THE COMMISSIONEES of HEE MAJESTY’S WOODS, FOEESTS, &c,, having been pleased to form 
a BOTANICAL MUSEUM within the Eoyal Gardens of Kew, the Director solicits the co-operation of Her Alajesty’s 
Ministers and Consnls in Foreign Countries, of the Governors of Her Majesty’s Colonies, of Officers in the Army 
and Navy, Merchants and Travellers generally, to aid in contributing specimens towards so desirable an object. 
The design is to bring together in one spot and to exhibit such interesting vegetable products from aU parts 
of the world, as cannot be shewn in the Iwing plants of a Garden, nor in the preserved ones of an Herbarium. 
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The public may indeed see here, in a growing state, the rare Lace Tree of Jamaica, the stiU rarer Ivory Palm-Nut 
of the Magdalena, the Bread Fruit Tree from the Friendly Islands, and the Cow Tree (Palo de Vaoa) from the 
Caraocas, together with a multitude of other plants of equal rarity and value. But the interest of these would be 
greatly enhanced, if, within the walls of the same Establishment, the curious and beautiful Lace of the first, the fruit 
and ivory-like seeds of the second, and the celebrated bread-fruit of the third, with the cream-like substance of the 
fourth, used as nomishment by the Indians, coidd be inspected. 
Among the obj ects, therefore, which are to be collected and deposited, arranged and named in the Museum, are— • 
1. — ^FEUITS and SEEDS, especially those which are of large size, or possess any peculiarity of form or 
struct ure, entitling them to notice ; such as Pine-c ones, the various fruits of Palms, ^c. §’c. Many of these are 
naturally dry and require little care (except to be freed from moisture) previous to packing. Those that are about 
to burst open into valves, or to separate by their scales (all Pine-cones and Araucarias) should bo bound round 
with a little pack-thread. The soft and fleshy kinds can only be preserved in wide-mouthed bottles, or jars, or 
casks, (according to size,) in alcohol, as rum, arrack, or in diluted pyroligneous acid. 
2. — FLO WEES wliich arc very large or pecidiarly fleshy, and therefore imsuited to the Hortus siccus. These 
ought to be preserved in alcohol or pyroligneous acid. Among those which would be much prized are, for example, 
the flowers of the Victoria, or Gigantic Water Lily, from the still waters of tropical South America; portions of the 
flowering branches of Palms, ^v., the larger kinds of Orchidacea. 
