1919 .] New Zealand Institute Science Congress. 261 
A 
At the present moment the plant-collections in the Dominion Museum, 
even though greatly enriched by the recent deposit of the “ Colenso V. 
collection, are far inferior in extent and richness to the herbaria possessed 
by several private botanical workers. That this should be the case is 
little short of a scandal. The past Directors of this Museum have probably 
never seriously aimed at the formation of a good collection of native 
plants ; they had many other interests to look after, and could hardly 
specialize in all the directions that were felt to be desirable. But at one 
time the nucleus of such a public herbarium did exist in the form of a 
collection got together by Dr. Hector and his assistant John Buchanan 
during their early explorations in the central and western districts of Otago, 
and later in many other districts visited in connection with the Geological 
Survey, of which Dr. Hector was Director. This collection possessed a 
special value, for it contained duplicates of many of the specimens on 
which Hooker founded new species in working up his Handbook. In 1870 
Thomas Kirk, who had then just examined it, refers to it as “ the copious 
herbarium of the Colonial Museum.”* Unfortunately, this collection was 
much neglected. The plants were not poisoned, neither were they kept 
in closely fitting boxes or in tightly wrapped parcels. Left lying in loose 
sheets of paper piled up on open shelving, the specimens fell an easy 
prey to moths and the whole tribe of small destructive insects, and their 
numbers and condition are now greatly impaired. 
A herbarium of considerable value was also formed in connection with 
the Canterbury Museum, under the direction of Dr. Julius von Haast, and 
at the expense of the Canterbury Provincial Government. It too con¬ 
tained a number of duplicate specimens of new species described for the 
first time in Hooker’s Handbook. For many years these treasures were 
indifferently cared for, and, not being poisoned, were subject to serious 
deterioration. But under the present Director of this Museum it has been 
greatly enlarged and improved, chiefly through the enthusiastic work of 
Professor Arnold Wall, of Canterbury College. 
If this account of existing public collections of the native and intro¬ 
duced plants is substantially correct, as I believe it to be, the position is 
surely most unsatisfactory, and contrasts most unfavourably with that which 
•obtains in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and other important 
British colonies and dependencies. 
The remedy is not far to seek : our Government should without delay 
set about creating a comprehensive Dominion Herbarium, and appoint 
for its management an expert Director of Plant Research. I do not like 
the old-fashioned name of Government Botanist. It fails to suggest that 
this officer should undertake many duties, such as experimental investi¬ 
gations in plant-breeding, the introduction and testing of useful exotic 
plants, the investigation and control of plant-diseases, and other such 
activities, that are now recognized as important national interests, but 
were little considered a generation or two ago. A good garden, not so 
much for the display of floral, richness as for practical economic purposes, 
will be an indispensable appendage to any worthy herbarium to-day. 
The principal functions of a national’ herbarium and its expert staff 
consist in collecting, permanently preserving, classifying, and investigating 
the development and structure of as many as possible of the members of 
the vegetable kingdom found within the national borders. Scarcely less 
important are inquiries into the uses and the diseases of plants of economic 
* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 3, p. 161, 1871. 
