REPRESENTED IN THE EPPING FOREST MUSEUM.
3
the orders are ample and excellent, and the dried plants in-
structive, especially in showing that dried flowers need not be
flattened and compressed like hay, or as if they had been put in
the family Bible, and sate upon for a week. In this connection
we may hope, in course of time, to see sections of timber from
the forest, not only showing the useful woods, but also illustrating
the parasitism of the mistletoe, the effect of wounds, the ravages
of rot, the perforations of the Cossus, the mining galleries of beetles,
and other external circumstances affecting forest trees, with
which the Club has members who are familiar, and who could
render valuable service in their collection.
By this time it will be anticipated that my own "fad" will
struggle into the light, and that I should be prepared to advocate
some sweeping suggestions affecting Cryptogamic plants. Con-
fessing to some monomaniacal tendencies in that direction, it is
not clear that any man, in his senses, would be found to advocate
giving too great a prominence to any one section in a small
museum. As it is, Botany has a fair share of the room, and the
Cryptogamia, although equal in numbers to the Phanerogamia,
must be far below them in general interest and utility. Hence,
with the present space, all suggestions shall be restricted within
the narrowest limits.
Educationally, perhaps, it might be well to exhibit types of
all the primary groups of Cryptogamia, such as Marine Algae,
Diatoms, Lichens, Fungi (in some respects), Hepatics, Mosses,
Ferns and allies. Just sufficient to show how they differ from each
other, and what the principal characteristics of their structure.
Of course, whilst on this phase of the subject, there could be no
valid objection to a Herbarium of the Essex Cryptogamia, as a
reference set, but not for public exhibition. It would be possible
to include all within a reasonable compass, but the difficulty
would be to get them and the experts to collect and determine
them. Possibly that suggestion will bear fruit in the near
future.
Confining observations to the Museum as an exhibition, and
what is possible, or feasible, these suggestions will not travel
beyond the Cryptogamia. One cannot but regret, in this con-
nection, that the wall space is so exceedingly limited. There is
absolutely no room for efficient diagrammatic illustration. It
would be hard to find a room with as much floor space, and so
little wall space, which is an initial difficulty in a museum. But,