A brief history of the Wellesley College Herbarium (WELC) and a list of its type specimens of vascular plants now deposited at The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY)

The majority of the Wellesley College Herbarium (62, 193 specimens) has been intercalated into The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY). Duplicated collections were distributed to other herbaria. Most specimens has been collected between 1850 and 1940. A brief history of the Wellesley Herbarium is given, and lists of the vascular plant type specimens and of some notable collectors of vascular plants are appended.     

Estimates of the number of mounted pteridophyte specimens in six major herbaria in the United States

A stratified-random sampling method was used to estimate the number of pteridophyte specimens in six of the largest herbaria in the United states (F, GH/A/NEBC, MO, NY, UC, US). The point estimate of the collection size and the 95% confidence intervals for each herbarium were found to be as follows: US 251,000 (±20,000); NY 201,000 (±20,000); MO 160,000 (±15,000); GH/A/NEBC 124,000 (±12,000); UC 119,000 (±9,000); F 97,000 (±10,000). It is hoped that these numbers will help assess the growth of these collections in the future.     

Notable collections represented in the Truman G. Yuncker Herbarium (DPU), now deposited at The New York Botanical Garden (NY)

The integration of the vascular plants from the Yuncker Herbarium (DPU) into the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium (NY) has been completed, and the curatorial work is summarized. The most notable vascular plant collections, with emphasis on the local collections from Indiana, are reported on and a list of the most prominent collectors is presented. An index to all collectors of vascular plants represented in the Yuncker Herbarium has been deposited in the New York Botanical Garden Library.     

Mapping the history of botanical collectors: spatial patterns,diversity, and uniqueness through time

This study examines changing spatial patterns of botanical collections over a 400 year time frame, focussing on the collections at the Natural History Museum (BM) in comparison with global patterns. The Plant Collector Resource Database, which contains 68,000 collector records was used to generate 250,667 unique collector × country × date records. We observe an exponential increase in the number of collectors over time. The activities of collectors were investigated in 50-year time-slices from 1650–2000. We specifically considered the geographic scope of collections (i.e., countries in which collections were made), the depth of collections (i.e., the number of collectors per country) and the uniqueness of collections (i.e., the proportion not duplicated in other herbaria). Uniqueness was highest for the earliest time-slice. Collector activity is shown to be strongly influenced by extrinsic factors such as the development of trade and empire, which allowed for collections to expand in scope and depth, and conflicts, which reduced collecting activity. A striking finding concerns the uniqueness of collections through time. The considerable unique element of the collections in herbaria highlighted by this study provides a strong motivation for digitization efforts to ensure that collections are accessible to address key questions in systematics, biogeography, and ecology.     

Bryology at The New York Botanical Garden,past and present

Bryology has been a field of study at The New York Botanical Garden since its founding. Brief biographical sketches are provided for Elizabeth Gertrude Britton, Robert Statham Williams, and William Campbell Steere. The important bryological collections that have been acquired by NY are enumerated with a brief explanation of the circumstances.     

我国植物模式标本的馆藏量

植物标本是物种存在的永久凭证,模式标本在保障命名体系稳定中有不可替代的作用。标本馆藏量和模式标本数量反映一个国家或地区的历史积累。作者通过对比分析,发现我国的标本馆藏量远低于国际平均水平,模式标本馆藏量也相对较少,历史积累不足。在数字化本土馆藏模式标本基础上,标本数字化平台项目应将国外馆藏的中国植物种类的模式标本"引渡"回国。今后我国植物分类学研究者的重要工作之一是加强空白地区和国外标本采集,提高馆藏标本的代表性。     

Sources of information about botanic gardens and herbaria

Botany is the study of living plants in the garden and the wild and of dead plants in the herbarium and laboratory. The value of a botanic garden for teaching purposes became evident in the 16th century with the founding between 1543 and 1600 of botanic gardens at Pisa, Padua, Florence, Bologna, Leyden, Leipzig, Paris, Montpellier and Heidelberg: indeed most of the major European botanic gardens were founded during this and the next two centuries. Associated with the study of living plants in botanic gardens was the invention of the herbarium by Luca Ghini (1490–1556) and the subsequent making of many private herbaria, out of which have developed the large institutional herbaria, mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. The continuous enrichment of European gardens by the introduction of new plants resulting from European exploration and colonization created many problems of classification and naming, and so led to the development of taxonomic methods and the adoption of consistent binomial nomenclature for species, following Linnaeus, during the 18th century. The fashion for collecting in the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the amassing of big private collections which later became the basis of institutional collections. The increase of such public collections by making available material for study from all over the world has, in turn, increased the publications relating to this. Thus the botanic garden and the herbarium, with their associated libraries, have become complementary repositories of botanical information invaluable to the taxonomist, the plant geographer, the economic botanist and the student of evolution. Some useful publications relating to botanic gardens, herbaria and botanical and horticultural collectors are listed.     

Riparian populations of minnesota reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) are most likely native,based on SNPs (DArTseqLD)

The native vs. exotic status of reed canarygrass (RCG), a major invasive species of Minnesota wetlands, is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate this native vs. exotic status to enhance its management. Genetic comparison of wild RCG populations from six Minnesota and six Czech Republic rivers was performed. A total of 2521 polymorphic SNP markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms) were used to evaluate 478 RCG samples across all collections. In the PCoA, all (n = 256) tested extant wild, riparian RCG genotypes from six Minnesota Rivers and six Czech Republic Rivers were genetically distinct, although some SNPs were common in both populations since they are the same species. DAPC analysis also resulted in the formation of two primary clusters separating the Minnesota Rivers and Czech Republic Rivers riparian samples, with little overlap; STRUCTURE analysis also supported this clustering with k = 4 groups as it separated the Czech Republic Rivers populations into three groups, along with Minnesota Rivers. The uniformity of PCoA, DAPC, STRUCTURE, and Evanno results indicates the distinct separation of Minnesota Rivers and Czech Republic Rivers populations. Portions of the genome (specific SNPs) are preserved or in common across continents, as indicated by STRUCTURE similarities. Nonetheless, overall significant SNP differences between the continents indicate that the Minnesota riparian populations are distinct enough from the European (Czech) collections to be delineated as native N. American RCG. PCoA of all the Minnesota RCG collections clustered Minnesota Rivers, Herbarium, Extant Herbarium, Research Field and Native Field collections together. STRUCTURE analysis (k = 2; Evanno) divided these Minnesota collections from the Commercial Field and Cultivars collections. There are two genetically distinct groups of RCG in Minnesota and since the Minnesota Rivers, the Research Field, the Native Field and pre-1930 herbaria collections clustered together, they are most likely native N. American types. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that the genetic variation was more significant within, rather than among, the RCG populations. Native, historic herbaria types cluster together with all wild RCG river populations in Minnesota, all of which were distinct from those in Central Europe, suggesting native RCG type persistence in N. America. Also, cultivated forage types of RCG are distinct from wild RCG Minnesota river populations. The SNP genetic data shows that riparian Minnesota RCG populations are native. These data will facilitate future management strategies to control RCG as a native, but invasive, species.

     

Pehr Osbeck's collections and Linnaeus's Species Plantarum (1753)

On the basis of Osbeck's and Linnaeus's correspondence in 1752, which is briefly discussed, Osbeck's conveyance of his collections, and Linnaeus's subsequent incorporation of the new species into his Species Plantarum , are illustrated. A means of referring specimens in Linnaeus's herbaria to Osbeck's collections is provided. Finally an approximate date for the start of the printing of Species Plantarum is suggested.     

Phytotaxonomy in the People’s Republic of China

As three of the members of the delegation of the Botanical Society of America, the authors participated in a 28-day tour of the People’s Republic of China in May and June, 1978. Botanical institutes and universities were visited in nine cities. A list of names and addresses of the collaborators and editors of family treatments for theFlora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae is supplemented with a bibliography of published floras and significant taxonomic literature issued primarily since the end of the Cultural Revolution. A few observations on herbaria and herbarium practices are included.     

Bryophytes and lichens in 16th-century herbaria

The diversity of bryophyte and lichen collections in 9 of the oldest preserved herbaria (dating from ca 1542 to 1577) was compared, including the first reports of bryophytes and lichens from the ‘En Tibi’ herbarium (possibly 1542–1544) and the herbarium of Leonhard Rauwolf (1560–1563). Bryophytes and lichens formed only a minority in each herbarium compared to the numbers of vascular plant specimens; numbers ranged from representatives of 21 genera in the herbarium of Ulisse Aldrovandi to the single genus Conocephalum in the Rauwolf herbarium. The focus was on large, handsome species of bryophytes and macrolichens, apart from small amounts of additional species collected as ‘by-catch’ in mixed collections. All herbaria together included 34 genera of bryophytes (36 species and 10 specimens identified to genus level) and 13 genera of lichens (24 species and 4 specimens identified to genus level). The diversity of mosses was higher than that of liverworts, and pleurocarpous mosses were more diverse than acrocarpous mosses. The collectors probably aimed at selecting material that was either characteristic of the vegetation in the respective areas of collecting or used for certain purposes (or both). The former hypothesis is supported by the small overlap in taxonomic diversity between the herbaria, and the latter by the fact that several moss, liverwort, and lichen genera are included whose traditional uses are well documented.     

The contribution of small collections to species distribution modelling: A case study from Fuireneae (Cyperaceae)

The recent and rapid digitization of biodiversity data from natural history collection (NHC) archives has enriched collections based data repositories; this data continues to inform studies of species' geographic distributions. Here we investigate the relative impact of plant data from small natural history collections (collections with < 100,000 specimens) on species distributional models in an effort to document the potential of data from small NHCs to contribute to and inform biodiversity research. We modelled suitable habitat of five test case species from Fuireneae (Cyperaceae) in the United States using specimen records available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and that of data ready to mobilize from two regional small herbaria. Data were partitioned into three datasets based on their source: 1) collections-based records from large NHCs accessed GBIF, 2) collections-based records from small NHCs accessed from GBIF, and 3) collections-based records from two small regional herbaria not yet mobilized to GBIF. We extracted and evaluated the ecological niche represented for each of the three datasets by applying dataset occurrences to 14 environmental factors, and we modelled habitat suitability using Maxent to compare the represented distribution of the environmental values among the datasets. Our analyses indicate that the data from small NHCs contributed unique information in both geographic and environmental space. When data from small collections were combined with data from large collections, species models of the ecological niche resulted in more refined predictions of habitat suitability, indicating that small collections can contribute unique occurrence data which enhance species distribution models by bridging geographic collection gaps and shifting modelled predictions of suitable habitat. Inclusion of specimen records from small collections in ongoing digitization efforts is essential for generating informed models of a species' niche and distribution.     

Collecting collections: building the library of The New York Botanical Garden

The history of the collections in the Library of The New York Botanical Garden includes the acquisition of previously accumulated collections as well as individual items acquired in the normal course of collection development. Particularly during the first 50 years of the institution, collections of library materials were acquired along with herbaria specimens, and, occasionally, collections of living plants, assembled by an individual as part of his or her personal research interests. While curatorial practice dictates that such an assemblage of research materials be separated when shifted from individual to institutional curatorship, the knowledge of the whole of the collection as received may fill in the background pattern of institutional collection development. A chronological table of these collections is appended, including reference to any extended discussion or listing.     

DNA banking for plant breeding,biotechnology and biodiversity evaluation

The manipulation of DNA is routine practice in botanical research and has made a huge impact on plant breeding, biotechnology and biodiversity evaluation. DNA is easy to extract from most plant tissues and can be stored for long periods in DNA banks. Curation methods are well developed for other botanical resources such as herbaria, seed banks and botanic gardens, but procedures for the establishment and maintenance of DNA banks have not been well documented. This paper reviews the curation of DNA banks for the characterisation and utilisation of biodiversity and provides guidelines for DNA bank management. It surveys existing DNA banks and outlines their operation. It includes a review of plant DNA collection, preservation, isolation, storage, database management and exchange procedures. We stress that DNA banks require full integration with existing collections such as botanic gardens, herbaria and seed banks, and information retrieval systems that link such facilities, bioinformatic resources and other DNA banks. They also require efficient and well-regulated sample exchange procedures. Only with appropriate curation will maximum utilisation of DNA collections be achieved.     

Notes on “Lichenes selecti exsiccati” with an alphabetical index to fascicles 81–100 (Nos. 2001–2500)

Sixth full report on the series Lichenes selecti exsiccati is given. Contributing collectors, dates of issue, taxa determinations and their corrections, list of recipient herbaria and alphabetical index to taxa are reported.     

Biological collections in an ever changing world: Herbaria as tools for biogeographical and environmental studies

Plant specimens stored in herbaria are being used as never before to document the impacts of global change on humans and nature. However, published statistics on the use of biological collections are rare, and ecologists lack quantitative data demonstrating the relevance to science of herbarium specimens. I found 382 studies with original data that used herbarium specimens to document biogeographical patterns or environmental changes. Most studies are less than 10 years old, and only 1.4% of the herbarium specimens worldwide have been used to answer biogeographical or environmental questions. The vast majority (82%) of papers dealt with vascular plants, but some studies also used bryophytes, lichens, seaweeds and fungi. The herbarium specimens were collected from all continents, but most of the studies used specimens from North America (40% of studies) or Europe (28%). Many types of researches (conservation, plant disease, plant invasion, pollution, etc.) can be conducted using herbarium specimens. Climate change, and especially phenological reconstructions, are clearly emerging research topics. By group, small herbaria (<100,000 specimens) are consulted as often as very large herbaria (>1,000,000 specimens) for biogeographical and environmental research, but in most cases, only large facilities provide specimens collected worldwide. The median number of specimens per study in papers using computerized collections (15,295) was much higher than for papers that did not include electronic data (226). The use of molecular analyses to investigate herbarium specimens is still relatively unexplored, at least from biogeographical and environmental points of view. Combined with recently developed procedures to correct biases, herbarium specimens might provide in the near future exciting additional spatio-temporal insights that are currently unimaginable.     

Germination of up to 129-year old, dry-stored seeds of Geranium bohemicum (Geraniaceae)

Old dry-stored seeds of the annual pyrophyte Geranium bohemicum from seed collections and herbaria were tested to determine their germinability. Ten samples of seed, ranging in age from 3 to 200 years, were used. The oldest seeds to germinate (three out of ten) were from a 129-year old collection. All three seedlings developed into healthy plants. This finding supports the assumption that G bohemicum can emerge from a bank of long-lived seeds after forest fires.     

The Montana collections of Francis Duncan Kelsey

Francis Duncan Kelsey amassed one of the important early herbaria of Montana plants from 1885 to 1893. His Montana collections contain over 1200 specimens of algae, bryophytes, ferns, angiosperms, and fungi and include at least 41 that serve as types. Originally donated to the Oberlin College Herbarium (OC), the Montana collections, records, and later correspondence of Kelsey are now housed at the Miami University Herbarium (MU). The mycological collections of Kelsey are numbered, dated, and include site information; his other collections are unnumbered and often lack precise dates and/or localities. Kelsey's Montana fieldwork itineraries and sources of exchange are presented. All valid and legitimate names based on Kelsey's Montana collections are listed with pertinent information from his collection notebooks.