There are many important collections of diatoms in herbaria
all over the world and this is not a guide to all of them! A list
compiled in 2003 by Hein De Wolf and Frithjof Sterrenburg is available.
In these pages I give descriptions of
three collections, from recent personal experience.
One, not
unnaturally, is the collection of c. 40,000 slides that I have buillt
at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh since my appointment to the
institute in 1990. This collection contains not only my own slides but
also those of Professor F.E. Round (University of Bristol), Dr Martyn
Kelly, and others, and also an important 19th century collection
amassed by
Professor G.A. Walker Arnott.
A second collection, which is documented here for the
first time
is the collection of cytological and other preparations of diatoms made
by Professor Dr L. Geitler (1899-1990), now housed in the University of
Vienna. Austria. I
had the opportunity to examine this collection and make a preliminary
catalogue during a visit in June 2009 funded by SYNTHESYS (a European
Union-funded Integrated Infrastructure Initiative grant). The image
(left) shows slides and drawings made in the 1920s and used for
Geitler's classic
study of meiosis in Cymbella
lanceolata.
I also provide a guide to the Grunow
collection of diatoms held in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna,
again on the basis of a SYNTHESYS-funded visit in June 2009. My aim is
to help others to maximize any opportunity they may have to
visit and use this important collection.
David Mann, August 2009
