An Introduction to the Botanical Type Specimen Register

24
No. Families 135
No. Genera 950
No. Taxa* 10,525
So. Collections 10,625
So. Specimens 13,535
*Species, subspecies, \ arieties, forms, and nothomorphs.
The figures show that the number of collections
averages just slightly more than l/taxon, while the
number of specimens averages about 1.3/taxon. The
number of specimens will grow rapidly relative to
the number of taxa as additional herbaria register
their tjpe holdings of taxa already in the file.
This is a tally largely of records input from the
tjpe collection of the U. S. National Herbarium
(US); i.e., the vast majority of the families and
genera are represented only by taxa, collections,
arid specimens in the US type collection. None of
the 135 families is present solely on the basis of
tjpes 1 egistered from another herbarium, which is
to say that at least one taxon in the US collection is
registered under every family. The inclusion of a
family does not mean, however, that all US types
belonging to that family have been recorded. Quite
the contrar), the project has only begun, and, as in-
dicated earlier, it now is proceeding alphabetically
by genus and is still in the letter “C.” This means
that for the vast majority of families only genera
starting with “A” or “B” are recorded thus far.
If a genus is present, however, then all type ma-
terial in the US collection belonging to that genus
is registered. In other words, the file is complete to
the genus level with respect to taxa, collections, and
specimens in the US type collection.
Before the alphabetical approach was started, reg-
istration of US types was essentially completed for
several families, and in each case the types of one
or more other herbaria also had been recorded.
Following is a list of these completed families, show-
ing for each the number of genera, taxa, and speci-
mens registered and the abbreviations of the her-
baria for which the file is relatively complete:
Chrysobalanaceae (12 genera, 216 taxa, 1,110 specimens),
many herbaria
Dichapetalaceae (7 genera, 43 taxa, 153 specimens), man\
herbaria
Lamiaceae (84 genera, 1,234 taxa, 1,851 specimens), LA, MO,
XY, us
Ecrophulariaceae (85 genera, 943 taxa, 1,073 specimens) , V5
Violaceae (17 genera, 232 taxa, 321 specimens), NY, US
The data for the Chrysobalanaceae and Dichapet-
alaceae were provided by Ghillean T. Prance of the
Kew York Botanical Garden from his manuscripts
SMITHSOXIAX CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY
of famil) monographs for the Flora Neotropica se-
ries. All type specimens seen by him in the course
of his research on these families as of June 1970 are
recorded, which means that many herbaria are rep-
resented. With respect to these two families, the
Type Register is relatively “complete” in the com-
prehensive, monographic sense in that the file cites
the significant types, regardless of where they are on
deposit, as they will be cited in the published
monograph. (The monographs of these families
have since appeared-see Prance 1972a, b.) At the
same time the coverage may not be as thorough for
any individual herbarium as in the case of the
other three families-Lamiaceae, Scrophulariaceae,
Violaceae-for which the data were compiled di-
rectly from type collections or card files in the her-
baria indicated. Within the Scrophulariaceae, con-
tributions to the genus Mimulus have been regis-
tered by more than a dozen herbaria (CAN, COLO,
DXO, F, GH, JEPS, RlICH, NY, OSC, PH, uc,
LA, LTS, 1171s) as a result of Hale’s experi-ent
(see “Introduction”), and there are miscellaneous
other contributions to this family recorded from
110, NY, and a few other herbaria.
Apart from the families listed and the genus
Carex, for which the catalog is appended, several
other groups have been completed in some sense.
Nearl) half of the US types of Asteraceae (Compos-
itae) had been recorded when the switch from a
systematic to an alphabetical approach was made,
and the file for this family contained as of 30
September 1972 the following: 255 genera, 2,600
taxa, and 2,650 specimens. Several important genera
of the Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) have been complet-
ed at least for the US, and the tallies for these
genera as of 30 September 1972 were:
Arabis (97 taxa, 106 specimens), US
Draba (119 taxa, 195 specimens), NY, US
Lepidium (29 taxa, 32 specimens), US
Lesquerella (38 taxa, 43 specimens), US
Thlaspi (15 taxa, 59 specimens), F, GH, MO, XY, RM, S, UC,
US, WTU
The data for Thlaspi were provided by Patricia
Kern Holmgren (1971) of the New York Botanical
Garden from her revision of the genus, during
which she saw types from the above-indicated ten
herbaria. She also provided the data from NY for
the genus Draba.
Finally, John T. Rfickel of the New York BO-
tanical Garden provided significant type data on