.4 Museum of Economic Botany. 231 
Three possible modes of arrangement suggest themselves, all 
of which are employed in one or more important existing museums 
The grouping may he according to botanical origin, or according 
to uses, or according to country of origin. 
(i.) The arrangement of vegetable products according to the 
systematic position of the plants yielding them, is a method 
of great interest to the botanist, as it shows him in the 
most graphic manner the relative importance of the various 
natural orders as the sources of economic products. He also 
appreciates the striking testimony afforded by the general uni¬ 
formity in the character of the products and the properties of 
the plants of a single natural order to the value of the systematic 
characters employed in determining plant affinity. 
The commercial man on the other hand is not usually interested 
in natural orders, and is handicapped by having to know the scien¬ 
tific name and natural order of the plant producing any product, 
the specimens of which he may wish to consult, unless, as in. 
the case of Economic Museums of the Royal Gardens, Kew, assis¬ 
tance is afforded by a good series of descriptions and well-indexed 
catalogues. Having, however, located the position of the product, 
for instance coffee, he finds conveniently brought together all the 
specimens of it the museum contains, whatever may be their 
country of origin. 
Although, as has already been indicated, many closely allied 
products, for example the fibres produced by plants of single orders 
as Uvticacece, or Liliacece, are by this arrangement brought together 
fibres of distantly related orders are widely separated and cannot 
readily be compared. The arrangement also does not allow of 
information being easily gained of the products of various countries. 
(ii.) The second method is to group the products according to 
their uses, the main divisions being food-stuffs, oils, gums and 
resins, rubbers, fibres, spices, timbers etc.; the sub-divisions being 
either geographical or botanical. At the Royal Gardens, Kew, the 
timber museum is arranged in this way with geographical sub¬ 
divisions. This arrangement is also adopted in several of the 
important Colonial museums, and is undoubtedly of great practical 
value in any museum devoted to illustrating the products of a 
particular country. For a museum of more extended scope, there 
is much to be said in favour of this mode of arrangement. To 
the commercial man, or technical expert, desirous of examining 
and comparing fibres, or resins, or any other group of products, it 
