December 17. l8< ^- 



THE 



G A RDENERS' MA GA ZINE. 



8 



17 



BOTANICAL MUSEUMS. 



N times gone by the very name ot a mu- 

 seum was sufficient to indicate to the 

 minds of children cr young people a dull, 

 mournful building, filled with mouldy and 

 musty specimens that had no attractions 

 for a 

 often 

 adult. 



the 



ing 

 in the 



Joseph Hooker, 

 with Grammes?. 



Mr. 



commencing 

 In each order 



sequence adopted in 

 George Bentham and 

 Ranunculacex, and finish- 

 the 



juvenile understanding, and very 

 but little meaniner to that of 



meaning to mat 01 an 

 No museum was thought to be 

 complete without its Egyptian mummy — 

 indeed, it was often the sole attraction. 

 Museums in those days were collections 

 of the most incongruous objects. All 

 branches of science were more or less 



geology, zoology, 



science 

 but often 



included, 



botany, ethnography, and other sciences 

 were hopelessly mixed up in a haphazard 

 kind of way. The more general charac- 

 ter, indeed, that a museum assumed the 



who 



more it was appreciated by those 

 found pleasure in visitine these 



old 



pleasure in visiting 

 curiosity shops." Museums devoted ex- 

 clusively to illustrating any one branch of 

 science were scarcely known, while at the 



It is difficult to believe that any of my readers are unacquainted with 

 the Kew Museums and their arrangement, but lest there should be any 

 it may perhaps be well to give a brief outline of such arrangement. The 

 natural orders follow each other in 

 the " Genera Plantarum " of the late 



with 



genera are arranged 

 same sequence, and all the products, be they food products, 

 drugs, fibres, oils, or what not, are placed in the genus or species to which 

 the plant refers. Thus in Papaveracea? we are shown the poppy heads, 

 or fruits of Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, scarified to show the 

 exudation of opium, with the actual instruments used for incising the 

 fruits, and all the vessels and paraphernalia used in India in the pre- 

 paration of opium for the market, and finally the prepared opium itself; 

 a series of alkaloids, for which opium is valuable in medicine as well as an 

 opium smoker's complete equipment ; and further, samples of the seeds 

 which, under the name of "maw" seeds, are given to cage birds. These 

 seeds abound in a sweet oil which is expressed and used for mixing with 

 olive oil for table use. From such a series as this we gain the infor- 

 mation that the white poppy yields opium from its fruits, that it flows in 

 a milky form from slits made in the fruits, that it becomes semi-solid and 

 black by a system of manipulation, that it is smoked in or on peculiarly 

 constructed pipes, that it yields a number of valuable alkaloids, as mor- 

 phine, codeine, &c, and further, that though the juice is a powerful 

 narcotic, the oil contained in the seeds is perfectly harmless and sweet, 

 and is used as a table oil. This is just one illustration of the information 

 sought to be conveyed by such a museum as that at Kew, and, every- 

 thing being fully and [descriptively labelled, it is not difficult to under- 



ii • 1 1 it 1 * • 1 • f 1 • /•» « 



present day we find them being established not only in our large public 

 schools, but in almost every elementary school, and botany is by no 



means left behind in this respect. On the contrary, botanical museums may stand, but space will not allow us to multiply instances of classification, 

 be, and are, of different characters at the present time, such, for instance, A description of a few of the most interesting objects will perhaps 

 asthose attached to the Universities, which contain valuable stores of care- be of more particular interest, and none more so, probably, than the 



GENERAL MUSEUM, KEW. 



^y P re pared specimens to illustrate the scientific teaching of the study of 



collection of wreaths and chaplets from the tombs at Thebes, where at 

 ' ' ' 00 to 1200 H.c. they were used to adorn the mummies 



KiZl a V he d ^ ent par V f f C rSf* fmitS ' 1CaVeS ' SSf we re' i"ca°refSy placed in the, r enduring receptacles that they 



El* ™ e str "cture of the stems. On the other hand, there are museums, which were so careiuny F frcsh as whcn th 



ch as those at Kew, which give special attention to the products of the 

 ^etable kingdom, as furnishing material for supplying articles of food 

 u medicine, and manufactures, as clothing, building, and such like. 

 bv?h a museum of this nature can be made popularly attractive is proved 

 th p ^ reat num ber of visitors who frequent the well-known museums in 

 J^KoyaJ Gardens, Kew, and also from the use that is made of them by 

 . ^eraal firms in London and the lar^e business centres of England 



?[) e \- w Museums stand in the honourable position of being the first of 

 kind ever established, and their origin is due to Sir William Hooker, 

 .nrst director of the Royal Gardens, who gave his own private collec- 



j- 0 a s a nucleus upon which to start, the success of which has been 

 . Rreat that it is only repeating a well-known fact to say that the col- 

 ons contained in the three museum buildings at Kew are far and 

 2 y ^e finest and most complete in the world. Moreover, they have 

 n taken a, a pattern for establishing similar museums in many of our 



!n C t aS Wel1 as in forei g n States. 

 *e oK* formation of a botanical museum there are two ways in which 

 Class fi CtS may be arranged, namely, by a botanical or a commercial 

 jj^ncation, that is, by the systenradopted at Kew, where the objects are 

 ttJJjSed scientifically,^ xording to the nature of the plants producing 

 jjj^ 0r > on the other hand, by a commercial arrangement, where food 

 to tt L Cts ' such as fruits, would be kept together, starches and meals 

 Jr ner » drugs, oils, perfumes, &c. It stands to reason that the first 

 ^gement, namely, the botanical classification, is more suited to 

 *co m UmS situated in a botanic garden, such as those at Kew, while in 

 *tvl mcraal centre the second form of arrangement would undoubtedly 



ine most useful. 



were Ss^KSre, and so perfect in form that it has been quite possible 

 tn determine the species of plants that were so used. < >t these may be 

 noted the fol owing Nym P h«a earulea, the colour of wh.ch was dut- 

 ^UmSSSb discovered, but which has since turned brown by 

 exposure to light and air ; some very beautiful wreaths are composed of 

 fhffl !« ( ■this witci lily and leaves of M.musops Schimpen strung 

 or tSed on s trips " date palm leave, This wreath was found in the 

 ; S 7 K ™ ' 11 .of the date 1 100-1200 B.C. Another wreath of a 

 fike STte* eompo a of the leaves of Salix safsaf and the flowers of 



like aaie is > UU, F„ t „ m- n r n,^, rwrfert of th 



Acacia nilotica. 



\^^\* «;i rtf ira Perhaps some of the most perfect of the single flowers 

 . fiSm ™v of hese wreaths are those of Narcissus Tazetta, Chrysan- 



and Centaurea depressun. Turning from these 



themum coronanum, »™ — Ve find in another part of the museum, 

 mtercstrng relics "^Xbly fme specimen of the New Zealand sheep 

 ntot S T tufted 'plant of the Comport, growing often in huge masses 



K'as large as an ordinary sheep, and having a shaggy appearance very 

 quite as large a* ^ ^ sa|< j lQ ^ often 



similar to the «oo^ of a of the J cn W orc particularly at 



deceived The New /ea , and * heep plants belong to 



distances on the mounu ^ ^ 



RSaSft^* 1 The only use tV which the plants are 



^.^ ^^isby ladies for mak.n, ' — — 



Po-on with silk or other abnc 



small 



Continuing our wanderings 



prod 



cashew nut. nistachio nut. and 



an order 



crnici 



