Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/138

 118 THt! CAPE HERBARIUMi At last Mr. Eawson W. Eawson, the Colonial Secretary, induced the Government to give the family £400 for it. Its value then, before it had deteriorated by bad housing and years of neglect, might have been about £1200. It was stored away, now in one place and now in another, much as oathay is stored, and suffered from the inevitable insects which prey on dried plants and also from rain dripping through the roof of its presumed shelter. Then it was, at Dr. J. C. Brown's suggestion, housed in a room over the Grey Library, and was at least dry. Dr. Harvey was apprised of the Government acquisition, and in 1864 offered to use it in the preparation of his Flora Capensis, and select and mount from it a study series of auto- graphically certified types. This he did to the end of Volume III., when the work was cut short by his premature death. Subse- quently the collection was returned to the Cape, and tbis study set was lodged in seven cabinets of the Kew pattern, under direction of Mr. Brown. As nothing was being done for the collection, not even subli- matiijg the topical study -set to prevent insect raids, Professor MacOwan, who was then living m Graham's Town, addressed Sir Pliihp Wodehoube on the subject in lb67, pointing out that nothmg had been done for its preservation. The collection was no longer in charge of Dr. Brown, whose office of Colonial Botanist had been aboiislied, and it appeared to be nobody's business to do anything for it, as Mr. Trimen of the South African Museum refused to take it in charge. Professor MacOwan offered to house it at his own expense under control of the Albany Museum, and to supply the needful cabinets at his own charges. The reply was that it was not desirable to transfer the collection to the Eastern Provinces. East and West differences were then very pronounced. The collection was therefore placed in charge of Mr. James McGibbon, the gardener, but when Sir Henry Barkly succeeded Sir Philip Wodehouse, Mr. MacOwan, knowing him to be a well-informed amateur botanist, renewed his application. Sir Henry Barkly, without giving any notice to the custodian, asked to see the collection, and when dis- played it was found that insect industry had destroyed scores of Harvey's valuable types. He took care, however, that the custodian should immediately treat the whole study-set in the proper manner with sublimate, so as to stop any further mischief, and generally kept things up to the mark by occasional inspections. In February, 1881, Mr. MacOwan was appointed curator, in addition to the duty of director of the Botanic Gardens. Nine new cabinets were at once added and filled, and these were increased subsequently by seven. The new curator added his private her- barium of European plants, numbering some 5000 sheets. Until the removal of the collection to the new Agricultural Offices in Grave Street, the herbarium housing arrangements were very inadequate and inconvenient. There is not much to complain of now, though the Government Botanist, in his anxiety for his charge and his scientific enthusiasm, could doubtless point out some shortcomings. It is not very accessible, indeed at the top of the building, and there is always a dread of the recurrence of