Type Collections

[Michael@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu A.@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu VincentDr.@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu Michael@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu A.@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu Vincent@Mizzou1.Missouri.edu, Curator TEL: 513-529-2755]

Dr. Huxley has presented some advantages for retaining type specimens
in the main collection.  However, at Miami University, an institution
which has undergraduate education as its primary mission, housing
types with the general collection is a recipe for disaster.  This is
because undergraduate and graduate students, as well as non-
systematics faculty have regular access to the collection, and pull
specimens for use as teaching/class materials.  This could be very
hazardous to the life of a type specimen, and they are housed
separately to protect the specimens from damage (and the students and
faculty from the curator's wrath!).  Of course, we have a relatively
small number of types (ca. 1000 known vascular types, with an unknown
number of cryptogamic types), so they can be housed apart with ease.

Regarding the separation of Paratypes, we decided long ago that they
were not valuable enough to warrant the work and expense involved in
housing them apart from the general collection, so there they remain.

 Dr. Michael A. Vincent, Curator    TEL: 513-529-2755
W.S. Turrell Herbarium (MU)        FAX: 513-529-4243
Department of Botany
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio 45056 USA
Email: Vincenma at .MUOhio.edu