490 A walk through the Nat. History Museum at Florence. [May, | 
dedication in his own handwriting, to his patron, Bishop Tour- 
nabuoni, was made in Pisa in 1563. This herbarium has been 
bound in three thick folio volumes, and contains 767 speci- 
mens of plants. One of them, however, proves to be a zoophyte 
(Sertularia). No attempt at classification appears therein. Greek 
and Latin names are appended to many of the specimens, which 
are generally weil preserved, though a few have disappeared — 
_ This herbarium has been ably described and catalogued by Pro 
fessor Theodore Caruel, the learned, director of the botanical — 
department, in his work entitled, “ Theodori Caruelii, Ilustratio 
in Hortum Siccum Andree Caesalpini. Florentiae, MDCCCLVII” 
His dedication of this volume to his father’s memory breathes s0 
grateful a sense of filial regard, and is withal so beautiful, that 
we cannot refrain from presenting it to the reader. May it influ- 
ence other parents to encourage their sons to pursue the noble 
paths of natural science, and thereby save many a youth from the 
snares that beset adolescense: ‘Tuo nomini tuaque memoné 
Constans Theodore Caruel, parens optime venerande cujus poti- 
simum consensu et ope naturalium disciplinarum studia ab 1p% 
adolescentia excolui, primum huncce laborum meorum fructum 
pio gratoque animo volens libens inscribo.” 
In the cabinet which contains the precious herbarium above 
referred to, stand also upwards of sixty large folio volumes ee 
in parchment, a mode much in favor in Italy. These are 
manuscripts, &c., of Micheli, many of which have not been edi 
To this botanist we owe the discovery that Fungi are truly vege 
table organizations, and several colored drawings of these ae 
may be seen in his herbarium. As he lived during the first 
ing agit 
leaves (Salix salsaf) by means of thread of the date-leaf, the whole a pe 
land. ‘The dried fruit and yellow blossoms of Acacia nilotica We 
with stem, blossom and seed-pods complete. Upon another F a 
; i archipehg® | 
(Parmelia furfuracea), a plant indigenous to the islands of the cir 
and which must have been brought to Egypt B. C. 1100 or B. C. 1 
by the native druggists at this day 
j useum, 
These frail relics of the past have been arranged for the Boolak M 
and fill eleven cases—an unique collection. The hues of these rae 
are said to be as brilliant as those of their modern illustrators, aP 4 disting? 4 
the tables show them to be 3000 years apart, no ordinary nen 
between those buried with the Pharaohs and those gathered an 
seasons since. 
