Sessional_Paper_1905 — Page 217

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HERBARIUM.

The arrears of work in the Herbarium have gradually been overtaken with the help of the two Chinese Herbarium Assistants appointed at the commencement of the year.

Their appointment has been amply justified. The generous policy of the Government towards this scientific adjunct of the Department is already bearing fruit and it is evident that with the collections now flowing in from all parts of China the Colonial Herbarium will soon assume the place which it ought to occupy with regard to the flora of the country. The mere fact that it is the only public Herbarium in China, and that the flora of China is probably now receiving more attention from European and American botanists than any other part of the world, warrants it a carreer of usefulness. Sir JOSEPH HOOKER once described Hongkong as "the key of the botanical position as regards the Chinese Empire" (Vide Memorandum, 1. 2. 78), and perhaps this point may be now said to be captured, for while individual enterprise has done much to supply information and material to the botanical establishments of Kew, Paris, Berlin and St. Petersburg no part of China is so well represented in any Herbarium as is Kwang- tung and especially the neighborhood of Hongkong in the great Herbarium of Kew. Such assistance as this establishment can give to Kew is its most important national work, but it is also becoming more and more a centre of botanical enter- prise in the far east. A recognition of this is already being shown by the increasing number of requests for botanical information from different parts of China. More than 600 specimens have been examined and determined for correspondents. from other ports during the year. The Chinese Assistants have shown remarkable aptitude in dealing with this kind of work.

All local specimens preserved in the Herbarium if of sufficient interest receive separate consecutive numbers to insure accuracy of reference and the progress of the numbering is some guide to the annual increase of the collection. At the ends of the last three years the numbers have reached—1902, No. 700; 1903, No. 1091; 1904, No. 1750.

One of the chief difficulties in keeping the collections in good order is the great dampness of the summer months. The Herbarium has to be artificially. dried during this period. Formerly a wood stove was used, but the riskiness of this method with so valuable a collection is now recognized and a gas stove has been substituted. This has the additional advantage of being usable during the night and thus avoiding the excessive heat of a stove in working hours during the summer. Even this source of heat has been some anxiety during the recent vagaries of the gas supply.

Besides the collections made by the Department specimens have been received from other establishments as follows:-

Arnold Arboretum, 25 (Chinese); Botanical Department, Manila, 188 (Philippines); Forestry Department, Tsingtau, 90 (Shantung). Duplicates have been despatched as follows: to Kew, all the most interesting specimens collected in the last two years per Mr. TUTCHER.

Arnold Arboretum, 128; Botanical Department, Manila, 316; Museum de Paris, 67; Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, 23; Parks and Open Spaces, Shanghai, 94; British Museum, 52; St. Petersburg, 17; Tokyo University, Japan, 21; and Prof Martelli, 2.

BOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS.

Ginkgo biloba, L. (Salisburia adiantifolia, Sm.).—In the Index Floræ Sinenis, ii. 547, Dr. MASTERS quotes Mrs. BISHOP as saying that she had met with several fine specimens of Ginkgo in the magnificent forests which surround the sources of the Great Gold River and the smaller Min in Szechuen. Sir ERNEST SATOW once told me that he doubted the indigenous status of this tree in China and he recently sent me a letter from Mr. HOSIE supporting his view, with regard particularly to Szechuen. Mr. HOSIE states that it is common in that Province but only as a cultivated tree, the seeds being a general article of commerce through- out most parts of China. Mr. E H. WILSON, too, during his extensive botanical explorations in West China, did not meet with it in a wild state. In view of these opinions it is probably safer at present to omit the Ginkgo from the Chinese indigenous flora. The fact probably is, as SLMS-LAUBACH has pointed out, that the Ginkgo has long outlived its natural age in the flora of the earth and has only been preserved from extinction by the care of the Chinese priests.