Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/137

 THE CAPE HERBARIUM. 117 nothing. On the other hand, we lumber our booka with a inabs of synonyms, and perplex everyone who takes an interest in ferns. It appears that the name of the well-known Australian genus Banksia really belongs to Pimelea : the species are therefore to be renamed, and Banksia is to be rechristened Sirmuellera, after Sir Ferdinand von Mueller ; a proposal which, I need hardly say, did not emanate from an Englishman. I will not multiply instances. But the worst of it is that those who have carefully studied the subject know that, from various causes which I cannot afford the time to discuss, when once it is attempted to disturb accepted nomenclature it is almost impossible to reach finality. Many genera only exist by virtue of their redefi- nition in modern times ; in the form in which they were originally promulgated they have hardly any intelligible meaning at all. THE CAPE HEEBARIUM. [The following account of the origin and history of the Cape Herbarium, reprinted in the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Infoi'mation from the Cape Times of October 16th, will be read with special interest at the present time.] The Cape Government Herbarium has its home in the upper portion of the ofiices of the Agricultural Department, Grave Street [Cape Town], and is under the charge of Professor MacOwan, the Government Botanist. The collection was originally the private selection made by Carl Zeyher for himself, from the vast quantity of specimens of Cape exsiccata, which he, at first in conjunction with Ecklon, and afterwards alone, collected and prepared for sale to European museums during a period of about thirty years. Zeyher finally visited Europe with a large quantity of scientific material, which he was anxious to place and realise. To raise funds for the voyage, he pledged his herbarium to Dr. Ludwig Pappe, who was an enthusiastic botanist and his friend. On Zeyher' s arrival in Hamburg the whole of the saleable specimens were stored in a warehouse uninsured, and by the irony of fate were burned to ashes with the building they contained. Zeyher was helped back to the Cape by an advance from Dr. W. Sonder, and returned almost penniless. He was never able to repay either of the advances, and by a mutual understanding Pappe satisfied Dr. bonder's claim, and increased by that amount the hypothecation on the herbarium. Ultimately Zeyher made over the collection to Dr. Pappe, who continued to study and use it daily, by the holder's hearty permission, just as if it had been still his own. Dr. Pappe died in 1862, leaving his family in somewhat strait- ened circumstances, and possessors of the considerable botanical library and herbaria accumulated during a long life. Unaware of the mode of exploiting either one or the other, the heritors offered the library for sale at an ordinary auction, and the volumes were, with much grudging, bought by the Public Library Management at a shilling apiece. No buyer presented himself for the herbarium.