130 



Appendix I 





J. D. Governonent should supply lecturers as well as supply 

 HOOKER, museums, which I am not prepared to go into." 



E3ll.,M-»- 1-1 



C.B., p.R.s. 6761. There is a very great objection to having valu- 

 {^^ able specimens taken out and handled and knocked about 

 and put back in the cases ; but might not such an object 

 be perfectly well seiTed by using duplicate specimens? 

 — " That is a question of detail, and I should think it 

 would be a very good arrangement to have a set of dupli- 

 cate specimens to be lent out for such purposes under 

 certain conditions and under eeitain guarantees." 

 * * * 



6768. ^'The principles which I have Jaid doiwn with 

 regard to the Botanical Department I think are clear to 

 the members of the Commission. I think all other 

 points, as to what parts of the present botanical collec- 

 tions should remain where they are, and what parts 

 should be re-organised, and what additions should be 

 made to the South Kensington Department, are ques- 

 tions of detail, which would be entered into by the 

 Director of the Museum, in conjunction with the present 

 Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British 

 Museum .and the Director of Kew." 



George Bentliam, Esq., f.e.s., Piresident of the Linnean 

 Society, examined. 

 G. 7204. There are at present two large national bota- 



BKNTHAM, jiical establishments, one in London and the other at 

 Esq., F.R.s. j^^^ j^ ^j^g maintenance of both those institutions 

 an advantage for scientific purposes ?— Not as rival 

 establishments for the same objects, but I think it very 

 important that there should be two botanical establish- 

 ments, one in London and the other at Kew, working 

 in harmony together, but for diflferent purposes. 



7205. The keeping up at the public expense of two 

 great rival national botanical establishments, the one 

 in London, the other at Kew, in a state of continual 

 competition, with, instead of aid to each other, whilst 

 a third independent one, also national, may occasion- 

 ally come into collision with one of them, seems to be a 

 waste of public money, without any advantage to 

 science or to the public, and attended with many in- 

 conveniences. 



At the same time two great botanical museums and 

 herbaria, the one in connection with the Natural His- 

 tory Museum in London, the other with the Botanical 

 Gardens at Kew, working in harmony with each other, 

 but for different purposes, and separated by a clear line 

 of demarcation from the economic museums of South 

 Kensington, would always be productive of great 

 benefit to science and gratification to the public. 



The main purposes of a botanical museum and her- 

 barium may be said to be threefold ; the study of 

 plants, their comparison, and their exhibition ; the 

 first purely scientific, the second sometimes scientific, 

 sometimes popular, the third chiefly popular. For the 

 first, Kew afi'ords incomparable advantages ; the second 

 and third would probably be best promoted in town, 

 provided always that the two establishments work in 

 perfect harmony, with the unity of plan, both in general 

 arrangements and in matters of detail. 



1. For the close study of plants— the only sound 

 foundation upon which the science of botany can be 

 usefully established — for their accurate determination 

 and practical classification, the requisites are : that 

 the herbarium should be as rich as possible, not only 

 as to the genera and species, but as to the variations 

 of all sorts and repetitions of the same form from 

 different localities and stations ; that the herbarium 

 should be a single one, the geographical arangement 

 being kept in subservience to the scientific classifica- 

 tion, and without any detached smaller herbaria, except 

 such definite histOTical ones as only require occasional 

 reference like the books of a library ; that there should 

 be good accommodation for the sorting of unnamed col- 

 lections and fresh arrivals, ample means for the dis- 

 section and examination of specimens, not only by the 

 staff of the establishment, but also by scientific 

 botanists in general, who, under special regulations, 

 are allowed to work in the herbarium, and store rooms 

 for duplicates required for exchanges, etc. ; that there 

 should be in the same suite of rooms as the herbarium 

 a botanical library, as complete as possible, and a 

 series of drawings of plants, also as complete as possi- 

 ble ; that the herbarium should be in close connection 

 with the National collection of living plants ; and that 

 it should 'he under the keepership of a resident scientific 

 botanist, with the requisite staff of scientific assistants. 

 All these essenitials are at present afforded by the her- 



J87]. 



barium at Kew, in a degree far beyond what can be met G. 

 with in any other establishment at home or abroad. Bentham, 



Esq., i.R.S,- 



2. The comparison of plants, tlieir practical and rapid 

 determination without dissection, or the obtaining a 

 general idea of natural groups from the order down 

 to the species, as required by the general naturalist, 

 by the follower of sciences in immediate connexion 

 with botany, especially the palaeontologist, or by the 

 mere amateur, demands a very different herbarium and 

 museum from that of the working establishment. It 

 should consist of accurately named select specimens, 

 representative of as many species or well marked 

 varieties as possible, without duplicates in the same 

 collection. It might be advantageously divided into 

 two separate collections, one a general typical one, the 

 other geographical. Separate collections also of leaves 

 and of fruits, all accurately named, and so arranged as 

 to enable them to be rapidly glanced over, would be 

 most useful to the palseontologist. Such a museum 

 would require no space for the sorting and determining 

 of unnamed collections, nor for the storing of duiDli- 

 cates, and no provision for the dissection of specimens, 

 except for the personal use of the keeper and his assis- 

 tants, being supplied only with such tables or other 

 appliances for consultation as are usually required in a 

 library. Its library should be extensive, but select 

 rather than complete, and should include various 

 palfBontological and other works on kindred sciences 

 not required in the working herbarium. It should be 

 in near connection with the National Museums for 

 kindred sciences, esj)ecially with other palseontological 

 collections. The keeper should be a scientific geologist 

 as well as botanist, and would probably require but 

 one scientific botanical assistant. 



3. The exhibition of plants, or rather of botanical 

 specimens, if for the purpose of exciting the interest 

 and gratifying the curiosity of the general public, and 

 for this herbarium, strictly so-called, is of no use, the 

 public would never look beyond the outside of the 

 cases. It requires the display in glass cases of such 

 selected specimens of plants or their parts, accom- 

 panied by explanatory notes and diagrams, as may 

 give at a cursory glance some idea of the characteristic 

 features of the principal groups of plants, and to these 

 might be usefiilly added a few specimens remarkable 

 onlj' for their beauty or singularity, for the purpose of 

 attracting the eye and riveting the attention of the 

 observers. As these specimens when once placed, re- 

 quire no further handling, and no care beyond the 

 inspection of an ordinary assistant, and as the objects 

 of visitors to su.ch a museum would be much promoted 

 by a ready connexion with the public museums in 

 other branches of Natural History, it would seem highly 

 advantageous that it should be attached to the her- 

 barium for comparison and form part of the London 

 botanical museum in close proximity to the National- 

 Museums of zoology and geology. 



We have now no museum in any degree adequate to 

 those two purposes of comparison and exhibition, but 

 were the two National collections of the British Museum 

 and Kew combined, all unnamed plants, duplicates, 

 and specimens of interest only to the scientific botanist, 

 removed to Kew, and in return, from the immense 

 mass of materials there accumulated, the London 

 herbaria completed by accurately named representative 

 specimens, there would 'result collections richer in 

 species, and far more useful than any actual continental 

 ones ; and as science advances and materials increase, 

 these collections would be constantly kept up to the 

 mark by named specimens from Kew, whilst their 

 scientific arrangement and application to use could not 

 be under a direction better qualified than that of the 

 recently appointed Keeper of the Botanical Depart- 

 ment of the British Museum. 



In this London botanical museum would be also' 

 appropriately placed various pre-Linnean and other 

 botanical collections, having only a historical or other 

 adventitious interest, but there would be little use in 

 attempting there anything corresponding with the 

 Museum of Economic Botany, which ha^ i.cquired so 

 much importance, and is so well placed at Kew. That 

 could only come into competition with the economic 

 collections at South Kensington, but all prejudicial 

 collision between the two is clearly avoided, and each 

 one will increase its own practical utility by striciljr 

 adhering to the rule, that at Kew the products aio 

 arranged according to the plants they are derived from ; 

 at South Kensington according to the uses they are-^ 

 put to. 



