The vascular plant type collection in MU consists of 539 sheets of mainly North American specimens representing 512 taxa. Many of the sheets are from the non-Ohio holdings of Oberlin College (OC). A brief history of the MU collection and a complete listing of the specimens are given, with annotations correcting mistakes in protologs or monographic accounts involving a few of the specimens.

The herbarium at Miami University (MU) was founded in about 1906, during the tenure of Dr. Bruce Fink, first chairman of the Department of Botany (Vincent, 1991). After Fink's death in 1927, the curatorship was held by a succession of faculty: Arthur T. Evans (1927-1929), Ethel C. Belk (1929-1956), Harvey A. Miller (1956-1967), Will H. Blackwell (1968-1978, 1983-1986, 1988-1989), Wayne J. Elisens (1982-1983), R. James Hickey (1987-1988), W. Hardy Eshbaugh (1967-1968, 1978-1982, 1989-1993), and Michael A. Vincent (1993-present). The herbarium remained small and relatively inactive from its inception until 1957, when H.A. Miller initiated numerous exchanges with domestic and foreign herbaria. By 1967, the collection had grown to about 75,000 specimens. In that year, Miami University purchased the non-Ohio holdings of Oberlin College (the Ohio holdings of OC are now at OS), some 165,000 specimens, which immediately made the herbarium the largest in the state (Miller, 1968). Since that time, the collection has grown rapidly through gifts and purchases. Important collections, in addition to those listed below from OC, include the following, which are listed by collector and approximate number: R.N.P. Goodall (1000, plants of Tierra del Fuego), R.D.A. Bayliss (1020, plants of South Africa), and G. Hatschbach (20,000, plants of Brazil). Geographical distribution of the material in the collection is as follows: North America (except Ohio), 60%; Ohio, 13%; Latin America, 8%; Europe, 15%; Asia, 2%; Pacifica, 1%; Africa, 1%.  In addition to the vascular plant specimens, significant collections of specimens from other groups are housed in MU: algae (10,000), fungi [85,000, including the personal herbarium of W.B. Cooke (Vincent et al. 1994)], lichens (10,000), bryophytes (100,000, including the personal herbaria of H.A. Miller and D.R. Smith), and fossils (2,200).  The total holdings in MU are estimated at nearly 600,000 specimens as of November 2003.

The herbarium at Oberlin College (OC) was a very important collection, having been built up over a period of nearly 135 years, and having been studied by many experts in different groups, including E.B. Copeland, A.S. Hitchcock, P. A. Rydberg, and T.G. Yunker. Over 30,000 sheets were sent out by Frederick O. Grover for study by experts during the period 1933 to 1958. Curators of OC included James Dascombe (1834-1878), Albert A. Wright (1878-1891), Worallo Whitney (1891-1893), Francis D. Kelsey (1893-1897), Herbert L. Jones (1897-1898), F. O. Grover (1898-1928), Isabel S. Smith (1928-1934), F.O. Grover (1934-1958) and George T. Jones (1958-1990s). As was stated by Miller (1968), several hundred types were contained in the OC collection, and make up the bulk of the type collection now at MU. Among important vascular plant collections from OC which are now in MU are the following, listed by collector and number of specimens: F.E. Leonard (5,000), F.D. Kelsey (5,800), H.L. Jones (2,650), F.O. Grover (4,500), M.M. Metcalfe (1,300), M.F. Spencer (20,550; see Grover 1941), M.E. Day (1,860), E.S. Steele (1,650), H.C. Beardslee, Sr. (4,100), H.C. Beardslee, Jr. (4,760), C.A. Kofoid (4,000), H.C. Cowles (1,850), A.E. Ricksecker (2,100), M.E. Jones (1,300), C.G. Pringle (2,950), and E. Wilkinson (15,000). A manuscript containing a more detailed history of OC is on file in the MU archives.

Since 1985, an active search has been conducted to find the type specimens at MU and, to date, 539 sheets representing 512 vascular plant taxa have been confirmed as type specimens.  Paratypes, while numerous, are not listed here, nor have they been separated out and placed in the type collection; however, cards listing paratypes in MU are maintained in the type specimen card-file. It is expected that many more types will be discovered in the future. Cryptogamic types, which are very numerous, will be discussed in separate publications.

Sources of the type specimens in MU, most of which are from OC, are as follows: I.W. Clokey, A.W. Cusick, O. Degener, W. H. Eshbaugh, G. Hatschbach, R.J. Hickey, M.E. Jones, D.D. Keck, F.L. Leonard, C.G. Pringle (ex herbs. F.E. Leonard, C.A. Kofoid, F.D. Kelsey and E. Wilkinson), herb. Mary Fisk Spencer, E. S. Steele, M.A. Vincent, herb. E. Wilkinson, and exchanges. No attempt has been made, in the listing of specimens, to indicate the source of each sheet, which can be determined in most cases from the sheet itself.

All herbarium acronyms mentioned are from Holmgren et al. (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ih.html). Authority and publication citations follow TL-2 (Stafleu & Cowan, 1976-1988), and journal citations follow, where possible, B-P-H (Lawrence et al., 1968).

I wish to thank the following people for help in various ways with this project: Will H. Blackwell, W. Hardy Eshbaugh, R. James Hickey, Thomas G. Lammers, and Gene Williamson (MU); Barbara Hellenthal (NDG); Arnold Tiehm (NY); Wayne J. Elisens (OKL). I am also very grateful for the efforts of the staff of the Lloyd Library, Cincinnati, and the Brill Science Library and the Interlibrary Loan department at Miami University.

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