British Museum (Natural History) General GuideBritish Museum (Natural History)
History
British Museum (Natural History) General Guide
British Museum (Natural History)
British Museum (Natural History) -- Guidebooks; Natural history museums -- England -- London -- Guidebooks
The Dicotyledonous Plants extend to the fifth case on the left side of
the gallery, and are followed by the Monocotyledonous orders, which
fill a portion of the last case on the same side, the two half-cases
at the end of the gallery, and the first case returning towards the
door. The Gymnosperms are placed in the next case. Then follow the
Cryptogams, a case being devoted to the higher, vascular orders, and
another to the cellular plants. The series closes with an interesting
collection of models of the larger British Fungi, coloured and mounted
in accordance with their natural habitats. A Catalogue of these models
has been prepared.[27] In the table-case in the last bay is placed an
illustrated collection of the British Mycetozoa, to which there is
also a _Guide_.[28] A large chalk-like mass of Diatom-earth containing
twelve billion Diatoms is placed in a case by itself near the entrance
to the gallery. The table- and window-cases in the bays contain
exhibitions of interest under the following heads: Insectivorous plants
(at present in the Central Hall), Parasitic plants, Water-plants,
Xerophytic plants, Epiphytic plants, Adaptations for Defence, Climbing
plants, Fertilisation of flowers (also in the Hall), and Dispersal
of seeds, a selection of British plants dried in sand and preserving
their form and colour, and a series of Lichens from Chili. Attention
may likewise be directed to a series of coloured drawings of British
Plants. At the entrance of the gallery on the right is placed a camera
to exhibit stereoscopic views of plants in their natural colours; and
on the left is a model of a large fungus (_Hydnum_).
At the end of the gallery the larger specimens of Palms are set up
against the screen dividing the gallery from the Herbarium; other
Palms, Cycads, Tree-ferns, etc., are placed in the bays next the
appropriate wall-cases. Suspended from the roof is a fine specimen
of the “Wabo” Bamboo (_Dendrocalamus_) from Burma, 81 feet long; and
on the floor of the gallery are specimens of the Vegetable Sheep
(_Raoulia_) of New Zealand, a large aërial root of a Banyan, a
Brazilian Tree-lily (_Vellozia_), a large Bamboo from Demerara, an
Australian Grass-tree (_Kingia_), a Brazilian Palm (_Acrocomia_), a
Sugar-cane, and a Japanese Cycad.
[Sidenote: British Plants.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account