The British Pteridological Society's Herbarium at the Royal Horticultural Society

摘要

Unburdened by the mortality of living plants, herbaria provide an almost permanent reference for structural studies of plants from wherever and whenever their collectors cared to venture. A botanic garden in Pisa provided the first record of the preservation of dried pressed plants in the early sixteenth century. Providentially, such collections were then called 'hortus siccus' literally 'dried garden'. Providentially because the first BPS herbarium specimens would have come from, or been destined for, member's gardens. BPS and its members have held herbaria for over 100 years. In 2005 it was decided to move the main herbarium to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), and this is an account of that move.