INTRODUCTION. IB 



greatest rarity. Among the most remarkable donations to the 

 department are a unique crystalline mass of Rubellite from Ava, 

 presented by the late Col. Guthrie, and a magnificent mass of 

 crystals of Proustite (light red silver ore) presented by Mr. H. 

 Ludlam, F.G.S., in 1877. 



The oldest collections in the Botanical Department are : the ^g^^i 

 Herbarium of Sir Hans Sloane, which contains — the plants col- collections, 

 lected by him in Jamaica, and figured and described in his Natural 

 History of that island; the plants collected in Japan by 

 Kaempfer; in Malabar and the Philippines by Cam ell; in Carolina 

 by Catesby ; the British collection of Adam Buddie ; and the 

 plants figured by Plukenet : a Herbarium of John Ray, pre- 

 sented, with the Herbaria of Rand and Nichols, by the Apothe- 

 caries' Company ; and the plants collected in Ceylon by Her- 

 mann, and described by him and subsequently by Linnaeus. 

 The general Herbarium consists of that of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 which includes the plants from Count Clifford's garden, re- 

 presenting the species described by Linnaeus in his " Hortus 

 Cliff ortianus " ; plants from Guiana collected by Aublet and 

 Martin ; the plants collected in the voyages of Capt. Cook ; 

 and authentic specimens from many of the botanists who lived 

 in the end of the last and the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury. These collections have been largely added to by the 

 purchase or presentation of the plants of Ruiz and Pavon, 

 Gardner, Bowie and Cunningham, R. Brown, Welwitsch and 

 others, and of the general Herbaria of Miers, Shuttleworth 

 and Auerswald, the Ferns of John Smith, the Mosses of 

 W. Wilson, the Mosses and Hepaticae of Hampe, and numerous 

 other collections from various parts of the world. The British 

 Herbarium contains the plants employed by Sowerby in the 

 preparation of his work, "English Botany/' the Herbarium of 

 Edward Forster, and other collections. 



In the present building the means are afforded of making pompara- 



,. , * . ° ° tive space. 



a display ot specimens on a scale adequate to the purposes of 

 comparison of species. The comparative exhibition floor-space 

 in superficial feet for these three departments in the old 

 building and the new, are : 



C 2 



