George Goodale and Oakes Ames, the Museum's economic her- 

 barium and products collection grew to nearly 10,000 pressed 

 plants and 7000 vegetal products. Forty-three years ago, a de- 

 scription of the Economic Herbarium was published by Professor 

 Richard Evans Schultes in Chronica Botanica v. 6 (1940) pt. 4, 

 p .90-91. The Herbarium's growth in scope and size during the 

 ensuing years suggests the advisability of an updated account, 

 and the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Botanical 

 Museum provides an appropriate opportunity for such a review. 



With the exception of ornamentals, the Economic Herbarium 

 contains plants which are or have been useful or harmful to 

 man, comprising both cultivated and wild algae, fungi, lichens, 

 pteridophytes and spermatophytes. These general classes of eco- 

 nomic plants are included: 1) plants of importance in agriculture 

 (including the principal forage crops), industry and the arts; 2) 

 plants used in primitive societies; 3) plants connected with 

 superstition and religious rites; 4) plants of interest because of 

 former uses or because of association with the old herbals; 5) 

 wild species of significance because of their known or presumed 

 association with the origin of cultivated plants and 6) voucher 

 specimens of phytochemical analyses. 



The Economic Herbarium which now numbers 41,000 sheets, 

 has experienced a more than 200% increase in accessions since 

 1940. Arranged in accordance with the Engler and Prantl sys- 

 tem, it comprises material of more than 500 families, 3300 gen- 

 era and well over 1 1,000 species and varieties. Included in the 

 Herbarium, as a supplement to the specimens, is a collection of 

 600 original drawings, watercolors and handcolored prints of 

 economic plants. Another unique aspect of the Herbarium is the 

 inclusion of over 300 photographs of the economically useful 

 species from Harvard's Ware Collection of Glass Models of 

 Plants. This superb public exhibit which is housed in the Botani- 

 cal Museum and is used extensively for teaching botany by the 

 various botanical institutions of the University, may be viewed 

 as an adjunct herbarium in glass; it provides the scholar with 847 

 accurate three-dimensional species, including more than 2000 

 enlarged flower parts and cross sections. 



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