THE PALEOBOTANICAL COLLECTIONS 



The Paleobotanical Collections of the Botanical Museum 

 constitute an unusually comprehensive documentation of plant 

 evolution in geologic time. The more than 60,000 specimens in 

 the collections make Harvard the nation's second largest reposi- 

 tory for fossil plants in terms of size alone. If one considers 

 completeness of stratigraphic, geographic, and taxonomic cover- 

 age, the Botanical Museum collections are without peer. Fossils 

 in the Paleobotanical collections range from simple prokary- 

 otic microfossils preserved in 3400 million year old cherts 

 from South Africa to wooden artifacts discovered in Indian and 

 colonial archeological sites in New England. The collections 

 include materials from all continents (as well as extraterrestrial 

 carbon isolated from meteorites) and all geologic periods. Thus, 

 the Paleobotanical Collections provide unique oportunities for 

 education and research. 



THE AGASSIZ INFLUENCE 



The name of Louis Agassiz is usually associated with the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, but the eminent Swiss pale- 

 ontologist was also instrumental in the establishment and early 

 growth of Harvard's fossil plant collections. Agassiz immigrated 

 to America in 1847, following the suppression of his home insti- 

 tution, the Academy of Neuchatel, by the Geneva Revolutionary 

 Council. Fortunately for the development of paleobotany in 

 North America, he soon persuaded his Neuchatel colleague Leo 

 Lesquereux to join him in America (Darrah, 1934). Lesquereux 1 

 deafness prevented him from acquiring an academic position, 

 but in late 1848 he moved to Columbus, Ohio, to aid William 

 Sullivant in his studies of bryophytes — a post that still required 

 Lesquereux to support his family by making watches and 



The delegation of the Botanical Museum in the academic procession of the 

 Commencement, June 1983. From left to right: Professor Loran Anderson, 

 Professor Richard Evans Schultes, Professor Andrew Knoll, Professor Tony 

 Swain, Miss Elizabeth Coughlin, Professor Robert J. Raffauf. 



(Photograph: Stephen Jennings) 



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