- Blatter Herbarium
The Blatter Herbarium, in
St. Xavier's College, Bombay , is a majorHerbarium inIndia . It is listed in the "Index Herbariorum", published by theInternational Association for Plant Taxonomy andNew York Botanical Garden . TheHerbarium specializes in the vascular plants of westernIndia ; algae, mosses, and fungi ofMumbai ; seed samples of medicinally and economically important plants ofMaharashtra , and wood samples of Maharashtra. The institute holds the largest botanical collection in western India.History
The Herbarium was founded by the
Jesuit priest and taxonomist,Ethelbert Blatter , SJ. It was renamed in his honour in 1941 by his associate and director of the Herbarium, Father Henry Santapau, SJ. Father Santapau went on to direct the Botanical Survey of India, and was recognized by the Indian Government with aPadmashri in 1964 for his services to Indian botany.The two priests are regarded as pioneers in Indian plant taxonomy, and contributed over 500 scientific articles to various journals. They also wrote a number of books, like "The Flora of Aden, Arabia"; "Beautiful Flowers of Kashmir"; "The Bombay Grasses"; "Palms of Asia"; "Orchids of Bombay"; "Medicinal and Poisonous plants of India"; "Flora of Khandala"; "Acanthaceae of Bombay", and "Trees of Bombay".
The Herbarium is currently engaged in a variety of national projects, including surveys of medicinally and economically important plants of Western Maharashtra, the flora of
Ratnagiri District,ethnobiology ofGoa Tribals, and the trees of Mumbai.Many scholars make use of the institute's facilities to conduct post-graduate and doctoral studies.
Collections
The Herbarium contains a flowering plants collection that dates back to 1816, with over 3,00,000 specimens from all over India. It maintains type materials for about 400 plants which have been identified as new species over a period of time. It holds large
alga ,fungus ,bryophyte ,pteridophyte andgymnosperm collections. It also has obtained specimens from regions likeSind ,Arabia ,Australia ,Germany andSwitzerland .The institute's museum preserves wood, seed and fruit samples of plants with medicinal properties. Pickled specimens of algae, fungi and
lichen are also stored in the museum.The attached library boasts of a copy of the first book printed in India - "
Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India " (1563) byGarcia de Orta . Besides the "Hortus Malabaricus" (The Gardens ofMalabar ) byHendrik van Rheede from 1678, the library contains a compendium of botanical literature and Indian and international journals on botany.References
* [http://www.xaviers.edu/museum.htm The St. Xavier's College section on the Herbarium]
* [http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp The Index Herbarium]External links
* [http://members.tripod.com/~Kevindc/BLATTER.HTM]
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