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MUSEUM NOTES II.
II.—NOTES UPON THE HERBARIUM PRESENTED
TO THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB, BY Mr. J. C.
SHENSTONE.
[As intimated in the last Annual Report of the Council,
Mr. Shenstone recently presented his Herbarium to the Club,
and he has furnished the following particulars of his collection.]
THIS Herbarium was commenced in April 1874, and the
specimens were mainly collected between the years 1874
and 1885.
After the latter year private and public business monopolised
my time, and additions to the Herbarium were only made at
intervals, during holiday and Field Club excursions, &c.
The Collection contains between 800 and goo specimens ;
of these between 600 and 700 are "Essex Specimens," and these
were all gathered by myself.
I do not present the collection to the Club as a model of
what a Herbarium should be. It was commenced at the time
when I was first inspired by an interest in field botany. As
usually happens I gained much experience in amassing the
specimens, which will be of great service to me in my future
botanical work.
It was during the time I was making this collection that I
put together the notes embodied in my "Report upon the Flower-
ing plants growing in the neighbourhood of Colchester," (Essex
Naturalist, Vol. I. pp. 22-35), and the paper "Suggestions for
the formation of a County Herbarium," (E.N., vol. iv., pp. 71-
78), was founded upon the knowledge gained in gathering
together and preparing the Herbarium.
In handing the Herbarium over to the Essex Field Club, I
am aware that it requires much overhauling. It was my in-
tention some day to go carefully through all the specimens, to
eliminate and replace poor and doubtful specimens, and
generally to enlarge and improve the collection, but have been
persuaded to hand it over to the Club with all its many faults.