I 
SECOND FLOOR. 61 
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. 
The arrangement of the collections in the public gallery is Public Gallery, 
still in progress, but is not sufficiently advanced to permit the 
preparation of a guide to the cases. A general account of the 
plan being followed in this arrangement, and of the principal 
specimens, is all that can now be attempted. 
The natural system of classification is followed in the exhibi- System of 
tion cases in the public gallery. The series of specimens begins Classification, 
with the Natural Order Banunculacese, and the principal Orders 
are represented in this and the following cases by dried 
specimens of the plants themselves, coloured 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 homologous 
structures throughout the diagrams readily conveys to the eye 
the points of agreement or difference on which the classification 
rests. The geological history of each Natural Order is indicated 
on a table of the earth's strata ; and its present distribution on 
the surface of the earth is given on a small map of the world. 
Descriptive labels give particular information respecting each 
specimen. 
Dicotyledonous plants occupy three cases on the left side of the 
gallery, and are followed by the Monocotyledonous Orders, which 
fill a portion of the last case on the same side, the two half cases 
at the end of the gallery, and the first case returning towards the 
door. The Gymnosperms are placed in the next case. Then 
follow the Cryptogams, a case being devoted to the higher 
vascular Orders, and another to the lower division of cellular 
plants. The series closes with an interesting collection of 
models of the larger British Fungi prepared by Sowerby when 
he was engaged on his work on this group of plants, which 
have been recoloured and mounted in accordance with their 
1 natural habitats by Mr. Worthington G. Smith. A Catalogue 
' of these models is in the press. A large chalk-like mass 
of Diatomaceous earth containing twelve billion plants is 
placed in a case by itself near the entrance to the gallery. 
