LETTERS OF J. F. TON JACQUIN (1788-90) 289- 
the very fine large house in Soho Square. Jacquin was much ini- 
])i’essecl with the method of arrangement of the plants in the mahogany 
cabinets, each plant mounted on a separate sheet with name and 
origin, and with the 50 volumes of Solander’s MSS. corresponding 
with the herbarium, a leaf for every plant, on which are noted all 
later synonyms, corrections, and remarks ; also with the excellent 
facilities for work in the herbarium which is open for workers from 
9.30 to 4 o’clock, at 10 o’clock there is breakfast for everybody at 
which My Lady and Miss Banks are present. The herbarium “is 
rich beyond expectation ..... there are for instance 16 species of 
Pinguicula ! ” Jacquin made good use of his opportunities for a 
critical comparison of species as to which he and his father were 
doubtful with the specimens in Banks’s herbarium ; in this he re¬ 
ceived help from Banks himself and Dryander. In his paper read at 
the Banks centenary celebration at the Linnean Society in 1920 
(Proc. Linn. Soc. Suppl.) Mr. Britten emphasised the position of 
“ Banks as a Botanist ” ; Jacquin’s notes supply ample confirmation 
of his (Banks’s) knowledge of plants and active interest in the 
collections. Joseph writes that Banks is publishing the Reliquiae 
Kcemp^eriance which will contain many copper-plates. 8vo copper¬ 
plates are already prepared for his great work—on the bota ny of 
Cook’s first voyage (1768-71). “He has an engraver in copper always 
at his house, and pays him two guineas a week ; he is preparing the 
few plates which are still required. Of the text a great part is ready, 
but there is still much to be done. This work is always being inter¬ 
rupted. As soon as the Hortus Kewensis and the Reliquice Kcemp- 
feriance are finished, they will work at this with full strength. The 
plates are all in the form which you know from the proofs; some 
have cost more than 30 guineas to engrave.” This great work, a 
description of the plants collected by Banks and Solander during 
Cook’s first voyage of exploration, which would have fully established 
Banks’s botanical reputation and would have been a classic on the 
botany of Australasia and the Pacific Islands, was never completed ; 
the beautiful copper-plates are still stored in the Department of 
Botany of the British Museum where are also the volumes of manu¬ 
script descriptions by Dr. Solander. So far as these relate to 
Australian plants, they were published by the Trustees of the Museum 
in 1905; their history is given at length by Mr. Britten in his intro¬ 
duction to the volume. 
In the same letter is a reference to Smith’s leones Stirpium — 
“ the figures are very good, only all made from dried plants.” The 
Linnean Herbarium, in the possession of Dr. Smith, “ a rich young 
man,” is also described. “The plants are all stuck down on very 
dirty small paper but are very well preserved.” Dr. Smith has 
founded a Society for the furthering of systematic natural history, 
which begins to be very celebrated. Jacquin hopes to become an 
Associate and it appears that his father is to be honorary president 
for the botanical side : “ One of the works of this Linnean Society, as 
they call themselves, will be to work out the Species PI ant arum, and 
that can certainly be done nowhere more easily than here. They 
propose to devote to it three or four years hard work.” Later, writing 
Journal of Botany.—Yol. 61. [ November, 1923.] y 
