Type Material in the Herbarium of the Martin Luther University Halle
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©Institut für Biologie, Institutsbereich Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg Schlechtendalia 29 (2016) Type material in the herbarium of the Martin Luther University Halle- Wittenberg of species based on collections from Alexander von Humboldt’s American expedition between 1799 and 1804 in its historical context Natalia TKACH, Bettina HEUCHERT, Christina KRÜGER, Heike HEKLAU, Denise MARX, Uwe BRAUN & Martin RÖSER Abstract: Tkach, N., Heuchert, B., Krüger, Ch., Heklau, H., Marx, D., Braun, U. & Röser, M. 2016: Type material in the herbarium of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg of species based on collections from Alexander von Humboldt‟s American expedition between 1799 and 1804 in its historical context. Schlechtendalia 29: 1–107. Type material of 363 plant species described on the basis of collections from Alexander von Humboldt‟s American research journey at the turn from the 18th to the 19th century is deposited in the herbarium of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (HAL). Most of these types are duplicates of specimens in Willdenow‟s collection housed in the herbarium of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin-Dahlem (B). Some other samples came from the legacy of D. F. C. von Schlechtendal, but most of these specimens made their way to Halle through his son, D. F. L. von Schlechtendal. Numerous Humboldt collections are deposited in the herbarium of the Muséum National d‟Histoire Naturelle in Paris (P). A comprehensive survey of the types deposited in HAL is given, and the herbarium samples concerned are discussed in their historical context. It has been verified whether the type specimens deposited in HAL are unique specimens or duplicates of samples preserved also in Berlin (B) and/or Paris (P). The history of Humboldt‟s botanical collections from his American expedition, including their shipment to Europe, all important people involved in their distribution between Berlin and Paris, their scientific processing by various botanists, and the background of the transfer of duplicates to Halle, are discussed. An annotated list of the 363 type collections is provided at the end of this work. Zusammenfassung: Tkach, N., Krüger, Ch., Heuchert, B., Heklau, H., Marx, D., Braun, U. & Röser, M. 2016: Typusmaterial von Arten basierend auf Kollektionen von Alexander von Humboldts amerikanischer Forschungsreise zwischen 1799 und 1804 im Herbarium der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg im historischen Kontext. Schlechtendalia 29: 1–107. Typusmaterial von 363 Pflanzenarten, die auf Grundlage von Kollektionen aus Humboldts amerikanischer Forschungsreise an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert beschrieben worden sind, befindet sich in Herbarium der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (HAL). Die meisten Typen sind Dubletten von Kollektionen aus der Sammlung von C. L. Willdenow im Herbarium des Botanischen Gartens und Botanischen Museums Berlin-Dahlem (B), einige andere Belege stammen aus dem Nachlass von D. F. C. von Schlechtendal, wobei aber die meisten dieser Kollektionen durch seinen Sohn, D. F. L. von Schlechtendal, nach Halle gelangten. Zahlreiche Humboldt- Kollektionen werden im Herbarium des Muséum National d‟Histoire Naturelle in Paris (P) aufbewahrt. Eine umfassende Übersicht der in HAL vorhandenen Typus-Kollektionen wird vorgelegt und die einzelnen Belege werden in ihrem historischen Kontext diskutiert. Es wurde geprüft, ob die in HAL vorhandenen Typen Unikate sind oder Duplikate von Belegen, die in Berlin (B) und/oder Paris (P) vorhanden sind. Die Geschichte von Humboldts botanischen Sammlungen seiner amerikanischen Expedition, einschließlich des Transports nach Europa, aller wichtigen involvierten Personen, der Aufteilung zwischen Berlin und Paris, der wissenschaftlichen Bearbeitung durch verschiedene Botaniker und des Hintergrundes der Überführung von Dubletten nach Halle, werden diskutiert. Eine annotierte Liste der 363 Typen bildet den Abschluss dieser Arbeit. Key words: HAL, type material, A. Bonpland, C. S. Kunth, D. F. L. von Schlechtendal, C. L. Willdenow. Published online 19 Feb. 2016 Contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 2 Methods ............................................................................................................................. 3 3 Basic historical data ........................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) .............................................................................. 4 3.2 Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858) ........................................................................................... 10 3.3 Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812) .............................................................................. 13 3.4 Carl Sigismund Kunth (1788–1850) ................................................................................. 16 4 History of Humboldt‟s and Bonpland‟s herbarium material ........................................... 18 4.1 Transportation of the herbarium material and return of Humboldt and Bonpland to Europe ......................................................................................................... 18 1 ©Institut für Biologie, Institutsbereich Geobotanik und Botanischer Garten der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg 4.2 The collections kept in the herbarium in Paris ................................................................ 19 4.3 The collections kept in the herbarium in Berlin .............................................................. 20 4.4 The collections kept in the herbarium in Halle ............................................................... 22 5 Treatment of Humboldt‟s and Bonpland‟s collections of the American expedition ....... 23 5.1 Processing of the collections during the expedition and the Journal de botanique ......... 24 5.2 Processing and publication of the collection deposited in Paris ..................................... 25 5.3 Processing and publication of the collection deposited in Berlin ................................... 28 5.4 Processing and publication of the collection in the herbarium of the university in Halle 32 5.5 Unique specimens and duplicates in Halle, Berlin and Paris .......................................... 35 5.6 Publications based on Humboldt‟s and Bonpland‟s collections by other authors ........... 35 5.7 Humboldt‟s and Bonpland‟s collections of the American expedition in other herbaria . 35 6 Annotated list of type collections .................................................................................... 36 7 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 102 8 References, archive and internet resources ................................................................... 102 1 Introduction Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most outstanding and influential personalities of his time. His contributions to natural sciences are fundamental and of major relevance to this day. Humboldt‟s American research journey between 1799 and 1804 was one of the most spectacular early expeditions in little researched regions in the tropics of America, and its results lie at the core of modern scientific exploration, above all for Mexico, the West Indies and South America. Humboldt is still venerated today in wide parts of this continent. A collection comprising more than 5,000 species was part of the scientific yield of this expedition at the turn from the 18th to the 19th century (Humboldt 1851). Humboldt‟s plant collections reached the herbarium of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin-Dahlem, especially via the collections of the botanists Carl Ludwig Willdenow and Carl Sigismund Kunth (about 3,360 species), and in the herbarium of the Muséum National d‟Histoire Naturelle in Paris (about 3,560 species). In 1833, an unspecified number of additional collections, originally in the possession of Aimé Bonpland, were added to the herbarium in Paris (Hiepko 2006). Examinations of these collections by various botanists resulted in descriptions of numerous new species. According to Humboldt (1851), descriptions of 3,600 new species had been published between 1815 and 1825 in works dealing with herbarium specimens of his expedition (see Chapter 5). This amount is particularly impressive since the total number of known European species in the middle of the 19th century encompassed a mere 8,000 or so species (Hein 1959). Type material of the new taxa of Humboldt‟s collections is nowadays mainly deposited in the herbaria in Berlin (B) and Paris (P). However, 363 type collections based on Humboldt material have been traced in the herbarium of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (HAL). This herbarium is of medium size and today comprises about 500,000 specimens, including approximately 12,000 type specimens. In the last few years, a comprehensive search for type collections has been carried out in HAL, leading to the discovery of numerous types based on Humboldt material, which is, however, not sufficiently well known among taxonomists. In most previous publications dealing with Humboldt‟s collections, only samples deposited in Berlin (B) and Paris (P) have been taken into consideration (Rankin Rodiguez & Greuter 2001, Leuenberger 2002, Hiepko 2006, Hind & Jeffrey 2001). A reference to the fact that Humboldt