Concept and Development of Herbarium with Special Reference to India

Abstract

The present paper briefly outlines an account of the concept and development of herbarium with emphasis on the Indian situation. Well established herbaria, being repositories of dry plant specimens, gathered from far and wide are centres for assimilation and dissemination of basic knowledge about plants, and greatly aid in taxonomic researches of both fundamental and applied nature.

While discussing an account of development of some of these major herbaria, the authors briefly outline the history, development and salient statistics of a few major Indian Herbaria such as Central National Herbarium at Howrah (CAL), Forest Research Institute Herbarium at Dehra Dun (DD), the Blatter Herbarium at Bombay (BLAT) and other regional herbaria of Botanical Survey of India.