Note on the Herbaria of John and James Dalton

Abstract

There has been a certain amount of confusion about two herbaria from north of England bearing name of Dalton. For example, case of Cypripedium calceolus L. (=Capreolus calceolus L.), Lady's Slipper, may be cited. This plant has long been known from a few districts of West Riding of Yorkshire. In F. A. Lees's The Flora of West Yorkshire (1888:436-437) there is reference to a specimen in herbarium, and it is clear from author's list of acknowledgments (:ioo) that this Dalton herbarium was at York, in museum of Yorkshire Philosophical The specimen is still there, in herbarium of Rev. James Dalton; museum became property of City of York Corporation in 1961, and Philosophical Society's herbarium (into which James Dalton's herbarium was incorporated between 1894 and 1916) has been maintained intact. The Naturalist of 1919 (-.282) carried a reference to a specimen of Capreolus calceolus in herbarium ofJohn Dalton at Manchester, which apparently prompted Lees to state in a later issue of same year (:34i) that the Rev. John Dalton had, or made, a duplicate, Hortus siccus. That I quoted was York one, of Phil. Society. Thus two botanical Daltons had been confused. John Dalton, a celebrated Manchester physicist and chemist, and James Dalton, Rector ofCroft in North Yorkshire, were contemporaries, living in 1766-1844 and 17641843 respectively. They do not appear to have been related. John Dalton was, for many of his most active years, a field botanist, accumulating a substantial herbarium begun during his early period as a schoolmaster in Kendal between 1781 and 1793. He taught himself, with guidance of magnificent, but blind, naturalist John Gough (1757-1825), (the subject of part of Wordsworth's Excursion, Book Seven). He appears to have met, or corresponded with, several well-known northern botanists of day, including Edward Robson (1763-1813) of Darlington, who was an important contributor to herbaria of both John and James. Adamson and Crabtree (1920) have described history ofJohn Dalton's herbarium and have catalogued its contents, and I can add little to their account. Their work is of great value, for John's herbarium was destroyed during 1939-1945 war. A Mr Peter Crosthwaite had a private museum in Keswick during period ofDalton's residence