A Museum of Economic Botany. 
importance of the chief products, the numbers of the various races 
comprising the population, and other facts of economic importance, 
The exhibits of each country should he grouped according to uses, the 
principal divisions being food-stuffs, timbers, gums and resins, drugs, 
etc. Each group should contain specimens both of products exported, 
and of products of value only for local use ; the exhibit of each pro¬ 
duct being arranged in accordance with the scheme detailed above. 
Each section of such a museum would afford, when complete, 
a full representation of the products and resources of a particular 
country, and at the same time give information regarding the 
climatic, geological and economic conditions under which the 
products are produced. 
For the commercial man seeking information respecting the 
products of certain countries, for the would-be emigrant and for the 
geographer this mode of arrangement is undoubtedly the most 
advantageous. On the other hand for purposes of examination and 
comparison of specimens of one product from different parts of the 
world the system is not so well adapted. Grouping according to use, 
and grouping according to geographical source are complementary 
systems ; they cannot be combined, and the advantages of one are 
the weaknesses of the other. For purely commercial purposes 
there are so many arguments to be urged for and against each of 
these systems that one cannot say that either is preferable under 
all circumstances. Much depends on the uses to which the museum 
is put in addition to that of pure commerce. 
At the Imperial Institute an additonal collection of economic 
products from different parts of the Empire, is being gradually 
formed, arranged under subjects (fibres, rubbers, etc.), and com¬ 
prising materials the composition of which has been determined in 
the Scientific and Technical Department of the Institute, and the 
uses, where not already known, determined by special technical 
trials conducted by manufacturers. 
The geographical mode of arrangement has other interests. It 
brings out some of the general relationships between plants and 
climate in a striking manner. Anyone passing from section to 
section can scarcely fail to notice that whilst in the temperate 
climates wheat, barley and oats are the staple cereals, their place is 
taken in the tropical countries by rice and maize. Similarly the 
replacement of potatoes by sweet potatoes and yams, of the sugar- 
beet by the sugar-cane, to mention only two other instances will 
also be brought to notice, 
