The 6 million plant specimens held in the Botany Department include many of great historical importance.

Among the many famous explorers and natural historians whose collections are held in the Museum are:

Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) The famous physician and collector's 265 bound volumes of plants and drawings are the foundation of this Museum's collections. On his visit to Jamaica from 1687-1689, Sloane collected many new plants including cocoa which he introduced to Europe as a medicinal drink (see image above).

Paul Hermann (1646-1695) A Dutch botanist who was the first European to collect plants in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Many of his botanical volumes also contain dried insect specimens.

George Clifford (1685-1760) A Dutch East India Company Director whose garden near Haarlem, the Netherlands was visited by the great Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus who named and described many of the plants there.

John Clayton (1686-1773) Botanist and collector who emigrated to Virginia in 1705. His herbarium is one the earliest from North America.

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) The naturalist on Captain Cook's first voyage brought back from Australia many plant species that were new to Europeans.

The Museum also holds many historical volumes of 'lower plants' such as seaweeds. Some of these are a useful past record of what could be found on British coasts over the last 200 years. Others have value as interesting works of art.

These old collections have more than historical value as they contain many important type specimens. When a scientist describes and gives a scientific name to a plant or animal for the first time, the actual specimen that he was working from is known as the 'type'. For example the great Swedish botanist, Carl Linnaeus based his description of bread wheat on Clifford's specimen, and gave the plant the name, Triticum aestivum. This name can only be used for a species that includes the 300 year old type specimen - an important reference point regularly consulted by scientists.

To reduce handling of these delicate old specimens and to make them more accessible to scientists and historians, the Museum is recording images on CD-ROM. Such work on the development and care of all our collections is coordinated in the Museum-wide Curation Programme.

Illustrations

1. Drawing of the type specimen of cocoa, Theobroma cacao in one of Sir Hans Sloane's bound volumes of plants collected in Jamaica from 1687-1689.
2. Ferns and other plants collected in Sri Lanka in the seventeenth century by the Dutch botanist Paul Hermann. Even a mantis has been preserved with the plant specimens.
3. The type specimen of bread wheat Triticum aestivum described and named by Linnaeus from the collections of George Clifford. Note the very long bristles (awns) - this specimen is a very different cultivar from those commonly cultivated today.
4. Dioscorea villosa - a relative of the Yam, collected by John Clayton in Virginia, North America in the 18th century.
5. A page from Ocean flowers and their teachings a nineteenth century volume of poetry and prose relating to life in the sea. A pressed seaweed specimen (Ptilota plumosa) is mounted opposite the text.

Research on these historical collections is part of the Faunas and Floras Research Theme.

For further information contact:

Dr. Rob Huxley
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD UK
Tel: +44 (0) 171 938 8823 Fax: +44 (0) 171 938 9260
Email: rh@nhm.ac.uk

Copyright (c) 1996 The Natural History Museum