A Provincial Herbarium of the Native Flora

At the time of the establishment of this office in 1911 there was no official department in British Columbia which could supply information regarding the native flora. A representative herbarium of the flora of the Province was not to be found nearer than Washington, D.C., while the best collection of British Columbia plants was to be found at Ottawa.

A splendid collection had been brought together for the Agricultural Department, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, by Mr. James R. Anderson, who was for a number of years Deputy Minister of Agriculture, and who vacated office a few years previous to the establishment of the Botanical Office. This collection would have formed a very good nucleus for a Provincial Herbarium; the specimens were well preserved and neatly mounted and, with a few exceptions, correctly named. It was observed, however, that the families and plant groups were arranged alphabetically instead of by any of the well-known systems of classification. One found such groups as Algae, Araceae, and Araliaceae, or Labiatae, Leguminosae, and Lichens associated together.

There was no university course in botany given in the Province, there being only the elementary one prescribed for high-school students, and, in anticipation of a Botanical Department for the University of British Columbia, it was considered advisable that some preliminary botanical work should be done in order to facilitate botanical instruction when the Department was organized. It was therefore decided that part of the work of this office should be the formation of a representative Provincial Herbarium which would supply specimens of the various groups of native plants for a university collection. At the same time, specimens suitable for the Botanical Museum were to be collected and prepared for future use.

During the year (1911) attention was devoted to the formation of a local collection, and specimens were brought in from all parts of the city and its suburbs. Since then, owing to the rapid development of the city, to the clearing and draining of outlying property, several of the plants collected during the first year have become almost, if not quite, extinct within the city boundary. Notes and observations made during that year will be of considerable interest later on, when compared with the future flora.

During the second year (1912) collections were made from the following districts adjacent to Vancouver: Point Grey, Lynn Valley, Coquitlam and Surrey Districts, Caulfields, Lulu Island, Moodyville, Black Mountain, Grouse Mountain, Garibaldi Mountain region (previously unexplored), and also from Savary Island and Victoria.

In addition to local collections, specimens were received from various parts of the Province as the result of the organization of a number of volunteer correspondents. In this way specimens were sent from Victoria, Shawnigan Lake, Mayne Island, Ucluelet, Nanaimo, Anvil Island, Pender Harbour, Graham Island, White Mountain, Mount Brunswick, Chilliwack, and Elgin Districts, Choelquoit Lake, Spences Bridge, Ashcroft, Fort George, Peace River District, Thompson River District, Kelowna, Trail, B.C.

Last year (1913) collections were made in the district between Colebrook and White Rock, and from the suburbs of Victoria, including the Goldstream District.

From July 14th to 23rd a visit was made to various points in the Dry Belt, including the districts around Spences Bridge, Kamloops, Sicamous, Armstrong, Vernon, and Penticton, resulting in the collection of a large amount of material for the Herbarium and Botanical Garden. Numerous photographs were taken, illustrating the conditions of plant-life and the characteristic vegetation of the country traversed.

From July 26th to August 10th a visit was made to the Garibaldi Mountain region, where further collections of plants for the Herbarium and Botanical Garden were made, and a number of photographs were taken to illustrate the alpine flora.

During this year correspondents sent in collections from Savary Island, Ucluelet, Alberni, Duncan, Shushartie Bay, Victoria, Gibson Heights, Gambier Island, Mission City, Spences Bridge, Armstrong, Vernon, Summerland, Rossland, Golden, Rocky Mountains, Babine Lake, Stuart Lake District, and the north-east part of the Province (previously unexplored).

In this way sixty-four collections were received from correspondents, compared with fifty-one received the previous year.

It is expected that the Provincial Herbarium will ultimately be arranged in steel herbarium cases; meantime, owing to the necessity of procuring these from the East, and the length of time which must elapse before they were delivered in Vancouver, it was found necessary to have a temporary set made to accommodate the thousands of herbarium specimens which had accumulated.

A new and improved form of herbarium case was devised, and can be recommended for its simplicity, economy, convenience, and, above all, for its being as nearly as possible dust-proof.

The drawings and specifications were prepared by the Provincial Botanist and supplied to a local firm, who made the cases from well-seasoned fir. The cases are made in tiers of twelve compartments, each of which measures 19 x 13 x 4 1/2 inches. In each compartment is a drawer—Fig. 2 (a)—containing the genus covers and their contents.

It will be observed in the photograph (b) that each compartment is self-contained, so that when a drawer is pulled out it causes no suction on the other compartments. A small brass handle (c) projects beyond the front edge of the drawer, and as the drawer is pushed in, the lid above it drops down (d) behind the handle, and is tightly closed when the drawer is shut. It will be seen, therefore, that to consult the specimens in any compartment, all that is necessary is to pull the small brass handle, when the drop-lid will automatically open upwards, and the specimens can be consulted in an instant. This type of herbarium can be strongly recommended for storing school collections. They occupy little space and can be added to from time to time as the collection increases.

This system has been adopted by one or two private collectors on account of their efficiency and economy.