http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/299711/

[David Price]

This sheet http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/299711/ headed "Herb. Dept. Bot. Univ. Birmingham Rev. Augustin Ley Bequest 1911" bears three specimens, two collected by Ley and one accompanied by a printed label stating "Comm. by Rev. W. M. Hind. July1859". Hind's label suggests that the specimen was in addition to that collected for his own herbarium and was destined for exchange: in 1859 J. G. Baker's Thirsk Natural History Society BEC would have been a likely recipient.

It is apparent that the specimens have been remounted. This is a common enough state of affairs, especially for BIRM sheets, but it poses the question whether the Hind specimen ever formed part of Ley's herbarium or was of unshared provenance and was merely combined - at BIRM and after 1911 - on one sheet with two specimens of the same species for reasons of curatorial economy.

The integrity of specimen and label on their original mounting is seldom respected - for valid practical reasons as well as carelessness - and only recently has the Collector's label been recognised as a significant historical document in its own right. We cannot, alas, correct inadequate past curatorial practices but nevertheless we should be slow to infer historical connections which never existed.