The Sir Joseph Banks Centre and the Economic Botany collections at Kew

Abstract

In early 1990, the new sir Joseph Banks Centre for Economic Botany is due to open at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, marking a crucial stage in the development of economic botanical research there. For the first time since their inception, the Economic Botany Collections will be housed under one roof with a computerized accessions list and their own library facilities. It is expected that having all the materials together will attract visitors and researchers from all around the world, just as the nearby and vast Herbarium, with over five million dried plant specimens, draws the world's taxonomists.