CONIFERS OF LINDLEY HERBARIUM, CAMBRIDGE. 63 



THE CONIFERS OF THE LINDLEY HERBARIUM ; BOTANY 

 SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE. 



By R. A. Dummer, F.R.H.S. 



Professor A. C. Seward having deputed me to name and rearrange 

 the Conifers preserved in the Herbarium of the Botany School, 

 Cambridge, it occurred to me that a list of those contained in the 

 Lindley Collection would not be without interest in view of the study 

 Dr. Lindley devoted to this group of plants. 



Shortly after his death his Herbarium was offered to Kew ; but 

 for various reasons it was refused and Kew contented itself with 

 his unique collection of Orchids, in the study of which Lindley 

 particularly excelled and distinguished himself. 



In 1866 Cambridge purchased the remainder of his collections, 

 which are computed to consist of 58,000 sheets, truly a striking testi- 

 mony to the zeal of the man ; but the incorporation of the sheets into 

 the general collection was not begun until 1901 ; shortly afterwards 

 the work was dropped, and it was not till January 1905 that it was 

 recommenced, and it has proceeded systematically up to the present 

 time, though there still remain many cabinets awaiting attention. 

 The general collection is in an excellent state of preservation and the 

 specimens are mounted on exceedingly thick, greyish, prominently 

 ribbed sheets, 18 X 11 inches in size. The genera covers slightly 

 exceed the contained sheets in size, are greyish-brown in colour, and 

 of a firmer texture than those universally employed now. 



As the collection is arranged according to Bentham and Hooker's 

 Genera Plantarum the genera covers are accompanied by small white 

 labels indicating the genus and the volume and page of the cited 

 work. Small oblong white labels, reading " Cambridge Bot. Mus. 

 Herb., J. Lindley, Ph.D., purchased in 1866," are pasted in the upper 

 left-hand corner of the sheets bearing the specimens. 



Lindley' s intimacy with the leading botanists of the day, such 

 as Hooker, Bentham, Gordon, Endlicher and others, as well as 

 travellers such as Wallich, Royle, Hartweg, Douglas, and Gould 

 Veitch, and his secretaryship of the Royal Horticultural Society and 

 editorship of the Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette* all 

 conspired to the formation of his huge collection, and particularly 

 to the accumulation of a fine set of Conifers. These total 378 sheets 

 and are included in 52 genera covers, and the presence of " types " 

 considerably enhances their value. Like everyone else, Lindley was 

 not infallible, and scattered throughout the collection are wrong 



* Cf. Gardeners' Chronicle and Agric. Gazette (1865), pp. 1058-59; 1082-83. 



