188 THE ESSEX NATURALIST
It is at present impossible to state the exact number of sheets in the
collections, but at a modest estimate they probably total about 15,000
sheets, of which about two-thirds are of British plants, including what
are generally termed "aliens". It is not intended here to enter into a
discussion as to which plants are correctly so termed, and the use of this
term in this paper is restricted to those plants which other botanieally-
minded members in the past in their wisdom have classed as such and
sorted into the appropriate covers.
Before detailing the various individual herbaria which form the collection,
mention must be made of the extremely large proportion of sheets which
have in the past been presented to the Club by individual members who
took the trouble to collect and preserve the plants and hand them to
the Curator for filing and recording. This work can never be fully recog-
nised or acknowledged, but it forms about one-third of the whole total.
Without these sheets the herbaria would be poorer and far less valuable.
At the same time, it should be pointed out that these collections, if they
are to continue to be of value, need the constant addition of new specimens,
both to record the present flora of our county and country and also to keep
the collections up to date.
The important feature disclosed by this survey is that the greater part
of this collection of herbaria is composed of plants which were collected
well over 50 years ago, and an extremely large proportion of them are of
twice that age, or even more. As an historical collection it has value, but
as a living entity its usefulness is fast disappearing. Like the collections
in many other museums and public institutions, it sadly lacks modern
botanical material, especially specimens of the present changing flora of
Britain and particularly of Essex, in which county the Club is interested.
If the members value their heritage and desire to maintain and continue
these collections, greatly increased efforts will be needed to provide the
collections with a steady flow of new material. It would also assist the
maintenance of these herbaria if the Club were to associate themselves
with one of the Exchange Clubs to provide an opportunity for the Club
to expand its collections. If members who find it impracticable to preserve
the results of their collecting would care to send the plants on to me in
fresh condition, preferably in a tin, with full details as to where they were
found and the date, arrangements can be made for the preservation of the
plants and their subsequent incorporation in the Club's herbaria.
For ease of reference, the following summary is given under two heads:—
(i) The General Herbarium of the Club, which incorporates the
herbaria listed, together with the plants added by members. These
are usually mounted on standard Kew-size (171/2 inches X 11
inches) sheets.
(ii) The Special Herbaria, which are maintained apart from the others
either because of their particular interest—subjects of special
study: foreign collections from specified districts—or because the
specimens are mounted on a different style or size of sheets from
the standard Kew size—or because the donor has requested that
they be kept separate.
1. THE GENERAL HERBARIUM
This incorporates the following individual herbaria, which are here listed
in alphabetical order for ease of reference. Wherever possible, biographical
notes of a brief character concerning the collector or donor have been
included, together with the source from which they were obtained where