18 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



two, it will be a master-key to the illustrations in botanical litera- 

 ture of the last two centuries, which can only be consulted by our 

 having the knowledge of their existence and being able to turn to 

 the required plate without a wearisome and irritating loss of time. 



The large herbaria, pre-eminently those of Kew and the Natural 

 History Museum, have each a fine series of plates, arrangea by 

 natural families and genera. But these collections can only rarely 

 be met with ; they are costly to create and to keep supplied with 

 current publications ; they also demand much space — more space 

 than any private possessor of a botanical library is likely to be able 

 to spare. Even to these there are limits of accession : it is quite 

 practicable, as at Kew, to paste down on the same sheet the original 

 drawing, the proof, and the published print of each plant figured 

 in the Botanical Magazine, or where plates are to be obtained which 

 have a blank on the reverse ; but many excellent drawings occur 

 as text-figures with printing on the other side, ana that would 

 demand two copies to comply with the requirement now stated. 

 Indeed, 'his is the case at Kew, where, though the collection of plates 

 is a splendid one, it has been found requisite to keep a copy of 

 Pritzel's " Index " constantly posted up as far as possible. 



It is agreed therefore that a new and amended edition of the 

 "Index" is a great and pressing want. The next consideration is, 

 how can this want be met ? 



I need hardly remind the Fellows that the republication on a 

 modern basis of the work under discussion has been repeatedly raised 

 at the Annual Meetings and discussed at many Councils. It is no 

 secret that funds have been set aside to prepare a new edition, and, 

 with a view to making a start after the conclusion of hostilities, 

 the Council in November 1917 set up two Pritzel Committees — 

 (a) To advise on the amount of information which those for whose 

 benefit the revision will be mainly undertaken would wish the new 

 " Pritzel " to include ; and (b) to advise the amount of informa- 

 tion which those familiar with the preparation of works of this class 

 consider it may be possible to incorporate. In a Minute circulated 

 amongst the members of these two Committees the above objects 

 are compressed into (a) the maximum of information it is desirable 

 to incorporate, and (b) the minimum of information deemed essential. 



These Committees have met, and have shaped out a practicable 

 method, which may roughly be summarized thus : — 



All botanical plates are to be cited, and under the names employed 

 by those responsible for the plates, but no attempt can be made 

 to give the right name to a plant wrongly named, for; though 

 possible in a few instances, it could not be applied to all, hence 

 uncertainty would attach to the names cited ; but obvious errors 

 other than taxonomic should be put right. The pictures printed 

 in such horticultural journals as the Gardeners' Chronicle, the Garden, 

 and their foreign equivalents, are to be quoted. Some hybrids are 

 to be included, and possibly some generic cross-references ; also 



