North American Plant Collections in the Liverpool Museum Herbarium
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Vulpia 3: 1-31. 2004. ISSN 1540-3599 EDMONDSON, J. NORTH AMERICAN PLANT COLLECTIONS IN THE INTRODUCTION LIVERPOOL MUSEUM HERBARIUM (LIV) This account of the North American collections of flowering plants JOHN EDMONDSON in the Liverpool Museum herbarium (LIV) has been prepared by National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool Museum extracting collectors’ data from three databases: the North Ameri- William Brown St. can herbarium, the Roylean herbarium and the J.E. Smith herbar- Liverpool L3 8EN, United Kingdom ium. The latter two collections are stored separately from the main [email protected] herbarium on account of their historic status. Ferns and non- vascular cryptogams, with the exception of lichens and macrofungi, are not yet fully documented on computer and have been excluded ABSTRACT from the lists which follow. Similarly, the museum holds large col- An account is given of the collectors of flowering plant specimens from continen- lections of timber specimens and other samples of economic prod- tal North America which are preserved in the herbarium of the Liverpool Mu- ucts, including some from North America. Details of these are in- seum (LIV). A brief history is given of the constituent herbaria, which include the cluded in previously published catalogues (Edmondson & Gunn Liverpool Botanic Garden herbarium (founded in 1802), the University of Liver- 1994; Edmondson et al. 1989). pool herbarium, the herbarium of John Forbes Royle and part of the herbarium of Sir James Edward Smith. Lists of collectors, arranged firstly alphabetically and secondly by state or province, are provided. History of the North American herbarium collections CONTENTS The earliest collections in the Liverpool Museum herbarium were acquired in 1799 when William Roscoe (1753-1831) purchased the Introduction.....................................................................................................................95 Johann Reinhold Forster herbarium from Halle, Germany History of the North American herbarium collections.............................................95 (Stansfield 1935, p. 50). The herbarium arrived in Liverpool in 1800, and formed the foundation collection of the Liverpool Bo- Collectors and collections.............................................................................................99 tanic Garden’s herbarium. This was established in 1802 when Wil- liam Roscoe, one of the prime movers behind the creation of the Table 1. Distribution of collection dates by quarter century, 1775-1999 .....98 Botanic Garden, gave an inaugural address to the proprietors. Table 2. List of collectors in herb. LIV ............................................................100 Shortly afterwards John Shepherd, its first curator, began to prepare voucher specimens of the plants cultivated in the garden. Table 3. Geographical list of collectors ............................................................109 The early years of the Botanic Garden contributed significantly to Literature Cited.............................................................................................................123 the botanical exploration of North America, most notably through Roscoe’s patronage of John Bradbury whose pioneering explora- tions of the Mid-West were sponsored by the Garden. This period, described as the “Barton Epoch” by Ewan in his account of the © 2004 2 Vulpia 3: 1-31. 2004. EDMONDSON, J. early history of botany in the United States (Ewan 1969, table 1) is “Let the practical Botanist who wishes like myself to be a pioneer of science, and best represented by the collections sent to Liverpool by Sir James to increase the knowledge of plants, be fully prepared to meet dangers of all sorts in the wild groves and mountains of America. The mere fatigue of a pedestrian Edward Smith, a close friend of William Roscoe. Smith enriched journey is nothing compared to the gloom of solitary forests, when not a human the collection with many specimens of plants collected by Dr. Fran- being is met for many miles, and if met he may be mistrusted . Musquitoes and cis Boott, Archibald Menzies, G.H.E. Muhlenberg and Frederick flies will often annoy you or suck your blood if you stop or leave a hurried step. Pursh and there are a few earlier collections which were acquired by Gnats dance before the eyes and often fall in unless you shut them; insects creep Sir Joseph Banks (e.g., Roger Shakespear’s N. American collec- on you and into your ears . You meet rough or muddy roads to vex you, and blind paths to perplex you, rocks, mountains, and steep ascents. You may often tions) and later passed on to Sir James Smith. The counterparts of loose [sic] your way, and must always have a compass with you as I had. You these collections, and many more from the same source, are kept in may be lamed in climbing rocks for plants or break your limbs by a fall . In the Smith Herbarium of the Linnean Society of London (LINN), deep fords or in swift streams you may lose your footing and be drowned . You which has also now been documented on computer (Edmondson & may travel over an unhealthy region or in a sickly season, you may fall sick on Smith 1999). the road and become helpless, unless you be very careful, abstemious and temper- ate. Such are some of the dangers and troubles of a botanical excursion in the mountains and forests of North America. The sedentary botanists or those who Another early explorer, Thomas Nuttall, was also associated with travel in carriages or by steamboats, know little of them; those who merely her- the Garden and although his main collections are in Philadelphia borize near a city or town, do not appreciate the courage of those who brave such (PH) and London (BM) there is a significant element in the Liver- dangers to reap the botanical wealth of the land, nor sufficiently value the collec- pool herbarium. tions thus made.” th Prior to the American Civil War, there were few established botani- In the late 19 century, Ewan’s “Graduate Laboratory” epoch, ex- cal institutions in the United States, and independent collectors siccatae were prepared by commercial dealers who offered sets for tended to supply material to European herbaria rather than to retain sale in Britain. The Liverpool pharmacist Alban Edward Lomax it in North America. Several important 19th century collectors are (1861-1894) owned a number of these collections, which were later well represented in Liverpool, notably the Florida collections of presented to the University of Liverpool. Such collections, though Ferdinand Rugel and the Louisiana collections of Thomas Drum- usually having little nomenclatural significance, can provide useful mond. Other notable collectors of this period, known by Ewan as data on the former occurrence of rare and endangered species. the “Torrey and Gray” epoch, include John Torrey himself, David th Douglas, and a Liverpool collector “C.S. Parker”. The latter has The early years of the 20 century are poorly represented in the Liv- been tentatively identified as Charles Sandbach Parker, who died in erpool Museum’s North American collections, by comparison with 1869. those of the previous century (see Table 1). This is mainly a reflec- tion of the low status of Botany in Liverpool during the period fol- It is worth pausing to consider the considerable efforts which were lowing the first World War, rather than of a diminution of collecting made by these early collectors. Constantin Samuel Rafinesque activity in North America. The Liverpool Microscopical Society (1783-1840) sounded a note of warning in the introduction to his received a large collection of diatom slides from M.J.B. Cole and New Flora and Botany of North America (1836): others, mainly originating from California; these were acquired by Liverpool Museum in 2002. 3 4 Vulpia 3: 1-31. 2004. EDMONDSON, J. from North American botanic gardens of this period, and although TABLE 1. Distribution of collection dates by quarter century, these fall outside the scope of this article it should be noted that the 1775-1999. Cultivated Herbarium at LIV has also been documented on com- puter. Decade Number of collectors Collectors and collections 1775-1800 2 1801-1825 4 The process of transferring data from specimen labels to a comput- 1826-1850 12 erised database is necessarily complex, due mainly to the lack of 1851-1875 30 standardisation in the way the information has been recorded manu- ally. The “collector” can be defined as the person who actually sam- 1876-1900 111 pled the plant in the field and preserved it by pressing and drying. 1901-1925 6 Various other names masquerading as “collector’s names” appear 1926-1950 8 on specimen labels and need to be deciphered (see Ewan 1969 for 1951-1975 71 an explanation of this problem). In the computerised database, the person who assembled or distributed the collection is recorded sepa- 1976-1999 7 rately from the name of the actual collector. In some cases it is diffi- cult to assign a person to either category without specialist local In 1952 the Museum acquired the Roylean herbarium from the Liv- knowledge; it is possible, therefore, that some names in the follow- erpool Royal Institution, where it had been housed since the 1850s. ing lists are wrongly attributed. Comments on and corrections to the It is predominantly a collection of Himalayan and Southern Indian list would be welcomed. specimens, but a smattering of North American material has been found, often with little or no documentation. Some of this material In the tables that follow, collectors’ names are given with dates of may previously have been part of Aylmer Bourke Lambert’s herbar- birth and/or death where the context appears to match information ium, which was dispersed at auction in 1842; see Miller (1969) for given in standard indexes of collectors (e.g. Harrison 1985; Hedge further details of these collections. & Lamond 1970; Holland et al. 1997; Lanjouw et al. 1954-1988). In other cases, collectors’ surnames and initials are cited without dates, In 1974 the University of Liverpool began to transfer its collections usually because the information on the specimen label is insufficient to the Liverpool Museum, leading to the merger of LIVU and LIV.