Botany collection
Curator:
Gennady Kurilin.
1 794 specimens of herbarium leaves, fruits,
seeds, fragments of trunks, individual leaves, etc.
The first
herbarium material collected by Darwin museum’s founder Alexander Kohts in the early 20th century is mainly of memorial value.
A historically
important exhibit is a small herbarium sent to Alexander Kohts by Hugo Marie de
Vries, a Dutch botanist and one of the first geneticists. The specimen
illustrates the experiments of the latter on the evening primrose (Oenothera
lamarckiana). Unfortunately, over time, this herbarium has lost its colors.
The
herbarium collected by V.V. Kozhemyakin in the early 70s in the northern aimags
(provinces) of Mongolia is of great scientific value. It contains 740 herbarium
sheets.
Of certain
interest is the crops material of barley, wheat, rye and triticale (a hybrid of
wheat and rye), collected in Dagestan at an experimental breeding station near
the city of Derbent. It is used in museum permanent exhibition to illustrate
the laws of genetics.
Herbariums with clover leaves that are
trifoliate, quatrefoiled, cinquefoil, or septfoil are also interesting.
A
herbarium sheet with the evening primrose (Oenothera lamarckiana) – a gift from
Hugo Marie de Vries.
