Herbarium

Herbarium, a collection of dried plants for scientific study. The finest in the world is that at Kew, based upon those of Sir W. J. Hooker (q.v.) and George Bentham, and comprising some 100,000 species of plants. That of the British Museum contains the various collections got together by Sir Hans Sloane (q.v.) and that of Sir Joseph Banks. The herbaria of Dillenius, Sherard, and Fielding are preserved at Oxford, and that of Linnaeus (q.v.) by the Linnean Society of London. Other important herbaria are those of the De Candolles at Geneva, the Jussieus and St. Hilaire at the Paris Jardin des Plantes, Grisebach at Gottingen, Asa Gray at Harvard, and Baron Muller at Melbourne. Herbarium specimens being liable to the attacks of various insects, camphor is placed near them, and they are sometimes brushed over with a poisonous mixture of corrosive sublimate and carbolic acid dissolved in spirit.