THE HERBARIUM.
Between 1830 and 1840 there was a small collection of plants kept in presses in No. 40 College, which chiefly consisted of a series of specimens gathered in Mexico and California by Dr. Coulter; but it was not until 1844, when the late Dr. W. H. Harvey was appointed Curator, while Dr. G. J. Allman was elected to the Professorship of Botany, that the foundation of the present Herbarium was really laid. Dr. Harvey, prior to 1841, had spent several years in an official position at the Cape of Good Hope, where he had succeeded in making large collections of the native plants, and he had from time to time published (chiefly in Hooker’s Journal of Botany) many descriptions of new and rare forms. Compelled by the state of his health to return to Europe in the spring of 1842, in the following year his health was sufficiently restored to make him wish for some active employment. The Professorship of Botany became vacant in 1843, and Harvey was a candidate. To qualify him for the post, Harvey was made a M.D. Honoris Causa; but it was contended that this was not sufficient, and that a properly qualified medical man alone could occupy the chair. As a result, Allman was elected to the Professorship, and the post of Curator of the Herbarium was specially endowed for Harvey, who presented his collection of dried plants to the College, and received some increased pay therefor, with a proviso that, should other provisions be made, and that as a result he were to lose the post, a certain sum that was agreed upon should be paid to Harvey by the College. He entered upon his duties in March, 1844, and for a little over twenty years the Herbarium was yearly increased by his zeal and labour. In September, 1844, we find a record of his adding 4,000 species at “one haul” to the collection, from Sir W. Hooker’s duplicates; a few weeks later were added 1,400 species from the interior of the Swan River Colony, collected by Drummond. Soon the couple of rooms in No. 40 became too small, and room after room was added until the whole of the first or floor flat was filled. With this increase of specimens came the necessary demands on the Bursar for money, not only to pay for new plants, but for the necessary paper on which to mount them. At first an annual sum of £10 was placed at Harvey’s disposal; then on his urgent entreaties, supported by those of John Ball, who from the first days of the Herbarium to the last of his own was ever a faithful friend of Trinity College, this sum was increased to £30 (this to include the ten). Next we find serious objection taken to a special charge of £34 for paper, and Harvey was obliged to promise that he would be content if allowed to spend an average annual sum of £10 on this most important adjunct to a Herbarium.
BOTANICAL GARDENS—THE POND. WINTER.
In spite of all these little drawbacks, by the year 1850 the Board’s confidence in Harvey had so increased, and the Bursar had become so sympathetic, that we find a yearly sum of £108 paid as Herbarium expenses, and collections were bought from Spruce, Bowker, Wright, Fendler, Jameson, and many others.
The year 1858 was rendered notable by the purchase of Count Limingan’s Herbarium for £237, the duplicates of which were disposed of to the Melbourne University Herbarium and to the Queen’s College, Cork. During 1849-50 Harvey visited the United States, and by this visit greatly added to the College collections; and his lengthened tour in Australia and the South Sea Islands during 1853-55, chiefly made for the purpose of collecting Algæ, resulted in making the College Herbarium so rich in these forms that it has become a necessary resort for all students of this group of plants, containing as it does the types as well as the finest series of specimens collected by one who was during his lifetime the chief authority upon these plants. Harvey died on the 15th of May, 1866, at Torquay. To the very last the College Herbarium was in his thoughts. To the writer of these lines he dictated a letter, signed by him in pencil, and dated the 12th May, 1866, giving directions about certain packages of plants:—“The six bundles of Erica belong to the Cape Government Herbarium, and should be put with the others in the box, so that they may not be forgotten when the packing time comes. On the table you will find in an old marble paper cover the MSS. of the new edition of the Genera of South African Plants, which put by carefully, and which Dr. Hooker will probably inquire about;” and so on with four pages of last words, for the letter concludes, “I tell you all these things because I never expect to see the Herbarium again, and I wish to leave all things as straight as I can.”
In 1878 the Herbarium was transferred from No. 40 College, these rooms being required for students, to the large room over the great staircase leading to the Front or Regent’s Hall; but since then, as no money is allowed for the purchase of new specimens, the increase of the collection has depended exclusively on donations, and some very generous ones have been received, among which may be mentioned as among the more important those from Dr. Grunow, of Vienna; Professor Farlow, of the Harvard University; Dr. E. Bornet, of Paris; Professor A. G. Agardh, of Upsala; and Baron F. Mueller, of Melbourne.
The general collection in the Herbarium is a fairly representative one. There is still kept as a distinct collection the one made by Harvey for the purpose of writing the Flora Capensis. The British Collection is also kept by itself. There is a very fine series of algæ and of mosses, and a small collection of lichens and fungi. A commencement has been made of a collection of woods, fruits, and seeds in the Botanical Museum.
