BOTANICAL GALLEEY. 
95 
be found in one of the cases. It is also shown that meteorites 
are closely related, not only to shooting stars, but also to 
comets, and probably to nebulas and fixed stars. 
Second Floor. 
The upper floor of the East wins is devoted to the Depart- Botanical 
^ Gallery, 
ment oi Botany. 
The Collections of this Department consist of two portions, 
the one open to the public and consisting of specimens suit- 
able for exhibition, and mainly 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 other set apart for the use of persons engaged in the 
scientific study of plants. 
On the landing outside the gallery is a series of tree-sections 
representing some common British-grown trees, with sections 
and bark of the Cork- Oak (Quercus siober), and large sections of 
the White Fir and Douglas Pine from British Columbia. The 
Douglas Pine was cut down in 1885 when 533 years old ; its 
age is indicated by the annual rings seen in transverse section 
of the wood, and a record of events has been painted on the 
surface. 
The system of classification followed in the exhibition cases System of 
in the public gallery is a modification of one widely used on Classification, 
the Continent and in America. In the first bay on the left- 
hand side an attempt has been made to illustrate, by means of 
books dealing with the subject, the history and development of 
modern systems of classification. The series of specimens 
(starting on the north or left-hand side of the gallery) begins 
with the simpler orders of Dicotyledonous Seed-plants, those in 
which petals are wanting in the flower or if present are free 
from each other, and passes on to the less simple orders with 
united petals. The orders are represented by dried specimens 
of the plants themselves, drawings, fruits, and prepared sections 
of the woods. Diagrams are employed to indicate the characters 
in the flowers on which the grouping is based. The use of 
the same colour for corresponding structures throughout the 
