BOTANISTS
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Vascula are cylinders typically made from tinned and sometimes lacquered iron, though wooden examples are known. The box was carried horizontally on a strap so that plant specimens lie flat and lined with moistened cloth.[1] Traditionally, British and American vascula were somewhat flat and valise-like with a single room, while continental examples were more cylindrical and often longer, sometimes with two separate compartments.[2] Access to the interior is through one (sometimes two) large lids in the side, allowing plants to be put in and taken out without bending or distorting them unnecessarily. This is particularly important with wildflowers, which are often fragile.
Some early 20th century specimen are made from sheet aluminium rather than tin, but otherwise follow the 19th century pattern. The exterior is usually left rough, or lacquered green.
The roots of the vasculum are lost in time, but may have evolved from the 17th century tin candle-box of similar construction. Linnaeus called it a vasculum dillenianum, from Latin vasculum – small container and dillenianum, referring to J.J. Dillenius, Linnaeus' friend and colleague at Oxford Botanic Garden. With rise of botany as a scientific field the mid 18th century, the vasculum became an indispensable part of the botanist's equipment.[3]
Together with the screw-down plant press, the vasculum was popularized in Britain by naturalist William Withering around 1770.[4] The shortened term "vasculum" appears to have become the common name applied to them around 1830.[2] Being a hallmark of field botany, vascula were in common use until World War II . With post-war emphasis on systematics rather than alpha taxonomy and new species often collected in far-away places, field botany and the use of vascula went into decline.
Aluminium vascula are still made and in use, though zipper bags and clear plastic folders are today cheaper and more common in use.
The Vasculum was "An Illustrated Quarterly dealing primarily with the Natural History of Northumberland and Durham and the tracts immediately adjacent," from 1915 to 2015.[5]
The newsletter of the Society of Herbarium Curators is named "The Vasculum" since 2006.[6]
https://herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2022/08/08/more-books-the-vasculum/
Sutton & Sons Ltd (Manufacturer)DescriptionThis is a vasculum, a botanical storage case, containing samples of grasses and seeds. It consists of a black lacquered metal box with a hinged lid, containing samples of grasses and small glass tubes containing seeds. It is one of a variety of educational cabinets produced by Suttons Seeds for use in agricultural colleges, schools, museums etc. It dates from the early 20th century. It belonged to the donor's husband, a furniture restorer in Hoxne, Suffolk.
This metal box contains glass phials filled with seeds and specimens of dried grasses. It was sold by Sutton’s Seeds from the late 1800s until after the First World War. Sutton’s vasculums were purchased by museums and agricultural colleges for use in teaching. In 1912 they cost 10 shillings and 6 pence.
Most of the seeds are species used agriculturally. But one grass seed, Poa nemoralis sempervirens, was recommended for lawns.
In ‘Permanent and Temporary Pastures’, Martin Sutton wrote, ‘this variety grows very well in early spring, yields a greater bulk of herbage than Poa pratensis, bears drought remarkably well, and is the most valuable of cultivated Poas. For lawns and ornamental grounds it answers admirably and is indispensable for sowing under the shade of trees
The box was part of an educational range of display material of grasses, cereals and insects “injurious and benificial to farms and garden crops” produced by Suttons Seeds in the early 20th C.
It is collections of grasses in a ‘japanned’ finished tin vasculum. It contains 36 different types of grasses, each with a tag that has the botanical and a common name as well as other information relating to habitats and soil types. There are also 60 glass bottles with as examples of grasses and agricultural seeds.
According to the description in Suttons Seeds : a history 1806-2006 it is an intact set and would have cost 10/6d
PETER JENSEN
A Dutch toleware botanical specimen tin or vasculum measuring 12 1/4" by 4 5/8".The tin is well made with rolled and soldered edges and has a repoussé decorated lid and stencilled back in nicely muted colors
On the last day of the horticultural and botanical library conference I attended in New York recently (see last post), there was a session entitled “Hidden Collections—unveiling treasures through research.” The first speaker was Régine Fabri, head of the library at the Botanic Garden Meise in Belgium who presented her preliminary work on the history of the vasculum (see photo above). Most botanists are familiar with this tool of the trade, basically a metal box to hold specimens collected in the field, but most, like myself, haven’t given it much thought now that portable plant presses and plastic bags have pretty much replaced it. However, Fabri has taken it on with a passion. She discovered that the first reference to such a device was in 1704, when it was called a candle box, and this was probably its origin, a repurposing of a water-proof metal container for candles, with a door wide enough to lift them in and out. As with plants, botanists gave it a Latin name, vasculum, meaning container.
By the 19th century, the vasculum had become signature equipment for botanists, and Fabri presented numerous paintings and drawings of plant collectors with their boxes. She also had photos of Darwin’s vasculum as well as those of Joseph Dalton Hooker and John Torrey. This last we later saw in the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) library since it is part of their collection. Fabri ended by noting the vasculum’s decline. A 1910 scientific supply catalog offered two different models in an array of seven dimensions. Today, one type is available in only one size. However, there are many beautifully decorated antique versions on the market if you are interested, and Fabri left us wanting more with a photo of her own collection.
The next presentation was in a very different vein. Brent Elliot, the retired Royal Horticultural Society librarian, drew on the resources of this institution for his research into the different associations of the word “nature” in Britain and America. He focused on how the 19th-century garden cemetery movement played out in the two countries. In America, cemeteries like Green-Wood in Brooklyn, New York and Mount Auburn in Boston provided parklike settings for graves, with their creators emphasizing the idea that these sites were natural areas in which to remember and honor departed loved ones. In Britain however, such cemeteries were seen not as natural but as human-made works of art, with an emphasis on the contrivances of landscaping used to create a peaceful atmosphere. Elliot showed wonderful photographs and engravings of many of these sites in both countries to illustrate his theme, providing a great blend of art and textual analysis.
The third speaker was Florence Tessier, botanical librarian at the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) in Paris. She spoke about Marie Fortier (1844-1931) who created artificial “herbaria” from silk. She was a student in the laboratory of practical botany at the MNHM and made silk flowers as a way to teach botany. At the time, these were popular adornments for women’s dresses, and there were many ateliers in Paris creating them with time-consuming cutting and shaping processes. Fortier learned these skills and applied them in a very different way by arranging whole flowers and flower parts on herbarium sheets and labeling them. As Tessier notes, Fortier’s work probably grew out of an idea that developed during the last days of the French monarchy. François Le Vaillant, who made two expeditions to southern Africa between 1781 and 1784 collected animal skins, particularly of birds, and plant specimens as well. When he returned to France he became critical of the way flowers were presented in just two dimensions in botanical illustrations and herbarium specimens, compared to vivid taxidermied birds. He had seen the beautiful artificial silk flowers that Joseph Wenzel had created for Marie Antoinette and wanted to use Wenzel’s expertise to produce three-dimensional plant displays for the botanical museum in the king’s garden in Paris. Unfortunately, it’s impossible today to know what Wenzel’s productions looked like. Unlike wax flowers preserved in some economic botany collections and the glass flowers of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, we don’t have any remains of the project, swept away along with so much else during the French Revolution. But stories of his plan may very well have inspired Fortier, working as she did in the same museum and with the silk flower industry still thriving in Paris.
Fortier’s sheets were sold in sets through an arrangement she had with the publisher Hachette; they cost one to ten francs per plant, and in all 110 were created. After her contract with Hachette ended, she decided to work on her own and had regular sales to Paris primary schools from 1886 to 1908. When this arrangement no longer proved lucrative, the sets were sold as drawing lesson aids. Fortier also created a diorama for a forestry museum in Vincennes, outside of Paris. Tessier presented photos of Fortier’s beautiful specimens, emphasizing that they were made as works of science, but also have great aesthetic appeal. Tessier herself has obviously fallen in love with them, and with her subject. She has found that there are examples of Fortier’s flowers at Madrid’s Instituto Cardenal Cisneros; they were bought in Paris by a Spanish botanist to use in Madrid’s secondary schools, and they have been preserved. So Tessier’s work also had an impact outside of France.
References
"L'herbier, un outil pour le botaniste" [The herbarium, a tool for the botanist] (in French). La Garance voyageuse. Archived from the original on 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2006-12-20. with image
Baker, H. G. (1958). "Origin of the Vasculum" (PDF). Proceedings of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. 3: 41–43. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
Allen, D.E. (1965). "Some further Light on the History of the Vasculum" (PDF). Proceedings of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. 6: 105–109. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
J.E., Mygatt (2001). "A Case for Collecting" (PDF). Iowa Native Plant Society Newsletter. 7: 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 June 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
"The Vasculum". Archived from the original on 2020-02-10. Retrieved 2021-09-23. The website contains links to all issues of The Vasculum
"The Vasculum". Society of Herbarium Curators. 15 September 2014. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
External links
Darwin's vasculum at the Linnean Society of London
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