Description of the Connell Memorial Herbarium
An herbarium contains specimens which are generally pressed and
dried plants or parts of a plant, fastened to special herbarium
paper and accompanied by a label. The label contains the scientific
name, collection location and date, name of collector, and often
descriptions of the habitat of the collection site. The specimens
are stored in special cabinets that are more or less insect and
fireproof.
This herbarium is the largest collection of specimens from the
New Brunswick flora. There are approximately 60,000 vascular plant
specimens from New Brunswick, 10,000 non-New Brunswick vascular
plants, and about 1,000 algae, mainly seaweeds.
The herbarium is a critical resource for people interested in
New Brunswick's flora. Taxonomists, evolutionary and conservation
biologists, botanical and environmental consultants and ecologists
rely upon the herbarium for identification of plants and documentation
of their variation, distribution, and ecology. To access this
information, the specimens must be properly curated and arranged
in an easily accessible order which computerisation would greatly
facilitate. Plant scientists regularly collect specimens to document
the occurrence of plant species as parts of taxonomic, floristic,
evolutionary, conservation, or ecological studies. It is essential
for scientific research that voucher specimens are safely and
permanently stored in herbaria
Mission Statement
The mission of the Connell Memorial Herbarium is to house correctly
identified representative scientific specimens of the New Brunswick
Flora, which includes mainly vascular plants (ferns and their
relatives, conifers, and flowering plants), and a small collection
of algae. Toward this mission the specimens must be maintained
in good condition, arranged in an orderly fashion, and accessible
to the public. The herbarium is a research and teaching facility
and serves as the official repository for specimens of endangered
and threatened New Brunswick plants.
Teaching in the Herbarium
Teaching is an important component of the herbarium mission (see
mission statement following). Much of the teaching takes the form
of individual use of the herbarium by students in the Departments
of Biology, Forestry and other departments. Herbarium specimens
are regularly used in plant biology courses to illustrate various
morphological and phylogenetic relationships. This year, as in
previous years, several students in the undergraduate course,
Taxonomy of Seed Plants, undertook individual projects in the
herbarium.
Research in the Herbarium
The herbarium is regularly used by many individuals to identify
plants or collect information about plant distributions and ecology.
We had approximately 400 herbarium visits in 1995.
Work is now underway to update the Flora of New Brunswick which
was originally published in 1986. This will involve going over
all the collection checking identifications, bringing names up
to date to modern nomenclatural standards, redoing the distribution
maps, producing some new illustrations, making corrections and
redoing some of the keys. Help will be needed with many aspects
of this revision.
Curation
Curation, including care of existing scientific plant specimens
and incorporation of new specimens, is essential to the quality
and usefulness of herbaria. Curation in 1995 included the incorporation
of more than 1,000 new specimens of New Brunswick vascular plants
into the collection. Many damaged specimens were also repaired.
Computerisation
The computer centre has been very helpful in our efforts to laser
print our specimen labels which include a digitized map of the
province. Each laser printed sheet contains six labels which may
be separated along perforations. The next step is to consolidate
the label information in a comprehensive database. Eventually
it is hoped that all the herbarium specimens will be included
in a herbarium database. When the herbarium is fully computerised,
one may quite readily obtain information about any group of plants
(one or more species, genera, family, or other taxa), province
region (town, county or the whole province), or ecological community.
Herbarium Staff and Volunteers
People working in the herbarium consist of the curator and volunteers.
Presently there are no paid helpers in the herbarium other than
the curator who directs activities in the herbarium but also has
research and teaching responsibilities.
The herbarium has been blessed by the involvement of a number
of enthusiastic volunteers including Dr. C. Mary Young, Virginia
Peters, Dorothy McFarlane and Susan Belfry.
Contact Information
Ph.: 506 452-6205
Email: herbunb@unb.ca
Address: Bag Service # 45111
Department of Biology
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, NB,
E3B 6E1