64 
EAST WING. 
Herbarium of 
British 
Plants. 
Sloane's 
Herbarium. 
Bay's 
Collection. 
Collections of 
Fruits, Seeds, 
and Woods. 
collections formed by Sowerby in the preparation of his great 
work, 'Englisb Botany.' This is, perhaps, the largest and 
most interesting public Herbarium of British plants, and its 
value is constantly increasing by additions from botanists who 
make the British Flora their special study. 
The extensive Herbarium formed by Sir Hans Sloane became 
the property of the nation in 1753, along with his other collec- 
tions. The plants gathered by himself in Jamaica formed the 
nucleus of this Herbarium, and to them were added the collections 
of Petiver, Buddie, Plukenet, Kaempfer, Kamel, Merrett, Boer- 
haave, Yaillant, Banister, and others. According to the practice 
of the time these plants were fastened on the leaves of large 
folio volumes, of which there are altogether 310. This collection 
had been placed in the library of the British Museum, and 
remained there until the establishment of the Department of 
Botany, when it was transferred to the care of Mr. Brown. The 
plants are well preserved, and are catalogued in a copy of 
Ptay's ' Historia Plantarum,' kept beside them, so that they can 
be easily consulted. 
The collections formed by Hermann in Ceylon, from which 
Linnaeus prepared his 'Flora Zeylanica,' with annotations by 
both Hermann and Linnaeus, are preserved in five volumes, four 
containing plants, and the fifth consisting of drawings. 
The department also contains the singularly interesting and 
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, 
there are two allied collections arranged in the same gallery in 
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 
