Herbarium History
Hospital
Manchester has some new hospitals, just up the road from the Manchester Museum in the University of Manchester. Botany specimens from the herbarium can be seen on display in the 2nd floor corridor of the new Royal Infirmary.
The showcase celebrates the poetic creativity of a group of 12 people who worked together with the Manchester Museum and nationally acclaimed poet Chanje Kunda. The group explored their health and wellbeing through a range of fascinating and inspiring activities held at the Museum. The workshops included object handling and curator-led talks that broadened people’s experience of art and ancient history.
One of the poems inspired by the botany collection:
Emerging from earth
Growing imperceptibly stronger
The wind blows
Tree arms flutter
Illumination from street light near
I sit and gaze in wonder
On oft’ waking from nightly slumber
What it is about them that please?
I love to look at them and think
We are like trees
old photo
- Just came across this photo of me working on the exsiccatae (books with pressed plant specimens stuck to pages inside). Its a lot tidier there now! Maybe I’ll find time to take a current photo from the same spot c:
- The herbarium with its many boxes of pressed plants
Fly agaric
Fly agaric mushrooms spotted in Disley, Stockport this weekend. Above, one I looked up in the herbarium this morning, from Wimbledon Common in 1903. They are stunning when fresh – the red is so bright!
Lady’s Slipper Orchid
One of our volunteers, Christine Walsh, visited Gait Barrows, Cumbria recently to see the Lady’s Slipper Orchids and took some stunning photos:
We have 8 British herbarium sheets of this beautiful plant, Cypripedium calceolus, collected between 1850 and 1880. This one shows four pressed plants which were collected in Arncliffe, Yorkshire in 1876 by Mr Shepherd:
Manchester Cryptogamic Society
I’ve transcribed the first few pages of the book detailing the society’s first meeting:
Manchester Cryptogamic Society
Lower Mosley St School
November 4th 1878
Meeting of Cryptogamic botanists for the purpose of carrying out some suggestions recently made and further formulated at the annual service of the Lower Mosley St. Natural History Society by the cryptogamic botanists present, having reference to the establishment of a society for the especial study of cryptogamic plants. Mr James Cash having been duly elected as chairman.
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It was proposed by Mr Thos. Brittain and seconded by Mr James Neild of Oldham that the title of the aforementioned society be the Manchester Cryptogamic Society. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by Mr Sunderland of Ashton andseconded by Mr Neild that a subscription of 2 shillings per year be contributed by each member of the society in accordance with the rule which regulates the membership of the Natural History Society., and which said contributions are applied in defraying incidental expenses of meeting and purchasing books on Natural History for the use of members of both these societies. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by Thos. Rogers and seconded by Thos Brittain that Mr John Whitehead be elected president of the society. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by Mr James Cash and seconded by Charles Weld that Thomas Rogers be elected as secretary. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by John Whitehead and seconded by Thos Rogers that W H Pearson and Thos. Brittain be elected as vice president. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by Peter Cunliffe of Handforth and seconded by John Whitehead that Mr Cash, Mr Hyde, and Mr Weld be elected as a committee in conjunction with the foregoing officers as managing committee for the next twelve months subject to re-election. – carried unanimously
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Proposed by Mr Neild and seconded by Mr Cash that the secretary be elected as treasurer. – carried unanimously
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Proposed and seconded that the meeting of the Society be held in the library of the L.Mosely St. Natural History on the second Monday in each month at 7.30. – Carried unanimously
The meeting which carried the foregoing resolutions was well attended and about 20 members joined the society whose name will be entered in subscription list at the end of this book. The following paragraph is cut from the Manchester Guardian Nov 5th.
The books are full of the minutes of the of the society’s meeting together with many newspaper clipping reporting the meetings in the Manchester Guardian. As well as being a keen amateur botanist, James Cash, the society’s first Chariman, was also a journalist for the Manchester Guardian, this may or may not have something to do with the meetings being reported so frequetly in that publication.
The subscription lists at the back of the books are a great resource for the history of Manchester botanists. Not only does it give the names and addresses of the key botanists working in Manchester at that time but it also shows how closely they knew each other and that they regualrly met to discuss and share their knowledge and passion for botany.
Microphotographs
Whilst cataloging some of the large collection of microscope slides in the herbarium I came across some slides with intriguing labels. One was labelled ‘The Moon”, another “Nelson Meditating His Prayer before the Battle of Trafalgar” and another “£20 Bank Note” – not the kind of thing we normally come across in the botany stores. I immediately set about viewing the slides under a microscope and was amazed to actually pictures of Nelson, the moon and a bank note. In the corner of the slides was the initial J.B.D.
After a few minutes on Google, I discovered that these slides were made by the 19th Century Manchester instrument maker and inventor of microphotography, John Benjamin Dancer. Dancer’s first example of microphotography was produced in 1839 and they soon became popular with microscopists.
“Dancer did not have any mass production method for turning out his micro-photograph slides and though it must have been very time consuming he is reported as having made many thousands. The method employed was explained by Mr.J.F.Stirling writing in Watsons Microscope Record No.45, Oct.1938, p.16. A glass negative of the photograph to be reduced was placed in a lantern illuminated by a flame. The image of the photograph was projected through a microscope objective mounted horizontally on to the sensitized collodion film supported on a glass sheet. Dancer speeded up production slightly by duplicating the contraption with two lanterns placed back to back with one illuminating flame in the space between the two lanterns, the whole assembly being covered over with a canvas tent to keep out the light. The exceedingly small piece of collodion film containing the positive microphotograph image was mounted in balsam beneath a cover glass on a standard 3 x 1 slide.” – The Microphotograph Slides Of John B. Dancer and Richard Suter by Roy Winsby
The practice of mounting microphotographs eventually became seen as frivolous by serious microsopists and their popularity waned. However, during the Franco-Prussian War the benefits for smuggling information on microphotographs meant that the technology developed by Dancer was given a new and very practical application.
Here is a list of Dancer’s Microphotographs.
Thanks to David Green for taking the photos of the slides.
Specimen of the Day: 18/1/2010 – Eucalyptus
The cold weather we’ve been having here at the moment has left many people (myself included) fighting the symptoms of colds and flu. In order to clear blocked noses and sinuses many of us will have used decongestants containing Eucalyptus oil. The essential oil of eucalyptus is obtained, by using a steam distillation process, from the leaves and the branches of the eucalyptus tree. The medicinal properties of the oil were most likely first discovered by the Aborigines, the native inhabitants of Australia (where the tree is originated from). They had used the oil as a remedy for skin problems and fevers. Modern herbalists rely on the oil to treat these conditions as well as colds and other respiratory ailments. The oil is a fine decongestant and has stong germicidal and antibacterial effects.
There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus with almost all of them being native to Australia. Eucalyptus are fast growing plants and most of them are evergreen. Several eucalypts are among the tallest trees in the world. Eucalyptus regnans, the Australian Mountain Ash, is the tallest of all flowering plants; today, the tallest measured specimen named Centurion is 99.6 metres tall.
The specimen I have chosen for today, however, is Eucalyptus incrassata.
Although we have many specimens of Eucalyptus in the Herbarium, I was drawn to this one because of its interesting label. I knew nothing about the Elder Exploring Expedition nor Richard Helms but was intrigued to discover more.
Sir Thomas Elder (1818 – 1897) was born in Scotland but emigrated to Australia in 1854. He became a successful and wealthy man with interests in copper mines, horse racing and breeding and he was said to have held at one time a pastoral area greater in extent than the whole of Scotland. He was a keen supporter of exploration and was the first person to import camels to Australia seeing them as a solution for the transport problems of the outback.
Thomas Elder funded The Elder Scientific Exploration Expedition (1891-92) and it’s objectives were:
Notwithstanding the numerous Explorations which have been so admirably and heroically conducted by Australian Explorers, the Map of Australia is still far from complete; the vast extensive blank spaces between latitudes 15ºS. and 30ºS. represent a vast area of country of which the physical geography remains altogether unknown.
The object of this Expedition is to make an exhaustive Scientific Exploration of these regions, and to determine and map with certainty and accuracy the position and nomenclature of all geographical physical features, and ascertain the nature of its fauna, flora, geological structure, and climatic condiditons.
It will also be a special object of the Expedition to search for information of the long-lost Explorer, Ludwig Leichardt, and his exploration party, which left in the year 1848 and of which no reliable information has been ascertained, although strenuous efforts have been made by all subsequent explorers to throw some light upon the fate of this heroic though ill-fated explorer.
The full expedition Handbook and instructions for the officers can be viewed here.
Despite its careful planning the expedition was plagued by problems and was eventually terminated on 4 March 1892. Although the expedition was generally thought of as being a failure it did have some successes. Richard Helms (1842-1914), the expedition’s naturalist, collected 150 new species of insects and of the 700 specimens of plants collected, there were 19 new species. Collections of land and fresh water molluscs, lichens, fungi birds/mammals and reptiles (116 specimens) were also made. The mammals included several species now extinct in South Australia.
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