Herbaria, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, on Microfiche

Abstract

[Ed. note: These accounts were edited from IDC's promotional brochure. IDC (address below) has many other microfiche editions of herbaria, as listed in their brochures: Herbaria on microfiche (1994) and Herbaria: Komarov Botanical Institute, St. Petersburg, Royal Botanical Garden, Madrid (1995). For other IDC microfiche works see Taxon 39: 258-259, 641, 41: 629-630). Special Dfl 8930.00 price instead of Dfl 9925.00 for purchase of complete collection of three Oxford herbaria below. For each the printed guide provides the numbers of the fiche on which the items are filmed.] IDC Publishers. The Dillenian Herbaria, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford. Microfiche ed. (118 fiche, plus photocopy of booklet: G. C. Druce & S. H. Vines, An account of the Dillenian collections, Oxford, 1907). IDC bv, Box 11205, 2301 EE Leiden, Netherlands (email info@idc.nl, http://www.idc.nl/), Jan. 1996, Dfl 2596.00 (order no. BT-18). John Jacob Dillenius (1684-1747), born Johann Jacob Dillen in Darmstadt, Germany, became the first Sherardian Professor of Botany at Oxford in 1734, after the death of William Sherard (1659-1728), who had endowed the professorship. Dillenius was a contemporary of both John Ray (1627-1705) and Linnaeus (1707-78) and his links with both of them and their works make his collections of considerable importance. Linnaeus visited Dillenius at Oxford in 1736. This led to a great friendship between the two botanists, who corresponded until Dillenius's death in 1747. There are three separate and distinct herbarium collections attributed to Dillenius. (1) The first consisting of specimens in the herbarium ofThe contains mostly British plants gathered after the 1724 publication of the third edition of John Ray's Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum. Dillenius edited this work, although his name does not appear on the title page. Each specimen' can be referred (by page number and paragraph) to corresponding entries in Ray's Synopsis (1724). Dillenius added many new species of to the work. Dillenius collected many specimens in 1726 as he journeyed around Wales and the west of England with Littleton Brown and Samuel Brewer. Dillenius apparently made the collection with a view to preparing a fourth edition of the Synopsis, which was never published. However, the third edition was very well received and remained the chief work of British botany until the publication in 1762 of William Hudson's (1730-93) Flora Anglica. Linnaeus constantly referred to the 1724 work in his Species plantarum (1753). (2) Dillenius's second collection contains specimens he used to illustrate his Hortus Elthamensis, published in two volumes in 1732. The plants described and illustrated here and preserved in the collection had been grown at James Sherard's garden at Eltham in Kent, said to be superior in many respects to the King's garden at Paris. Sherard's brother, William, was a friend and patron of Dillenius. The collection contains most succulent plants cultivated at that time, including an almost complete representation of Mesembryanthemum (based on contemporary knowledge), as well as a great variety of other exotic species. Dillenius established several new genera in this work, and Linnaeus later adopted many of them. (3) The third collection is the most important and consists of the specimens ofthe Historia muscorum used to illustrate Dillenius's book ofthat name. This work, published in Latin in 1741 (for a facsimile edition of the 1763 English version see entry for De Sloover under Notices), ranks as his greatest achievement. In Dillenius's day knowledge of the cryptogams was rather rudimentary; Dillenius assisted in clearing up the confusion about how these plants should be classified. Linnaeus frequently cited specimens from this collection, which includes all of the mosses known at the time. The herbarium contains much type material and is fundamental to our knowledge of these lower plants. IDC Publishers. The Morisonian Herbarium, Department ofPlant Sciences, University ofOxford. Microfiche ed. (226 fiche, plus photocopy of booklet: S. H. Vines & G. C. Druce, An account of the Morisonian Herbarium, Oxford, 1914). Ibid., Jan. 1996, Dfl 4972.00 (order no. BT-17). Robert Morison (1620-83), a Scotsman, was the first Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford; he was offered the Oxford chair in 1669. Morison had been appointed Physician to King Charles II in 1660, also receiving the title of Professor of Botany. Years earlier in 1650, while living 409