M A B?

[qgroom]

Specimen BIRM.tpd.temp.1929 from Woodside, Hertfordshire has the collector name of M A Brooks. There are many other specimens with the initials M. A. B. which might also be from M A Brooks. Would it be possible for someone at Birmingham to take a look at this specimen and compare it with those of M.A.B.?

[Tom Humphrey]

Hi Quentin,
I've attached the image for that record.

Birm tpd.tmp specimens (~2000 records) are those that were previously documented prior to herb@home. They should now all have been photographed, but it's been a slow process to match the records with the images.

Unfortunately I don't think the image helps resolve things as M.A.Brooks only appears on the typed label, which is not necessarily trustworthy.

Are the initials definitely MAB, (that is how I read them), but M.S.B. ?= Maria Sophia Bentham has also been suggested.

(click thumbnail for enlarged image)

regards,

Tom

[qgroom]

I've looked at many of these sheets from M A B and am total convinced it is not M S B. Take a look at the letter 'A' on the specimens of Asplenium and Anagalis from M A B.

The typist of the modern label must have had a reason to attribute this specimen to M.A.Brooks, so this is the most likely name so far. Though I agree it is not totally convincing.

[David Price]

The majority of MAB's specimens are from Flitwick; only two are dated - mid 1840s.

It may be no more than a coincidence that John Thomas Brooks DL JP of Flitwick Manor (married 1816) had a daughter Mary Ann Brooks (died unmarried 1848).

[Tom Humphrey]

I've merged the M A B and M A Brooks collector entries together as Mary Ann Brooks M A B (1822-1848).