Dry Storeroom No. 1 (23 page)

The Natural History Museum in South Kensington.

The main hall of the Natural History Museum, showing the nineteenth-century pride in revealing the iron structure. The tail of
Diplodocus
is in the centre (
see Chapter 1
).

Sir Richard Owen, inspirer of the Natural History Museum, splendidly painted by Holman Hunt.

One of the ceiling panels from the main hall, showing
Pinus sylvestris.

Time measured in tree rings—a section through a giant sequoia (
Sequoiadendron giganteum
) from the Sierra Nevada, California, on display outside the Herbarium.

A fish preserved in a jar in the spirit collections; the moonfish
Mene maculata
in gloomy pose.

The truth of bones: a parade of large mammals in the osteology collections.

Discovering new species. Nathan Muchhala in the cloud forests of Ecuador holding the specialized flower
Centropogon nigricans,
which (
below
) feeds (and is fertilized by) the equally specialized bat
Anoura fistulata,
with its extraordinarily long tongue.

Modern collecting. New species of insect are frequently discovered by “fogging” tree canopies and collecting what falls out in special funnel traps.

The acceptable legacy of empire: an ornamental fountain in the Botanic Garden in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Carl von Linné (Linnaeus)—a portrait showing the great nomenclaturalist dressed in Lappish gear. From a painting by Martin Hoffman,
1737
.

“Old Man Banksia” (
Banksia serrata
), the Australian shrub named in honour of Sir Joseph Banks from Cook’s first voyage—the specimen is to the left and the illustration of it to the right. To be preserved in perpetuity in the Natural History Museum.