425 
private collections formed since 1840. In 1884, the Victorian 
Government acquired, by purchase, and added to it the Herbarium 
of Dr. Otto Wilhelm Sonder, of Hamburg, one of the authors of 
the F ani a Capensis who died in in 1881. 
The ourne Herbarium is of peculiar value from a scientific 
oint a view. It contains the authentic types of all the vast 
number of Australian and other plants described by Sir Ferdinand 
Mueller during a long period of incessant and pro olific labour. 
The value of the Australian collections is still further enhanced 
by their having been successively transmitted to Kew for the use 
of Mr. Bentham during the ee of the Flora Austr alenat 
grks In the preface to the last volume of that work, 
Mr. Bentham writes :—“ He [Sir Ferdinand Mueller] has regularly 
transmitted t me, arranged for each volume, the vast stock o 
to 
A atelah specim = ee d by Phe own exertions, as well as 
by the able collectors he has employed, and the numerous 
residents and other TARS whom he had inspired with a 
love for the science. The specimens, having been 
worked up, have been successively returned, and the numerous 
consignments have reached Melbourne without a single loss.” 
The Australian collections have thus a double “authenticity. 
Taken as a whole, it cannot be doubted that the Melbourne 
Herbarium, to use the words of its ipee joya founder, to 
whom it may be hoped it will ever remain an enduring 
monument, is * on a par with the very few really Erik herbaria 
in existence. 
White Willow.—A note on the Huntingdon or White Willow 
(Salix alba, L.) has already been published in the Kew Bulletin 
(1895, pp. 239-40). It was pointed out that the demand for the 
timber was so great that there was great difficulty in procuring 
suitable wood, MX for making cricket bats. The following 
additional informati ion on the subject is taken from the Timber 
News, s p rd. 1897 :— 
“ Tt oe wondered at that the best quality of willow 
über arabi for the manufactare of cricket bats has of late 
been selling at prices never dreamt of in the days of our fore- 
fathers. From 2s. 6d. to 5s. per cube foot has quite pix been 
en for *maiden' (unpollarded) willow timber, if of cient 
dimensions for the making of the best class of ba P is 
little wonder that such paying prices have ted owners of 
goodly-sized trees to have these placed on the market, as well as 
the owners of damp and not too valuable land to speculate in 
des. so rapid-growing and valuable a timber tree. Only this 
week fully 100 trees of * maiden' willow were to be disposed of 
by tender at Wickham Hall, in Essex, and it is pretty certain that 
iR cea api was unusually Zeon, and the money o ir com- 
pre 
bottoms of carts used in the conveyance of stones or brick, the 
wood having the valuable quality of tearing out rather than 
