140 



Appendix I : 



sLngton consists chiefly of manufactured articles arranged 

 according to their uses. At Kew the fibres used for textile 

 fabrics are arranged under the Natural Order to which 

 each belongs ; the European flax going into the case illus- 

 trating the Natural Order to which the flax plant belongs, 

 the New Zealand flax under another order, and the hemp 

 under a third ; but at South Kensington all the flaxes 

 would be brought together. At Kew little is ishown 

 beyond the raw product, and one or two manufactured 

 articles to attract public attention immediatelv to its 

 uses. South Kensington, on the other hand, affords a 

 complete illustration of the uses of Vegetables as applied 

 to Arts and Manufactures, arranged under their applica- 

 tions. 



45. The collection of numerous Vegetable Products in 

 the Food Museum at South Kensington is totally different 

 in object from the Kew Economic Museum, and cannot 

 be said to be intended for the promotion of Botanical 

 Science. 



Dr.^Hookei's ^°- Besides the Director, who has charge of the whole 

 Memoran- Establishment at Kew, the Staff consists of a Keeper of 

 ^l^'^PP"^"' the herbaria and library, twio Assistants, a Clerk, a 



Curator of the Museums, and two Attendants, whose pay 



altogether amounts to £1,792 a year. 



47. Three distinct methods of dealing with the two 

 Botanical Establishments now maintained at the expense 

 of the State — the one in the British Museum, and the 

 other in the Royal Gardens at Kew — have been put before 

 us by the witnesses who have given evidence. 

 Appendix^ 1. The first proposal is that of the Keeper of Botany 

 p. 40. " ' in the British Museum, Mr. Carruthers, who thinks that 

 Q. 7745 the best way would be to keep both collections at their 



full efficiency ; but that, if only one great , National 

 Herbarium is to exist, it should be lodged in the British 

 Museum, and that Mr. Bentham's collection should be 

 transferred to the British Museum, a second Herbarium 

 of a subordinate character, for use in the Garden and 

 Museum, being provided at Kew. Mr. Carruthers is of 

 opinion that aU Collections purchased by the Goremment, 

 or made at Government expense, should be sent to the 

 British Museum and worked out there, and that the Kew 

 Botanical Library should be transferred to the British 

 Museum. 



2. The second proposal is that of the Director of the 

 Eoyal Gardens at Kew, Dr. Hooker, who agrees with Mr. 

 Carruthers, that the Herbarium at the British Museum 

 and that at Kew should both be maintained in a state of 

 efficiency. 



But, in disagreement with the Keeper of Botany in the 

 British Museum, the Director of Kew Gardens recom- 

 mends that Kew should be the site of the principal 

 National Herbarium ; and that it should remain, as here- 

 tofore, the centre io which the collections made at the ex- 

 pense of the Government are sent, worked out, and pub- 

 lished. 



Dr. Hooker further recommends that the collection in 

 the British Museum should be of a subordinate character 

 to that at Kew, and should be arranged chiefly with a view 

 to Geographical Distribution and to the needs of Botanical 

 Palaeontology. 



Dr. Hooker does not suggest the transference of any of 

 the collections now in the British Museum to Kew ; on 

 the contrary, he proposes to recruit the British Museum 

 collection from that at Kew ; nor does he think it neces- 

 sary that any part of the Library of the British Museum 

 ehould be transferred to Kew. 



3. The third! proposal is that made by the Superin- 

 tendent of the Natural History Collections in the British 

 Museum, Professor Owen, to the effect that the Herbarium 

 at Kew should be altogether transferred to the British 

 Museum ; and that it should bo the duty of the Director 

 of the Royal Gardens to occupy himself exclusively with 

 Physiological and Horticultural Botany. 



48. As respects this last proposal, we have already 

 shown that-, in the opinion of Dr. Lindky, Mr. Bentham, 

 Mr. CaiTuthers (the Keeper of Botany in the British 

 Museum), and other eminent Botanists, the possession of 

 an extensive Herbarium is indispensable for the efficiency 

 of the Kew Establishment. In this opinion we concur, 

 and we cannot, therefore, recommend, as proposed by 

 Professor Owen, that the Kew Herbarium or any portion 

 of it should be transferred to the British Museum. 



49. With respect to the first and second propositions, 

 we have now not to consider what arrangement might be 

 theoretically best if the Botanical Establishments sup- 

 ported by the Government were to be organised dc novo ; 



but to recognise the fact that two such Establishments have 

 grown up, each of which is doing its own special work 

 efiiciently. We do not think it advisable to interfere with 

 existing arrangements, which are working satisfactorily, 

 for the mere sake of administrative symmetry-. 



50. The two proposals under discussion, much as they 

 diverge in some respects, agree in advocating the con- 

 tinued existence of two Herbaria, one at the British 

 Museum, and the other at Kew. All Botanists are of 

 opinion that Kew needs a Herbarium. Dr. Lindley, 

 whose opinion we have already quoted, and than whom 

 there could be no more competent judge, thirty-five years 

 ago urged the necessity of an '' extensive herbarium and a 

 considerable hbrary " for Kew ; and the Keeper of Botany 

 in the British Museum expressly speaks of "the great 

 waste of time which would be incurred in consulting a 

 herbarium at a distance." On the other hand, no one has Mr. 

 suggested that the British Museum should be deprived of p^''™*'.''"'''^'® 

 its Herbarium, and the Director of Kew Gardens, as we Appendix 

 have seen, proposes to increase that Herbarium. ^'^■' ^oi. i. 



51. The Keeper of Botanv in the British Museum has 

 made suggestions as to the best mode of uniting the two 

 Herbaria, if such a course should be deemed desirable ; 

 but he has abo stated reasons for the separate mainten- 

 ance of these two Herbaria, which appear to be so con- 

 clusive in favour of that course that we recapitulate them 

 here. 



_ 1. " The two herbaria already exist, and are to a con- Mr 

 siderable extent parallel collections." In other words, the Carruthers's 

 collections aa e to a considerable extent in duplicate, and, ippln^ix 

 so far, nothing could be gained by bringing them together 2V., vol.' i., 

 in one place. P- 45- 



2. " The two herbaria have been under different manage- 

 ment, and, to some extent, express different results of 

 the 'close study of plants.' The important bearing of 

 this consideration on Botanical Science in Britain can 

 scarcely be overrated.'' 



3. ''The objects of the herbaria are fundamentally dif- 

 ferent, and in as far as they fulfil their objects they are 

 employed for totally different purposes." 



4. " The practical difficulties in the administration of 

 two separate, and, to some extent, independent herbaria 

 would be numerous and serious ; and, in the course of 

 time, a condition of things similar to yhat at present exists 

 would result." 



5. "It is not an unimportant consideration that the con- 

 tinued separate existence of these two great herbaria is a 

 great security against their destruction by fire." 



6. " The expense of the two great herbaria is very small. 

 I am unacquainted with the amount granted for Kew 

 Herbarium, but it cannot greatly differ from that required 

 by the National Herbarium, ' which amounted for the 

 fanancial year lately completed to £1,767. I know of no Appendix 

 way m which the country can at once advance the interests ^^'J ^°'- ^ 

 of Science and encourage its students at a smaller cost " 

 and with more important results, than by maintaining 

 in their full efficiency the two Botanical Collections at 

 present existing." 



52,^ In this, as in other cases, we conceive that the State 

 may be asked to aid Science with those Apphances which 

 are out of the reach of private enterprise, and as such we- 

 regard the Herbaria at the British Museum and at Kew, 

 each of which, being supported by the State, is as much 

 entitled as the other to the name ;of a "National Collec- 

 tion." And the evidence which has been laid before us 

 leavesus no alternative but to recommend that these two 

 Botanical Collections, the maintenance of neither of which 

 involves any considerable cost, ehould not be merited into, 

 one, but that both be kept in a state of efficiency and 

 that the special scientific direction which each has spon- 

 taneously taken should be retained. 



53. As a matter of fact, the Botanical Department of 

 the British Museum, under its present able Keeper, has 



inclined in the direction of Botanical Palfeontology a 



direction rendered particularly convenient and appropriate 

 by the existence of a large and valuable collection of 

 Fossil Plants in the Museum ; no less, as a matter of fact, 

 under the late and present Directors of the Royal Gardens,' 

 has the Herbarium at Kew become the most complete 

 apparatus for the cultivation of Systematic Botany in 

 existence. It is the centre to which Botanists flock from 

 all parts of the world, and with which Botanists of all 

 parts of the world are kept in communication by a system 

 of Correspondence, of vast extent, which could only have 

 been organised by means of the exceptional physical 

 strength and mental capacity of successive Directors. 



p. 46. 



