Brief Account on

Herbarium and
Museum in Study
of Plant Sciences
Prepared by: Himadri Sekhar Mukherjee
Roll No. : 2209024 
 What are Herbaria and Museums?
• In today's world of never ending human hunger for "development" knowingly or unknowingly we are taking a lot from our mother nature.
Destroying lots of ecosystems and bio diversities. Preservation and maintenance of these are not only necessary but is also the need of the
hour.

• Here comes various tools of preservation like botanical garden and zoological parks.

• With preservation of species we also need proper knowledge on them as it might be helpful for us also. Taxonomic studies of various species
of plants, animals and other organisms are useful in agriculture, forestry, industry and in general in knowing our bio-resources and their
diversity. These studies would require correct classification and identification of organisms.

• The collection of actual specimens of plant and animal species is essential and is the prime source of taxonomic studies. These are also
fundamental to studies and essential for training in systematics. It is used for classification of an organism, and the information gathered is
also stored along with the specimens. In some cases the specimen is preserved for future studies.

• These studying methods are termed as Taxonomical aids among which comes Herbarium and Museums.
 Herbarium(plu. herbaria)
• Herbarium is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried,
pressed and preserved on sheets. Further, these sheets are arranged
according to a universally accepted system of classification.

• These specimens, along with their descriptions on herbarium sheets,

become a store house or repository for future use.

•  The herbarium sheets also carry a label providing information about date
and place of collection, English, local and botanical names, family,
collector’s name, etc. Herbaria also serve as quick referral systems in
taxonomical studies.

• Measurement of an herbarium page is 29 cm x 41.5 cm (11.41” x 16.34”).

Method of preparation of a
Herbarium
1. Plant collection

2. Documentation

3. Preparation of specimen

4. Mounting

5. Sheet labelling

6. Preservation of sheet
 Types of Herbaria

• The kinds of herbaria depend upon the contents, purpose, regions/place, plant
groups-present in these:

•  The herbaria of medicinal plants : The herbaria include specimens of plants of

known medicinal value or supposed to have medicinal properties. ACECR
Central Herbarium of Medicinal Plants, Halejerd region, Karaj, Alborz province. 

•  Herbaria of weeds : The herbaria have weeds of cultivated fields & waste

places. 

•  Regional herbaria : The herbaria of particular region or place e.g. Herbarium of

Arid Zone Circle, Jodhpur; Herbarium of Central Circle, Allahabad; Herbarium
of a University or Institution.
Major Herbarium:
 Museum
• Biological museums are generally set
up in educational institutes such as
schools and colleges. Museums have
collections of preserved plant and
animal specimens for study and
reference.

• Specimens are preserved in the

containers or jars in preservative
solutions.

• Plant and animal specimens may also

be preserved as dry specimens.
Storing procedure in
a museum for any
species:
•1. RECEPTION

•2. PREPARATION

•3. FIXATION

•4. COLOR RESTORATION

•5. PRESERVATION

•6. MOUNTING

•7. SPECIAL METHODS

•8. PRESENTATION
Botanical museums in India

In India there are about 120 important Public Museums and about 250 small, site and personal museums. Which are known
or rarely known or situated at remote places not connected directly through public transport system and about 650
Biological museums which are as adjuncts to colleges and universities.

From amongst the first group of museums, Botany is represented as an independent unit only at two places e.g., Indian
Museum, Calcutta, under Botanical Survey housing chiefly economic and industrial plant products of India and the other at
Madras Museum Egmore Madras where general collection of plants has been kept.

The Natural Museum at Delhi erected in the early part of eighty, exhibits some habitat cases of plants showing vegetational
aspect and assorted few specimens of economic plants in the service of Mankind.

However from studies it has been further found that in some of the state Museum, Bombay, Salarejung Museum,
Hyderabad, Baroda Museum, Gujarat etc. there exist some display of plant sciences in combination with animals while
showing them in their natural habitat. There are quite a good number of Botanical Museums in Colleges and Universities
chiefly depicting the academic nature of the subject.
How are herbarium and museums helpful in plant study?

• Both taxonomical aids help in different ways but their primary function is
identification.

•  While the herbarium remains as permanent record of flora of those regions even

the natural topography and the vegetation have changed or extinct, in these
the herbarium provide evidence of what once existed. 

• Museums have a variety of functions to perform ranging from the depiction of

history of plant introduction, its effects, modelling and designing of different
gardens, preservation and methods for utilization of plants and plant parts not
merely for identification but also for their use in economic, medicinal and
utilization purposes and finally to create on awareness of plants as essential
ingredients of human existence and life on earth.
Major differences between herbarium and Museums

HERBARIUM MUSEUM

Plant species are dried and kept. Specimens are preserved as much as possible
to maintain how it originally looked.

No color restoration done Proper colour restoration techinques practiced

here.

Collection of sample here is in bulk as due to High maintenance and provides better option
low cost of maintenance.  or aids for studying the specimen

Majorly used to show vegetation of a specific Can even used to show extinct species from
area. that area or plants from other areas
 Bibliography
• NCERT

• https://wikidiff.com/herbarium/museum

• https://www.biologydiscussion.com/india/botanical-museum/botanical-museum-meaning-function-and-importance/47605

• https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1424-plant-collections-in-museums

• https://herbarium.duke.edu/about/what-is-a-herbarium

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbarium
THANK YOU