplish this. A botanical garden, therefore, on the 

 most liberal scale of maintenance, as a national institu- 

 tion, and under the ablest management, can never be 

 more than a repository- of selected examples of living 

 plants in cultivation. It may be surjias&ingly rich in 

 examples, like the matchless national institution at Kew, 

 but in the nature of things it can never include all exist- 

 ing forms of vegetables. A herbarium, on the other 

 hand, supplements the objects that cannot be attained 

 by a botanical garden. Plants, as objects of systematic 

 arrangement, are distinguished by means of their flowers, 

 fruit, and seeds, in conjunction with their leaves. A 

 single dried branch presenting these organs carefully 

 preserved, or a series of branches in collocation, present- 

 ing them in different states of groT\-th, are in most cases 

 sufficient for the purposes of identification and arrange- 

 ment. A herbarium is a compendium of a species of 

 plants in this state : and it may fulfil the conditions that 

 are impossible in a botanical garden, namely, it may 

 contain an example, in a determinaWe state, of all 

 inown or described vegetaible forms, arranged irrespec- 

 tive of media, climate, or physical conditions, but solely 

 according to the relation of affinity in which they stand 

 in nature ; the attainment of this object being the 

 highest aim of the science of botany. This measure of 

 completeness has nowhere as yet been arrived at ; but 

 every possessor of a good herbarium strives to attain it, 

 in some one department or other ; and, already, numerous 

 herbaria in the possession of private parties are known 

 to contain a much greater number of species than have 

 ever been grown at one time in any botanical garden in 

 the world. A herbarium, therefore, with the adjunct 

 of an extensive library, whioh is indispensable to it, may 

 be complete, and eminently useful, practically, although 

 wholly separated from a botanical garden. But the con- 

 rerse cannot be afiirmed ; it is impossible to conceive a 

 botanical garden, as a scientific institution, without the 

 adjuncts of a first-class herbarium and library. I may 

 illustrate this view by a parallel example ; an arranged 

 and named collection of shells or of corals 'bears the 

 same kind of relation, as a part of the animal kingdom, 

 to an aquavivariiim, that a hei'barium, as a whole, does 

 to a botanical garden. Yast collections of shells have 

 been formed, scientifically described, arranged and main- 

 tained as practically useful means of reference, without 

 any connection with a mo'lltiscous vivarium. From the 

 nature of things an aquavivarium, to comprehend living 

 forms on the scale of a botanic garden, is practically un- 

 attainable. But the general ends of scientific arrange- 

 ment are accomplished withotit it ; and so is the arrange- 

 ment of plants in a herbarium considered apart from a 

 'botanical garden. In actual practice the contents of the 

 lierbarium are more in request, and more frequently con- 

 sulted, in researches on systematic 'botany, than the 

 living plants cultivated in a botanic garden. The latter, 

 in most cases, serve more as exponents of the results 

 which have been attained in classification than a means 

 of attaining them. The natural order of the Compositce 

 lias been estimated to comprise upwards of 9,500 species, 

 or one tenth of known plants. Probably no botanical 

 garden in existence contains a tenth part of the species. 

 For the identification or comparison of a collection of this 

 family brought from a previously unexplored locality, a 

 botanist would refer to the contents of a herbarium, 

 and not the living plants in a botanical garden. Many 

 instances of the same kind could be cited of other 

 families. Certain genera among the Dicotyledones are 

 described in systematic works as containing 600 or 700 

 species, and of these genera not more than 50 species, 

 at the utmost, will be fotmd cultivated in any botanic 

 garden ; examples of the rest can only be seen in 

 henbaria. - In all such cases it is to the contents of a 

 herbarium, in conjunction with a good library, that the 

 botanist looks for what he wants. 



I have no exact knowledge of the extent to which the 

 herbarium in the British Museum, in connection with 

 the Baaksian Library, has been used by practical 

 botanists; but I consider 'that access to a collection, in 

 the centre of London, containing upwards of 30,000 

 species of plants, arranged by or under the superin- 

 tendence of so eminent a botanist as the late Mr. Robert 

 Brown, and connected with a library like the Banksian, 

 was highly calculated to be useful and important to 

 practical botanists, and to promote the advancement of 

 systematic botany. Where a doubt or difficulty occuiTed, 

 they had the means, in very many case?, of solving it 



close at hand. One circumstance that may have contri- d^ -g^ 

 l)uted to diminish the resort is, that the Britisli Museum FaliIiner. 

 Henbariuml is reputed to be coaisiderably less rich — 



numerically in species than even certain private collec- 

 tions ; and a person will not go to a public collection 

 for information respecting a point on which he has more 

 materials at home, or can more conveniently consult else- 

 where. But the privilege of ready access to so many 

 authentic specimens of old or celebrated collections was 

 and is an important advantage to those interested in 

 botanical pursuits." 



In addition to a botanical establishment at Kew, "I 

 believe that a separate public herbarium and library in 

 the centre of London, and easily accessible, are so use- 

 ful and necessarj-, that it would be in the highest degree 

 inexpedient to do away with them, whatever might be 

 the excellence and richness of the collection at Kew. 

 I would be for having a good public Qierbarium at both 

 places. For strangers, Kew may be the most convenient, 

 and that most resorted to ; but for people living in 

 London, and having business engagements, it is incon- 

 veniently distant. 



The inconvenience of dust and soot applies to speci- 

 mens of every description kept in the middle of London. 

 It IS certainly a great nuisance, but I do not regard it 

 as mcompatible with tihe preservation of a herbarium in 

 a fit condition for scientific consultation." 



I am acquainted with some old collections of the earlier 

 botanists contained in the Banksian Herbarium which 

 are still in a condition for advantageous consultation." I 

 have referred to one of Ksempfer's specimens, upwards 

 of 170 years old, now preserved in the Banksian Collec- 

 tion, and I have been able to use it with advantage as 

 a standard of comparison, no other being available else- 

 where. {See Transactions of the Linnean Society, vol. 

 XX. p. 285.)" 



As an example within my own knowledge of the ad- 

 vantages accruing to the science of fossil botany, by a 

 ready access to the collection of the British Museum and 

 to their late keeper; "Dr. Buckland, in his memoir on 

 the stems of Cycadcoidecc from the Portland Oolite, 

 which was at the time considered, both at home and 

 abroad, to be an important step in vegetable palaeonto- 

 logy, was materially aided in the identification by the 

 counsel and suggestions of the late keeper of the botanical 

 collections in the British Museum, and was indebted to 

 him for the recent stems which he used and figured for 

 comparison." 



A collection of woods such as exists in the British 

 Museum is important for the illustration of the numerous 

 fossil plants in the Museum. "There certainly ought to 

 be, under the same roof, collections of the recent struc- 

 tures to illustrate and compare with the fossil forms." 



I agree generally with the opinions expressed by Mr. 

 Bentham ; but 'I do not agree with that part which 

 would sever the Banksian Herbarium from the British 

 Museum collection and transfer it to Kew. I am of 

 opinion there ought to be a collection of standard and 

 authentic specimens, that is to say herbarium specimens, 

 in the British Museum." 



The juxtaposition of a herbaritmi in connection with 

 living plants is of advantage with reference to the study 

 of ttructual and physiological botany. " I cannot con- 

 ceive a botanic garden being used for scientific objects 

 without a herbarium and library." 



Mr. Bentham, Professor Henfrey, and Dr. H. Fal- 

 coner then withdrew. 



Lettees from Sir Charles Lyell and C. Darwin, Esqrs., 

 to Sir B. I. 2£urchison, were read, and ordered to be 

 printed, together with the Evidence taken at the last 

 meeting of this Sub-Committee, as well as at the present 

 meeting. 



Sir Charles Lyell to Sir It. I. MurcMson. 



53, Harley-street, London, 21st June, 1858. 



My dear Murchison, — 



I heard with the greatest concern of the proposal of 

 removing any part of the botanical collection from the 

 British Museum to Kew. I have been hoping for years 

 to see that collection enlarged, and part of it, e.g., the 

 woods and fruits, opened freely to the public, and the 

 rest, the herbarium, made accessible to scientific men. 



Such treasures might not last so long in the dus-t and 

 smoke of London as in the country, but if they were ten 

 times or a hund'red times more consulted when here, then 

 London is the place where they ought to be stationed. 



When the late S'ir William Symonds began a collection 

 of the woods used in shipbuilding, and of the fruits of 



