Types

[Jef Veldkamp]

   At the Rijksherbarium / Hortus Botanicus, Leiden (L), the
material is stored in boxes. Families are arranged according to
the Engler & Prantl system, which is of course at least partly
outdated, but for technical reasons we have to stick to this.
Within families the genera and species are alphabetically.
Within the species the material is arranged by area.
Each specimen is inserted in a folder and a number of folders in
another one again, which is marked on the outside with name and
area. Type material has an extra label on the outer folder and
is the first of its area. We do not recognize paratypes, but
as so many researchers have gone over the material, each
with his/her own interpretation of what a type is, it may
be a surprise what is actually in the folder. As in Kew it
may be a 'matched' specimen as well. Because the type method
is relatively young many families or areas not elaborated for
the past scores of years may contain types as yet unrecognized.
   We keep the types with the material a) because we fear that
researchers will concentrate on a separate type collection
and neglect the actual specimens, or looking at the latter
will forget about the former (we usually have more material
than a visitor has accounted for, so usually he/she gets
very upset and short of time), and c) we just don't have the
manpower and space to curate such a separate collection.
  Funds have been obtained to computerize our type collections
of L, U, and WAG in the near future.

JeF Veldkamp