Birmingham Museums Birmingham Botany Collections The Herbarium of William Whitwell Edited by Phil Watson and Mariyam Ali © Birmingham Museums Version 1.0 September 2014 Birmingham Botany Collections – Herbarium of W Whitwell 1 Birmingham Botany Collections – Herbarium of W Whitwell Introduction William Whitwell was born in Manchester in 1839 and his early childhood was spent in north east Wales. He was working as a clerk in Leicester in the mid 1850s which is when his interest in botany seems to have begun. He joined the Inland Revenue in 1859, a role which led to him having to live in various counties including Cheshire. He eventually moved to London and was living in Balham by at least 1889. He retired in 1899 and moved to Kidderminster Road, Lower Hagley in 1902. He subsequently moved to Darley Green near Knowle where he died in 1920. He published relatively little but was an active field worker in as much as his work commitments allowed and was a Fellow of the Linnaean Society. His herbarium was presented to the museum in 1921 by his relatives. As well as the specimens, the gift also included some correspondence and some field notebooks dated between 1870 and 1884. There was also a manuscript entitled Dorsetshire Notes, supplementary to “The Flora of Dorsetshire” by J C Mansel-Pleydell Esq. August 1888 and May 1889 and a handwritten notebook entitled Catalogue of British Plants collected by Dr. O St Brody (for the Herbarium of Mr. William Whitwell FLS) on Wandsworth Common and the “Enclosed Part” of it during the months of June, July, August and September 1894 . A copy of the London Catalogue of British Plants, 9th ed. (1895) was “annotated for 280 species found during visits in 1897, 1898 and 1899 for the Surrey portion of Haslemere District” and another annotated copy covers Wimbledon and Tooting Common. The checklist below contains 4806 specimens; the collection also contained 267 specimens of lichen, published in Birmingham Botany Collections – Lichens (http://www.bmag.org.uk/uploads/fck/file/BBC%20Lichens.pdf). The majority have associated field data and only 5% lack a date, 4% an associated collector and 2% a provenance. Over 2500 specimens (52%) were collected by Whitwell himself between 1858 and 1912. His main period of collecting was the four decades between 1864 and1904 although his field activities do not seem to have been very consistent. For example in 1869 he collected only 9 specimens compared to 191 the following year, in 1883 he collected 2 compared with 163 in 1884. There are some broad trends that can be identified in his collecting, no doubt related to his postings with the Inland Revenue. Thus between 1862 and 1866 he collected predominantly in north Wales and Shropshire with a foray into Devon (holiday?) in 1865 and Yorkshire in 1866. Specimens from Oxfordshire and Berkshire cluster in the years 1870-1875. The majority of his specimens from Yorkshire fall in the period 1877-1884. There are specimens from Surrey in every year from 1885-1902 but within this period he also collected in Essex (1885-1886), Kent (1887, 1896) and Dorset (1888-1889 and 1894-1895). The first collecting from Worcestershire dates from 1902, clearly linked to his move there, and all the rest of his collecting (which only amounts to 62 specimens) was from this and other local West Midlands counties. He also acquired material from many other collectors. The earliest specimens date between 1801 and 1822 and were predominantly collected by Henry Shepherd in Lancashire and Cheshire. The biggest contributor to the collection, after Whitwell himself, was Dr O St Brody who provided over 300 specimens mainly from Surrey, Kent and Devon mostly in the 1890s. E S Marshall provided 180 specimens from various counties in the 1890s and 1900s and F A Lees 107 from Yorkshire and other northern counties in the 1870s and later. Many other collectors provided smaller quantities of material from all over the country. Geographically the collection as a whole is predominantly English (80%) with Wales and Scotland respectively accounting for 8% and 7%. The remaining 5% comprises the few specimens from Ireland, the Channel Isles, abroad and without any location. Whitwell’s own collecting activities were even more Anglo-centric with 88% from England and 11% from Wales. Overall, much of the United Kingdom is covered with specimens from forty English, twelve Welsh, thirty Scottish and fifteen Irish counties. However many of these are represented by just a few or even single specimens. The best represented counties are Yorkshire with over 850 specimens and Surrey with 748. Another seven counties have over a hundred entries: Kent (320), Shropshire (250), Dorset (202), Sussex (186), Oxford (174), Devon (132) and Lancashire (109). The best represented Welsh counties are Denbigh (102), Montgomery (89) and Merioneth (62). 2 Birmingham Botany Collections – Herbarium of W Whitwell The Checklist The collections of vascular plants in Birmingham were re-assessed, and in some cases re-boxed, in the 1980s under the supervision of the then Keeper, Dr Brian Abell Seddon and a team of volunteers. As part of this, specimens were catalogued and arranged according to the taxonomy given in J.E. Dandy List of British Vascular Plants (British Museum, London 1958). Although it is accepted that taxonomy has advanced in the intervening period this arrangement has been retained here as it clearly reflects the storage and labelling of the specimens in the collection. The checklist is arranged in the following columns: 1 The Dandy number consisting of his genus number followed after a decimal point by his species number within each genus. 2 The name 3 The date of collection 4 The Vice-County number 5 More detailed provenance 6 The collector 1.1 Lycopodium selago 00.07.1866 49 Snowdon W R Hayward 1.1 Lycopodium selago 12.08.1875 48 Diphwys Mountain W Whitwell Barmouth 1.1 Lycopodium selago 00.00.0000 x x W R Hayward 1.1 Lycopodium selago 00.08.1899 x Romsdal E Blockbank 1.1 Lycopodium selago 00.08.1884 64 Penyghent W Whitwell 1.1 Lycopodium selago 00.06.1879 69 Kirkstone Pass W Whitwell 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 00.00.0000 11 Lyndhurst, New Forest W R Hayward 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 00.08.1872 91 Strachan, Hindhead T R Sim 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 00.10.1898 17 Devil's Punch Bowl A Russell 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 12.06.1894 9 Studland Bay, Little Sea W Whitwell 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 09.08.1898 x x W Whitwell 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 00.07.1844 96 Fort George W Croall 1.2 Lycopodium inundatum 26.08.1897 17 Devil's Punch Bowl, W Whitwell Hindhead 1.3 Lycopodium annotinum 11.08.1890 89 Gleann Fearnach H & J Groves 1.3 Lycopodium annotinum 00.07.1868 96 Ben Macdui W R Hayward 1.3 Lycopodium annotinum 00.00.1849 72-109 x S Thompson 1.3 Lycopodium annotinum 00.01.1886 62 Buttercrambe Moor x Wood near York 1.4 Lycopodium clavatum 22.07.1865 50 World's End Eglwyseg W Whitwell Rocks Llangollen 1.4 Lycopodium clavatum 00.00.1867 50 Slope of Moel y W Whitwell Gamelin, Llangollen 1.4 Lycopodium clavatum 05.08.1875 50 Near the flagshaft beyond W Whitwell the new 'Whalley's folly' on the hill beyond Trevor Hall Llangollen 1.5 Lycopodium alpinum 00.07.1866 49 Carnedd Llewellyn W R Hayward 1.5 Lycopodium alpinum 00.07.1866 49 Summit of Snowdon W R Hayward 1.5 Lycopodium alpinum 00.07.1863 x Ben Chaujin? J Ray 1.5 Lycopodium alpinum 17.08.1865 50 World's End Eglwyseg Whitwell Rocks Llangollen 1.5 Lycopodium alpinum 29.07.1890 88 Glen Lochay E S Marshall 3.1 Isoetes lacustris 03.10.1887 H20 Lough Bray A W Scully 3.1 Isoetes lacustris 00.07.1892 H20 Lough Bray R M Barrington 3.1 Isoetes lacustris 00.00.0000 64 Coniston Water S Thompson 3 Birmingham Botany Collections – Herbarium of W Whitwell 3.2 Isoetes echinospora 00.07.1878 H20 Bray Wicklow D Moore 3.2 Isoetes echinospora 00.06.1876 x Isle of Mull G Ross 3.3 Isoetes histrix 00.07.1867 C L'Ancresse Bay, H E Fox Guernsey 3.3 Isoetes histrix 30.05.1892 C L'Ancresse Bay, E D Margnand Guernsey 4.1 Equisetum hyemale 00.05.1861 H38/39 Crow Glen, Belfast S A Stewart 4.1 Equisetum hyemale 08.08.1852 62 Thirsk S Thompson 4.1 Equisetum hyemale 06.04.1867 H38/39 Colin Glen, Belfast S A Stewart 4.1 Equisetum hyemale 06.04.1867 H38/39 Colin Glen, Belfast S A Stewart 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 31.07.1893 58 The Golf Links Hoylake W Whitwell 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 00.07.1843 58 New Brighton S Thompson 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 00.00.0000 89 Sands of Barrie, Dundee J B Buchan 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 00.00.0000 H2 Shore of Ross Island, N Terry Killarney 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 00.00.1848 59 Southport S Thompson 4.4 Equisetum variegatum 25.06.1870 60 Blundell Sands J H Lewis 6.1 Trichomanes speciosum 00.00.1852 H6 Goughal Dr Kinahan 6.1 Trichomanes speciosum 00.00.1856 H2 Killarney Dr Kinahan 6.1 Trichomanes speciosum 00.00.0000 61-64 York S Thompson 6.1 Trichomanes speciosum 00.08.1876 H2 Torc Mountain, Killarney A W Bennett 6.1 Trichomanes speciosum 00.08.1854 H2 Torc Mountain, Killarney A W Bennett 7.1 Hymenophyllum 00.09.1893 H2 Killarney E H C tunbrigense 7.1 Hymenophyllum 00.04.1898 48 Harlech x tunbrigense 7.1 Hymenophyllum 00.00.1866 H1-40 x H M Gyther tunbrigense 7.2 Hymenophyllum wilsonii 00.08.1864 46 Devil's Bridge near Mrs Wilks Aberystwyth 7.2 Hymenophyllum wilsonii 00.00.1868 2 Rough Tor, St Brewards W Whitwell 7.2 Hymenophyllum wilsonii 00.00.0000 x x S Thompson 8.1 Pteridium aquilinum 00.00.1877 61-64 York city walls Christy R Miller 8.1 Pteridium aquilinum 00.08.1864 50 On the Geraint, W Whitwell Llangollen 8.1 Pteridium aquilinum 07.08.1862