SECOND FLOOR. 
63 
The department also contains the singularly interesting and ^^jj^^^j^^^ 
valuable collection of plants gathered in 1663 by John Eay in 
his travels in Europe, a catalogue of which was published in 
his account of the journey in 1673. 
In these various Herbaria the Museum possesses an unri- 
valled series of historical collections from the middle of the 
seventeenth century to the present time. 
Besides the collection of dried plants forming the Herbarium, Collection of 
there are two allied collections arranged in the same gallery in and Woods. ' 
parallel series. The one is the collection of fruits and seeds 
occupying the table cabinets in the centre of the gallery, and 
the other the collection of woods placed in the smaller cabinets 
in the centre of each bay. The position of the cabinets has 
permitted the arrangement of the specimens belonging to these 
two collections in close proximity to the Natural Orders in the 
great Herbarium, to which they belong. The student can thus 
easily command the specimens in the three collections in the 
prosecution of his investigations. Nor is the facility of reference 
confined to the mounted and finally arranged specimens, for the 
method in which the unmounted collections are arranged and 
temporarily stored -in small rooms behind the great Herbarium 
provides for their ready consultation, even though they may not 
yet be incorporated in the Herbarium itself. 
The student receives assistance in his investigations from the library, 
extensive Library of the Department, and from a large collection 
of plates and drawings of plants systematically arranged in the 
same order as the plants in the Herbarium. 
The collection of original drawings comprises specimens of Original 
the work of the principal botanical artists, such as Ehret, p^antTand^ 
J. Miller, Nodder, Aubriet, Sidney Parkinson, J. E. & G. Forster, Manuscripts. 
Jacquin, Masson, Sowerby, Eitch, Schleiden, W. G. Smith, and 
especially Erancis and Eerdinand Bauer, 
The department possesses also many valuable manuscripts, 
such as those of Eobert Brown, Solander, Euiz and Pavon, 
Konig, Salisbury, and Miers, referring to plants now in the 
Herbarium on which these botanists have worked. 
The cellular plants are accommodated in a large room in the Cellular 
Central Tower approached by a staircase, the entrance to which 
is on the left side of the statue of Sir Joseph Banks. The 
