The Lichen Herbarium at the Ulster Museum, BelfastAuthor(s): M. R. D. SeawardSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 23, No. 11 (Jul., 1991), pp. 468-469Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25539624 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 13:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The IrishNaturalists' Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:07:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

468 Ir- Nat- J- VoL- 23 No- n 1991

BOTANICAL NOTES

THE LICHEN HERBARIUM AT THE ULSTER MUSEUM, BELFAST

A recent reorganization of the lichen herbarium at Ulster Museum (BEL) provided an

opportunity to evaluate its contents in some detail. Material from numerous diverse small collections,

including specimens formerly housed at Queen's University, Belfast (BFT), has now been organized into three sections: (1) Ireland, (2) England, Wales, Scotland and the Channel Islands, and (3)

Foreign.

L The Irish section is composed of cl870 packets from 21 vice-counties (H2, H3, H4, H5, H9,

H13, H16, H20, H21, H25, H27, H28, H30, H31, H33, H34, H36, H37, H38, H39, H40),

with, as would be expected, a preponderance of material from Co Down and Co Antrim. The

major collectors of Irish lichens are R. K. Brinklow, S. A. G. Caldwell, P. Hackney, Miss

Hunter (fLI950-1951, details lacking), M, P. H. Kertland, H. W. Lett, 0. Morton, B. E.

Pilcher, J. R. Pilcher, S. A. Stewart and C. H. Waddell; there are also afew items from Isaac

Carroll's Lichenes Hibemici exsiccati.

2. Material for England, Scotland and Wales comes from a wide variety of sources, covering at

least60vice-counties(l,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,13,15,16,17,23,29,33,37,39,40,45,

48,49,50,51,52,55,57,59,60, 62, 63,64,65,66,67, 69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76, 83,

87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 94; 95, 96, 98, 100, 101, 105, 108, 109, 112), plus Sark, Jersey, Guernsey and the Scilly Isles. The major collectors of British material are R. K. Brinklow, H, M. Livens (these specimens, mainly from the New Forest and the Isle of Wight, considerably extend our knowledge of this previously little studied lichenologist

? cf. Seaward M, R. D.

1978 Naturalist 103: 15-16), and G. Livens (probably the son of H. M. Livens), but other noteable lichen collectors are also represented including J. W. Hartley, A. R. Horwood, W.

A. Leighton (as LichenesBritannici exsiccati), D, Lillie, P, G. M.Rhodes, W. G. Travis, W.

West, J, A, Wheldon and A, Wilson. This section comprises c 1330 packets, but there are in

addition: (a) a single bound volume of 193 mounted lichens, each of which has been localized and dated, collected by E. F. Noel during the period 1914-1937 from at least 44 vice-counties

(and a few foreign localities), and (b) 79 separately mounted specimens in an unbound

volume, collected by a Mr Robson (possibly Thomas Robson 1779-1853), one bearing the date 1821 and a few with north of England localities.

A complete list of collectors (* ~

major contributors) to the above two sections of the Ulster Museum herbarium is as follows:

Brinkman, A, H. (18734945) *Morton, O.

*Brinklow, R. K, Nash, R.

Burnet, A, M, (1909-1986) Noble, K.

*Caldweii, S. A, 0.(1897-1989) *Noel, E, F. (7-1950) Carroll, I. (18284880) Parsons, H.F. (18464913)

Casey, C. *Pilcher, B. E.

Cooper, V, *Pilcher, J. R.

Doughty, P. S, Rayler, J. F. (18544947) Fenton, A.F. G, Rea, M. W. (1875-?)

Fitzgerald, J. F; (1908-1988) Reader, H. P. (18504929) Glover, J, (18444925) Rhodes, P. G. M; (1855-1934)

*Hackney, P. *Robson, (TT.) (17794853) Hartley, J. W. (18664939) *Scott, B, ? B. E, Pilcher Hawksworth, D, L. Seaward, M. R. D.

Hebden,T, (18494931) Skinner, J. F, HiH,D.J, Stelfox, A, W. (18834972)

Holmes, E,M. (18434930) *Stewart, S; A. (1826-1910) Horwood, A, R, (18794937) Swinscow T D V

This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:07:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Ir. Nat. J. Vol. 23 No. 11 1991 469

Hunter, Miss (?J) Tellam, R. V. (1826-1908) Kertland, M. P. H. (1901-1991) Travis, W. G. (1877-1958) Knowles, M. C. (1864-1933) *Waddell, C. H. (1858-1919) Latter, C. E. (1847-1936) Wallace, E. C. (1909-1986) Leighton, W. A. (1805-1889) Watson, W. (1872-1960) Lett, H. W. (1836-1920) West, W. (1848-1914) Lillie, D. (fl. 1889-1919) Wheldon, J. A. (1862-1924) Livens, G. (?R.G.) (fl. 1880-1914) White, J. M.

Livens, H. M. (1860-1946) Whitton, M. E. (fl. 1903-1916) McAndrew, J. (1836-1917) Wilkinson, W. H. (7-1918)

Maxwell, R. *Wilson, A. (1862-1949)

Menlove, J. E. Woods, R. G.

3. The foreign section is composed of 384 packets of material mainly collected from Finland

(Lichenotheca Fennica, incomplete), Kenya, Morocco, Switzerland, Zambia and the

U.S.A., but a few packets from Canada, Crete, France, Jamaica, Majorca, New Zealand,

Nigeria, Norway, Puerto Rico and Tanzania are also present. There are also c65 specimens collected from the Baffin Bay and Bellot Strait areas during 1857-1859 by D. Walker,

surgeon and naturalist on board 'Fox' which was sent to ascertain the fate of Sir John

Franklin.

Obviously, with a total collection of less than 4000 packets, this herbarium is comparatively

small, but its importance lies in its holdings of material from the north of Ireland which is currently under-researched. The herbarium would welcome additional material, especially from Ireland.

Donations, loan requests and appointments to research in the herbarium should be addressed to: Mr P.

Hackney, Botany Assistant, Ulster Museum, Botanic Gardens, Belfast BT9 5AB; Fax 0232-665510, but requests for more detailed information regarding the contents and collectors should be directed in

the first instance to the author.

Department of Environmental Science, M. R. D. SEAWARD

University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP

RUBUS QUESTIERI LEF. & MUELLER CONFIRMED FOR IRELAND

So many of the Irish brambles have been over-optimistically identified in the past with taxa described from Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe that pre-1960 records of all but the commonest

species are now advisedly treated with reserve.

One of the many which has had to be relegated to this doubtful category is R. questieri, a common

species of west and central France and the Channel Isles which has long been known to extend into south-west England. Although its long, narrow and often golden-yellow leaflets combined with red

styles render it one of the most distinctive of the eglandular species when encountered in the field; in

the dried state other forms can sometimes look deceptively similar and the name has been applied to

some extent erroneously. In the census catalogue appended to R. L. Praeger's The botanist in Ireland

(1934. Hodges, Figgis, Dublin) it is listed as having been determined from West Cork, East Cork and Co Limerick, but Watson (W. C R. 1958 Handbook of the Rubi of Great Britain and Ireland.

University Press, Cambridge) was prepared to accept South Kerry as its only authenticated Irish

vice-county and in the most recent monograph of the group (Edees, E. S. and Newton, A. 1988

Brambles of the British Isles. Ray Society, London) Ireland is excluded from its distribution

altogether. In 1961 I collected a yellbw-Ieav^ bnimble (no.627) among bushes south-west of Garinish

Island, near Glengarriff, in West Cork (H3), which I thought at the time might well be this species, with which I was then unfamiliar. B. A. Miles, to whom I gave the specimen, rejected this suggestion,

however, and when his herbarium later passed to Cambridge University it was one among all too many Irish gatherings that had had to remain undetermined.

Recently I came across the plant again and, having in the meantime become well acquainted with

R. questieri in Jersey, Dorset and Hampshire, I was at once convinced that my original guess had been

This content downloaded from 62.122.72.154 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:07:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions