THE BOTANICAL GALLERY. 235 



Tournefort. By the window are two fruit- 

 stalks of the sago palm, sagus farinacea (i), six 

 feet in height, covered with fruit. Here are 

 deposited also trunks of palm-trees and ferns, 

 with curious specimens of wood that could 

 not be conveniently placed elsewhere ; for 

 example, a section of an elm felled in 1784, 

 with the layer of 1709, almost destroyed by the 

 frost. 



The second part, or the study, is furnished 

 with glazed cabinets fdled with flowers and 

 fruit preserved in spirits, and a collection of 

 gnaphalia and xeranthema or everlastings, from 

 the Cape, contained in large glass jars. 



The galleries of botany are not open to the 

 public, and like those of comparative anatomy, 

 they offer little to interest spectators unac- 

 quainted with natural history ; herbariums in 

 cases, bits of wood covered with bark, or sec- 

 tions exhibiting the texture, and fruit, dried or 

 preserved in spirits, are objects little calculated to 

 strike the eye, though extremely useful for study : 

 but they are at all times accessible to amateurs 

 and to persons engaged in scientific researches, 

 or desirous of comparing their herbariums with 

 that of the Museum. The monographies and 



(1) One was sent from India a few years ago, and the other wa« 

 given by M. Fulchiron. 



