The Herbarium

This was founded by Dixon as a Society function in 1878.  He and many other members, including of course Druce, contributed many specimens to this.  Some people also donated or bequeathed their own collections. Some of these dated back to the early days of Queen Victoria’s reign.  They included Dixon’s Moss Herbarium for Northamptonshire.

A group of volunteers have been curating the Herbarium since 1998.  We have been cleaning the sheets, creating a computer database of them, and re-arranging them according a modern systematic scheme. We use Kent’s “List of Vascular Plants of the British Isles” 1992.

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Seán Karley at work

We had almost finished this stage in 2003 when the total number of sheets in the Herbarium was about 4500. The entries for the British Isles specimens were entered into the “Index Herbariorum”, an on-line database of small herbaria operated by Hull University. Then Northampton Museum had a change of policy about which collections they would maintain.  It was decided that their Herbarium was not relevant to the Borough, and it was offered to us.  We accepted this and found ourselves with about 3,800 more sheets to curate. We have also been given two more small herbaria, so now we have over 8,500 sheets.

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Within the Herbarium one of the most interesting parts is the John Downes Herbarium; Downes was a county clergyman for 50 years at Hackleton and Hannington.  He started his collection when he was at Cambridge University, botanising with a young fellow called Charles Darwin, both studying under Professor John Henslow.  Henslow was the man who, amongst many other things, arranged for Darwin to travel on the Beagle, with all that that led to.  The Downes Herbarium includes 346 sheets given to him by Henslow.

The Herbarium Group meets on alternate Mondays from October to April, 10:00 a.m. in the rooms.  No experience is needed; any training needed will be given.  All that you need is a love of plants.  And you will be handling things like pressed Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) gathered in 1829, and still showing its purple colour.

   

 

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