herbarium
(həˈbɛərɪəm)
[Late L. (Cassiodorus c 550): the neuter of an adj., f. herba herb, which gave also herbārius botanist, herbāria (sc. ars) botany, both in Pliny. See -arium.]
A collection of dried plants systematically arranged; a hortus siccus. Also, a book or case contrived for keeping such a collection; the room or building in which it is kept. Also attrib.
| [1700–19 Tournefort Instit. rei Herb. I. 671 Herbarium sive Hortum siccum appellant collectionem plantarum exsiccatarum quæ in codicibus vel capsis asservantur. 1751 Linnæus Philos. Botan., Herbarium præstat omni iconi, necessarium omni Botanico.] 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) I. 35 An Approved Method of Preparing Plants for an Herbarium. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. viii. 77 A hortus siccus, or herbarium, by which Latin terms we call a collection of dried plants. 1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. 616 This [sc. the vasculum] should be of sufficient length to receive a plant of the full size of the herbarium paper. 1863 Berkeley Brit. Mosses x. 41 No plants are so easy to prepare for the herbarium as Mosses. 1887 C. A. Moloney Sk. Forestry W. Afr. 319 He compared the available herbarium material of the two plants. 1898 B. Torrey in Atlantic Monthly Apr. 461/2 A comparison with herbarium specimens. 1962 D. B. O. Savile Coll. & Care Bot. Specimens i. 50 (heading) Herbarium sequence. The operation of the phanerogamic herbarium of the Plant Research Institute may serve as an example of herbarium management. Ibid. 52 Ideally the herbarium units should be built like library stack rooms. |
| fig. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 333 Relegated to that herbarium of Billingsgate gathered by the elder Disraeli. 1883 Mrs. Holmden tr. Pressense's Study Orig. 321 Language is a tissue of metaphors..an herbarium in which the plants are withered. |