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DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 



The Collections of the Botanical Department consist of two portions, 

 the one set apart for the use of persons engaged in the scientific 

 study of plants ; the other open to the public and consisting of speci- 

 mens suitable for exhibition, and intended to illustrate the various 

 groups of the Vegetable Kingdom, and the broad facts on which the 

 Natural System of the classification of plants is based. 



The portion devoted to the use of the scientific student consists 

 mainly of the great Herbarium. This is a collection of plants, 

 fastened on single sheets of folio paper, representing, as far as it has 

 been possible to obtain them, first, every species of plant living on the 

 earth, and then the distribution of each species on the surface of the 

 earth. The various species are collected under their respective 

 genera, and these are arranged in their Natural Orders, and the 

 whole are systematically classified, beginning with the most highly 

 organized (the JRanunculacece) , and going down to the lowest members 

 of the Vegetable Kingdom (the Fungi). 



The foundation of this great Herbarium was the collection of Sir 

 Joseph Banks, consisting of the plants obtained by himself and Dr. 

 Solander in their voyage round the world with Captain Cook, and of 

 numerous series from all quarters of the globe presented to him or 

 purchased by him. He bequeathed all his botanical collections to the 

 Trustees of the British Museum in 1820, reserving to Robert Brown, 

 in whose charge they had been for years, the use of them during his 

 lifetime. Mr. Brown transferred them to the Trustees of the. 

 Museum in 1837, and was appointed the first Keeper of the Depart- 

 ment. The yearly additions since 1827 have been so extensive that 

 the Banksian collections form now but a small proportion of the great 

 Herbarium. In a brief notice it is impossible to give a correct idea 

 of the richness of this Herbarium. Among the principal collections 

 contained in it may be mentioned those of Clayton, Roemer, Miller, 

 Brown, Bowie and Cunningham, Gardner, Nuttall, Horsfield, Konig, 

 Martin, Masson, Wilson, Harape, Seemann, Welwitsch, Salt, and 

 Miers. It includes also authentic specimens received from Loureiro, 

 Gronovius, Tournefort, .Jacquin, Aublet, Ruiz and Pavon, and 

 Perrottet. 



There is a separate Herbarium of British plants, based on the 

 collections formed by Sowerby in the preparation of his great work, 

 "English Botany." This is, perhaps, the largest and most in- 



