132 



Appendix I 



J. Ball, 



Esq., M.4. 

 V.R.S. 



1871. 



generally young men of zeal for science, and who are 

 anxious to distinguish themselYes (I Iiave seen it over and 

 over again in foreign museums) ; and their tendency is 

 to give as much time as they can to tlieir owii inquiries, 

 and to let, in a great measure, the mecihanical work of 

 keeping up the collection fall into arrear. At the present 

 moment, I happen to know that there are in the British 

 Museum collections of plants of very great interest, one 

 of which I had occasion to examine lately, but which 

 I believe had not been opened since the time of Sir Joseph 

 Banks. I believe lie was the last person whO' opened 

 the parcels which I saw within the last fontnlght.'' 



7218. With regard to such collections as those, I think 

 it desirable that they should' be transferred to Kew. 



7219. "I think that if the ISTationall collections were 

 under the immediate supervision of a competent ofEber, 

 feeling a direct sense of responsibility, that is the best 

 security that you can haive. I venture to doubt whether 

 the present mode of governing the museum is very 

 favourable to that." 



7220. It is decidedly desirable that there should be 

 a connexion 'between the Director of the estaJblishment 

 at Kew and the Keeper of the botanical collection in the 

 British Museum, " but I am not prepared to suggest the 

 precise nature of the connexion, or how it may best be 

 established. The two institutions may very easily serve 

 each other. It happens that the gentleman who is, I 

 believe, either a<;tually appointed ox about to be appointed 

 (for I am not quite aware of the fact) to the head of the 

 botanical department in the Britisih Museum, is an 

 eminent cultivator of fossil ibotany. There is no objec- 

 tion, that I can see, and no reason why that department 

 should not remain at the British Museum. Its essential 

 function is subservient to the geological collections rather 

 than to the study of recent plants. Anyone at the head' 

 of such an institution at Kew could! easily aid in various 

 ways that particular department of science which might 

 have its centre at the British Museum and vice versa." 



* * * 



7227. The general work of the ibotanical estaHishment 

 would be kept at Kew, I presume. "Kew, as a matter of 

 fact, is the place in Europe to which all cultivators of 

 botany who have important work on hand do resort. 

 Botany is not a science which has a very numerous body 

 of cultivators, but in proportion to the numbers Kew has 

 a large number of students from foreign countries, and 

 visitors who are most of them eminent men of science 

 wiho come there, and it is most desirable not only that 

 it should be maintained, but, if possible, made a still 

 more complete collection there. Perhaps, if I may recur 

 to what I said, in order that it should not be understood 

 that I am wishing to make any cliarge either against the 

 past or present management of the botanical collection 

 in the British Museum, I may say that it is a matter of 

 some very considerable difficulty to arrange and name 

 collections which arrive from distant and little known 

 countries, and that can be done with anything like ease 

 and correctness only where there is already a very large 

 mass of materials arranged. Any gentleman who has 

 cultivated any branch of natural history, and knows what 

 it is to get, we will say, 100, or 200, or 300 objects coming 

 from a distant andJ imperfectly known country, unless he 

 has at (hand coUectionsi of a very large description, 

 enabling him to see the place of those new objects in the 

 general series of natural productions, will feel what an 

 enormous diifficulty there is, and 'how miich time will 

 be wasted. I venture to say that the unnamed collections 

 in the British Museum could by the very same person 

 be named and classed, and placed in one quarter of the 

 time at Kew that they could be at the British Museum 

 itself, by the same person acting with the same motive 

 for zeal and efficiency." 



7228. All unnamed collections should be sent down to 

 Kew for that purpose. 



7229. There is an accumulation of objects) of that 

 kind in the British Museum. "I cannot venture to say 

 how large it is'. I know;, because I have had a recent 

 instance of one, that some very interesting collections 

 have, I will not say disappeared, but cannot now be found, 

 and they may very possibly be lying in cases there. 



7230. There would be no reason for removing the named 

 collection at the British Museium, but I should propose 

 to add to it and complete it as far as may be from the 

 collections at Kew. It would be very much enlarged, 

 and it would still require the services of, we will say, 

 two or three competent persons to keep it in order, and 

 to correct errors which may arise, and from which no 

 collections are exempt. Of course, I presume it would 

 not be possible to refuse collections specially given here- 



after to the British Museum, and, therefore, there should j. ball. 

 be a small staff there adequate to keep them in order. ^^<J' ^•''•^ 



7231. What I would suggest is with, reference to the — ' 

 unnamed collections sent home by travellers, who express ^^^^" 

 a special wish that they should be at the British Museum, 



I should recommend that, at all events, they should in 

 the ifirst instance go to Kew, and be dealt with there, 

 and then sent in accordance with the wishes of the donors 

 to the museum. That, I presume, would not be con- 

 sidered a departure from their special wish, but I should 

 decidedly prefer that those who did make gifts to the 

 nation should let them go to the central establishment 

 at Kew, as I believe most present travellers or officers 

 in the public service do. 



7232. I may perhaps say that I think it would be very- 

 easy to make the collections at Kew available, not merely 

 to complete the collections at the British Museum, but 

 also for other institutions in various parts of the empire. 

 I believe it would tend very much to' the progress of 

 science if collections, for instance, even of the ordinary 

 plants of our own islands, or of Europe, could be sent 

 out to the colouLal institutions, amd iit would tend to 

 increase the intercourse that there is between naturalists 

 at home and those in our colonies or distant settlements. 



Thomas Thomson, Esq., m.d., f.e.s. ; further examined. 



7239. I am to a certain extent acquainted with the ^ TnoMSoif 

 National botanical collections, both at Kew and in the Esq., m.Dt'' 

 British Museum, and very well with that at Kew. f-e.s, 



7240. "In one sense, and only in one sense, they may 

 be said to be competing, in so far as they would) both 

 purchase collections nowadays, but in no other sense 

 are they at all competing. There is a perfectly good 

 understanding between the two. The Kew collection has 

 only recently been a Government collection, it was for 

 a very long time the almost entirely private collection of 

 Sir William Hooker, and it was only on his death that 

 it assumed fairly the position of a Government co'llection,. 

 having been purchased from the owner." 



7241. I do not consider it desiraible that the two col- 

 lections should both be maintained. 



7242. "I speak without the same intimate knowledge- 

 of the British Museum collection that I have of the 

 Kew herbarium, that the one at Kew is at present the 

 more available for scientific research of the two, and I- 

 think that it is at least quite as accessible to soientific 

 men as the other. I am, therefore, strongly of opinion 

 that it would be most desirable that some at least of the- 

 British Museum collection, if the Natural History de- 

 partment is removed, should go to Kew, so far at least 

 as it would not be merely a collection of duplicates, and: 

 I think it would be very desirable so far as it is a diupli- 

 cate collection (and it would be so to a very large extent),, 

 to have a separate collection in London for reference ; 

 but for all scientific research I think Kew is quite as acces- 

 sible and quite as availalble, and more convenient for 

 botanical specimens than anywhere in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of London." 



7243. While making Kew the main botanical collec- 

 tion of the nation there would be advantages in also keep- 

 ing up a botanical collection to a certain extent in the 

 British Museum, "but not independently of the other. I 

 think wherever the head! authority is, whether the head 

 authority was at Kew or in London itself, the two should 

 be correlated, and should work in unison, and that one 

 of them should be the head establishment and the other 

 the branch. 



7244. The palfeontological depai-tment has never been 

 attended to at Kew, and I think it would be desirable 

 that that should remain with the Natural History de- 

 partment of the British Museum. 



7245. Kew never has concerned itself with palseonto- 

 logicai collections at all, and I do not think it would be 

 desirable to make any difference in that respect from 

 what is the present system." 



7246. Whether the palseontological collections, so far- 

 as botany is concerned, shouldl be with the other botanical 

 collections at the British Museum, rather than have it 

 in a separate department, "is a point upon which I am 

 not able to give any definite opinion. 



7247. I do not know that the Superintendent of the 

 botanical department of the British Museum should be 

 appointed by the Director of the Kew establishment, 

 but if Kew is considered as the head establishment he 

 should be subordinate to him, I think." 



7248. He should be under his direcMon certainly, T 



i 



