Collection: Oxford University Herbaria

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Daubeny Herbarium

  Worldwide collection of angiosperms and gymnosperms, especially rich in African woody material. FHO has grown to approximately 400,000 specimens (plus associated carpological and spirit collections) and has outgrown the cupboard capacity of the herbarium of the 1950s.

  Xylarium

  Worldwide collection of angiosperms and gymnosperm wood, especially rich in species from former British Colonies. Large wood blocks are arranged alphabetically by family, genus and species and smaller blocks are arranged in numbered wooden boxes. Microscope slides are maintained vertically in aluminium slide holders in steel filing cabinets. The FHOw comprises 29,953 entries of 24,343 wood blocks and 13,100 microscope slides; 7,673 (31.5%) wood blocks have associated microscope slides. 1,635 (5.5%) accessions in the database are from gymnosperms, and the remainder from non-gymnosperms including palms and tree ferns. 10,678 species, 2,719 genera and 239 families are represented. 51 accessions are associated with type material. Geographical distribution is 22.1% Malaysia, 20.8% tropical Africa, 11.9% from South America. 200 countries are represented. 765 collectors are listed, but 25.5% of accessions have no collector and 348 (45.5%) collectors have one accession. Main collectors are Krukoff, Gamble, Vigne, Breteler, Molfino, Cuatrecasas, Cooper, Stern & Brizicky and Anderson, and Forest Departments from former British Colonies have 7502 accessions (25.1%) and 59.7% of accessions were made in 1930- 1950s. FHOw contains a mixture of scientifically important and historically interesting materials including collections of Vigne (Ghana), Anderson (Sarawak), Breteler (Cameroon, Venezuela), Brown (Borneo), Cooper (Liberia), Cooper & Slater (Panama), Cuatrecasas (Columbia) and Krukoff (Brazil, Sumatra) and historical collections include Gamble (India) and Molfino (Argentina, HRH the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII and individual items collected by Erasmus Darwin (FHOw 12208, Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. Webb and Richard Spruce. There are about 1,000,000 specimens in the world’s xylaria, 123,000 (11.3%) in the UK; FHOw and PRLw are unusual in having more than 10% of the collection supported by herbarium vouchers. FHOw is the 13th largest (the largest is the US Forest Products Laboratory with 98,635 accessions) and 33rd oldest (the oldest is Leningrad, founded in 1823) xylarium in the world.

  Fielding-Druce Herbarium

  Robert Morison (1620-1683), specimens are mounted on sheets according to numbers published in Plantae Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis, pp.632-635 & 641, about 60 taxa are represented on 76 sheets, British and foreign material, but very few specimens are localised or dated; Collectors include: Buddle, A. (c.1660-1715); Doody, S. (1656-1706); Lhwyd, E. (1660-1709); Morison, R. (1620-1683); Petiver, J. (1663/4-1718); Plukenet, L. (1642-1706); Richardson, R. (1663-1741); Robinson, T. (c.1657-1748), others possible are Bobart, J., Byrch, E., Du Bois, C., Pargiter(?), Plot, R., Sherard, J., Sloane, H., Stephens, L., Stonestreet, W., Vernon, W., Wheler, G. and Willisel, T. Johann Jacob Dillenius (1684-1747) Lichens noted in Crombie, J.M., 1880, On the lichens of Dillenius’s ‘Historia Muscorum’, as illustrated by his herbarium. J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 17: 553-581 and Druce, G.C. & Vines, S.H., 1907, The Dillenian Herbaria. Oxford University Press, Oxford). William Sherard (1659-1728) collection 389 mounted and packeted specimens, many poorly localised and dated, but definite material from Berkshire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Kent, London, Middlesex, Oxfordshire, Salop, Somerset, Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Caernarvonshire, Denbigh, Merioneth, Montgomery, Radnor), Ireland, Canary Islands, France, Greenland, India, Lapland, Peru, Switzerland(?), Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. Contains some very important early material and complements the Dillenian collection. Collectors include: Bartram, J. (1699-1777); Bauhino, J. (1541-1613); Bobart, J. (1641-1719); Brewer, S. (1670-1743); Brown, A. (fl. 1692-1698); Brown, L. (fl. 1699-1749); Buddle, A. (c. 1660-1715); Bulkley, E. (c. 1651-1714); Catesby, M. (1679/80-1749); Celsius, O. ((1670-1756); Clayton, J. (1686-1773); Cole, T. (fl. 1720-1730); Dillenius, J.J. (1684-1747); Doody, S. (1656-1706); Green, W. (fl. 1726-1740); Jones, W. (fl. 1730); Lhwyd, E. (1660-1709); Linnaeus, C. (1707-1778); Mitchell, J. (1711-1768); Petiver, J. (c. 1658-1718); Rand, I. (?-1743); Richardson, R. (1663-1741); Sherard, W. (1659-1728); Sibthorpe, J. (1758-1796); Stonestreet, W. (?-1716); Vaillant, S. (1669-1722); Vernon, W. (fl. 1688-1711). John Sibthorp (1758-1796) 2 collections of 81 mounted specimens related to numbered entries (858-924 & 1177-1190) in Flora Oxoniensis (1794) (pp. 315-335, 416-419), but 21 sheets cannot be traced and 11 specimens are missing from their packets; 51 sheets of 54 packets of material, undated but some localised from Greece Athos, Athens, Crete, Imbros, Limnos, Parnis, Skiatho and Zante, probably all collected in 1795, and Sicily. General Collection mainly collected by Sibthorp including some from to Ben Lomond c.1780 e a stone to get at a Lichen’ (reproduced in Lack, H.W. with Mabberley, D.J., 1999, The Flora Graeca Story,. Oxford University Press, Oxford. p. 18). Localised material of Sibthorp is from: Hermitage (Berkshire), Rivalston(?), Ben Lomond (Stirlingshire), Craig Chialleach (= ?Craig na Callich, Perth), Crammond Island (= Cramond Island, Firth of Forth), King’s Park (Edinburgh), Pentland Hills (nr. Edinburgh), Roslin (Midlothian) and Taymouth (Perth). I33 packets transferred from the Sibthorp Lichen collection and other material from Cornwall, Scotland and Wales collected by John Lightfoot (1735-1788) between 1772 and 1774. Charles du Bois (1656-1740) collection on 102 sheets from c.1697-1724, some localised and/or dated. Collectors include ?Bobart, J. (1641-1719); Brown, A. (fl. 1692-1698) Johanna Island, Comoros, Indian Ocean (1697); Buddle, A. (c. 1660-1715); Bulkley, E. (1651?-1714) Fort St George, India (1702-1703); Bengal (1704); Catesby, M. (1679/1680-1749) South Carolina, USA (1724); Doody, S. (1656-1706); Du Bois (1656-1740) Tunbridge Wells; Petiver, J. (c. 1658-1718); Plukenet, L. (1641-1796) ?Palma/Canary Islands; Stephens, L. (1654-1724/1725); Stonestreet, W. (?-1716); Vernon, W. (1667/1688-c.1715) Maryland, USA (1698). Bishop C. Lipscombe (1781-1843) collection is a bound volume containing 452 taxa of mounted specimens and 209 taxa on stone, separately stored, of British and foreign material, few specimens localized or dated. Exsiccati are kept separately from the other collections: Baxter, W., Stirpes Cryptogamae Oxoniensis, 1825, 1828, Oxford, 2 fasc. (complete) Bohler, J., Lichenes Britannici, 1835-1837, Sheffield, 16 fasc. (?incomplete) Dietrich, D.N.F., Herbarium Florae Germanicae, 1830-?, Jena (?incomplete) Don, G., Herbarium Britannicum, 1804-1812, Edinburgh, 9 fasc. (complete) Funck, H.C., Cryptogamische Gewachse des Fichtelgebirg’s, Ed.I (1801-1805), 5 fasc.; Ed.II (1806- 1838), 42 fasc.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC