Connell Memorial Herbarium (UNB IH)

Can you read this botanical note?

It may take some time to figure out the letters but if you were born after 1996, chances are you would find this very difficult.

By 2010, cursive writing was dropped from the school curriculum in the US and the elementary schools in Ontario and Quebec no longer taught handwriting.¹ It may seem the ability to read and write cursive handwriting is no longer needed in today’s society, but let me suggest two reasons why it is still important.

One reason is that the inability to read cursive puts you at a disadvantage when studying handwritten documents. This includes your grandmother’s letters. Another pair of eyes or text recognition software may be able to ‘translate’ the text, however this can create a screen between you and the original document. The nuances of handwritten notes are unique and can offer a special connection with the author, through the paper and ink used on that day. If you are using computer software to transcribe the text you may lose this connection with the past. Reading cursive is a recognized skill and if you need a review on this craft, one can find university websites providing tutorials, tools and techniques in cursive writing for history and archival researchers.²

Another reason to know cursive is to discover the beauty in handwritten documents, notes and letters. There is an elegance to the flow of letters joined together without lifting the pen. Everyone has their distinctive style; the slope of the letters, the flourishes of the curlicues and the steadiness of the pen drawn across the paper. Our signatures reflect who we are.

This brings me to the specimen labels found on vouchers in the Connell Memorial Herbarium. I volunteer in the herbarium and am digitizing the plant specimens with a flatbed scanner. As I place each herbarium sheet on the scanner, I look at the plant and the label. Finding a handwritten label is a wonderful sight and is much more interesting to read than a computer/type-written one. From these casual observations it seems the care taken in writing the botanical labels is often reflected in the care given to preparing the mounted specimen.

Over time, I have become acquainted with the early NB collectors whose specimens are in our herbarium. I can recognize their handwriting and their unique signatures. A lovely description of the beauty of these botanical notes can be found in Helen Humphreys’ book, Field Study: Meditations on a Year at the Herbarium:

“the labels are revealing of many things – the location details of the plant, the priorities of the collector, the story of a particular moment – but sometimes there is an accidental wording that lifts the label more towards poetry.” Helen Humphreys ³

See for yourself. Take a look at the following botanical labels from the CMH collection and tell me if you recognize these New Brunswick plant collectors by their handwriting?

Please send me your answers and any comments you wish to make: susan.belfry@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading, Susan

Text: Susan Belfry. Images: Connell Memorial Herbarium

References

1. https://www.todaysparent.com/family/cursive-writing-in-schools/. https://ucalgary.ca/news/why-cursive-handwriting-needs-make-school-comeback.

2. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/immersionarchive/transcribe;

3. Humphreys, Helen. 2021. Field Study: Meditations of a Year at the Herbarium. Toronto: ECW Press.

Digitization and Imagery of Herbarium Specimens

‘Until recently, the world’s herbarium specimens were under lock and key and accessible to only a small number of scientific specialists, but digitization of herbaria is now a global enterprise, and specimen data and images are emerging in digital form from herbaria around the world.’ ¹
P. Soltis, Amer. J. Of Botany, 2017

Currently, it is estimated there are 3,100 active herbaria worldwide, in which a total of 390 million botanical specimens are permanently housed.² Digitization of herbarium specimens began around 1999 and has spread to most of the world’s institutions and university herbaria. Initially, the digital data gave the plant’s name, date, location and collector but now it is becoming the norm to also present an image of the specimen in high resolution.

There have been many improvements in the methods for imaging specimens and the speed with which electronic records are created. For example, the Paris Herbarium now has more than 5.4 million digitized specimens. Most of the large herbaria in the world have made similar progress on digitizing their complete plant collection. At first, these digital collections were served by their institutional websites, however, now many herbaria contribute their digital records to data aggregators such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)³. The availability of digital data from large aggregators for use in biodiversity research, ecology and conservation has grown exponentially in the past two decades.

Canada is a participant of the GBIF and contributes data from various networks. One such network, Canadensys, (Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre) is a Canada-wide effort to make the biodiversity information held in biological collections accessible to everyone.⁴ This network includes 19 herbaria and five botanical gardens in Canada. It maintains a comprehensive list of all vascular plants in Canada and provides up-to-date accepted scientific names and their common French and English names.

In New Brunswick, digitized vascular plant records are available online from two institutions. The Connell Memorial Herbarium (CMH) holds about 48,379 records of NB plants and the New Brunswick Museum holds around 22,131 records.

Historically, specimens and their accession numbers were recorded by hand into ledgers or notebooks. After 1995, the specimen data was entered into a spreadsheet (searchable) program. The hand-written ledgers contain up to 52,000 records of plants collected and stored at the University of New Brunswick. Can you imagine searching through 52,000 entries in handwritten notebooks to find a specific specimen?

Page 1 of the Accession Number Record Book, UNB Herbarium

From page 1 of UNB’s first Record Book, it is obvious that the data collected with each specimen was scant. Many herbarium vouchers from the 19th century have minimal accompanying data – usually the plant name, its location, the year and maybe the collector’s name. One herbarium label, from 1844 (see below) describes the specimen’s locality as “wet ground near Fredericton”.

Today, herbarium specimens are collected with much more detailed data – including geographical locations (latitude and longitude) to the 5th decimal place. In comparison to the 1844 label above, the data for a plant collected in 2018 is described in more detail and entered into query computer programs (SQL) to enable searches in all fields. An example of the online information available for a one specimen of Festuca suberticillata is below.

By 2017, all plant specimen data in the Connell Memorial Herbarium were uploaded to the UNB Library Online format. Soon to follow was the acquisition of a flatbed scanner to digitize the specimen voucher as a high-resolution image to accompany the specimen’s data. This work is ongoing with the help of volunteers. Once the collection has been digitized and reviewed, the Connell Memorial Herbarium plans to share its data with Canadensys.

The digitization of data from centuries of plant collections and the collective size of aggregated botanical data are creating new and unknown opportunities in research involving systematics, ecology, conservation and global change . All forms of data, whether it be information in the labels or data extracted from images, is now open and accessible to researchers from around the world.

References:

1. Soltis, PM. Digitization of herbaria enables novel research. Amer. J. of Botany 104(9):1281-1284, 2017.

2. Index Herbariorum, https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/

3. Global Biodiversity Information Facility, https://www.gbif.org/

4. Canadensys, https://www.canadensys.net/

5. James, S. A., P. S. Soltis, L. Belbin, A. D. Chapman, G. Nelson, D. L. Paul, and M. Collins. 2018. Herbarium data: Global biodiversity and societal botanical needs for novel research. Applications in Plant Sciences 6(2): e1024. doi:10.1002/aps3.1024

Text: Richard Fournier and Susan Belfry.

Images: “Vascan.” Canadensys, data.canadensys.net/vascan/search?lang=en. Accessed 10 Aug. 2023 and Connell Memorial Herbarium.

Botany Outing – Boars Head Preserve – May 23, 2023

On May 23rd, the ‘Friends of the Herbarium’ made its first botanical outing for the 2023 season. The site was the Boars Head Nature Preserve, a 65 acre property of the Nature Trust of NB, that is located in Millidgeville, Saint John. A trail extends along the length of the preserve, from the school on Ragged Point Road to a beach on the Kennebecasis Bay. A trail map can be downloaded from the Nature Trust: https://www.naturetrust.nb.ca/en/boars-head-nature-preserve.

Our group of six (Robyn Shortt, Gart Bishop, Bruce Bagnell, Viktoria Spitsuna, Clay Merrithew, Susan Belfry) spent a beautiful day exploring plants along the trail and on the beach. We made a list of the plants observed but no specimens were collected. The trail (3.6 km return) winds through a mixed forest of red spruce, cedar, balsam fir, birch and ash on a well-marked and maintained path filled with gnarly roots. There are some interesting rock outcrops and although this specific site was not mined for limestone, an active quarry is adjacent to this preserve and calcium-loving plants were evident.

The predominate plants were a variety of ferns and mosses. The ferns are listed below. Some of the mosses were Shaggy Moss (Rhytidiadelphus triquetris), Apple Moss (Bartramia pomiformis), Stair-step Moss (Hylocomium splendens), Brocade Moss (Hypnum imponens) and the liverwort, Bazzania trilobata. The dominate woodland flowering plants were Goldthread (Coptis trifolia), Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), Creeping Snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula) and the Northern Starflower (Lysimachia borealis).

The highlight of this excursion was to find the Dwarf Canadian primrose, Primula mistassinica, blooming on the rocky ledges along the Kennebecasis Bay.

*Primula mistassinica.* Photo: Susan Belfry

Athyriaceae	Athyrium filix-femina	Lady fern
Athyriaceae	Deparia acrostichoides	Silvery glade fern
Cystopteridaceae	Cystopteris tenuis	Mackay’s brittle fern
Dennstaedtiaceae	Dennstaedtia punctilobula	Hay-scented fern
Dennstaedtiaceae	Pteridium aquilinum	Bracken fern
Dryopteridaceae	Dryopteris campyloptera	Mountain wood fern
Dryopteridaceae	Dryopteris intermedia	Evergreen wood fern
Dryopteridaceae	Dryopteris marginalis	Marginal wood fern
Dryopteridaceae	Gymnocarpium dryopteris	Oak fern
Dryopteridaceae	Polystichum acrosticoides	Christmas fern
Osmundaceae	Osmunda cinnamomea	Cinnamon fern
Osmundaceae	Osmunda claytonia	Interrupted fern
Polypodiaceae	Polypodium appalachianum	Appalachian polypody
Polypodiaceae	Polypodium virginianum	Rock polypody
Thelypteridaceae	Parathelypteris noveboracensis	New York fern
Thelypteridaceae	Phegopteris connectilis	Northern Beech fern

Ferns, Boars Head Nature Preserve, May 23, 2023

This survey did not include the whole area of the Boars Head Nature Preserve so another visit may be considered for later in the summer.

Text: Susan Belfry; Photos: Susan Belfry, Viktoria Spitsuna

Collector’s Stories: David McLeod

This month we want to celebrate the significant contributions David McLeod has made to botanical studies in New Brunswick. The Connell Memorial Herbarium holds 823 specimens collected by David.

He is a superb botanist with an encyclopedic mind but that is not all. Since all things in the natural world fascinate him, he has an extensive collection of plant specimens, insects and arachnids and a truck-load of books on nature. He also is a very knowledgeable birder with a long list of “lifers”. David is an outstanding teacher and whenever one is on a field trip with him, you want to stand close to hear what he has to say.

David holds long-time memberships in many local and Canadian/US natural history organizations and clubs. He has been a member of the New Brunswick Botany Club since its inception in 1999.

Dave at the Dolan Woodlands Nature Preserve (NTNB). Photo Credit: Peter Gadd

David was born and raised in southwestern Ontario, to a family of natural history enthusiasts. His grandfather, J.R. McLeod was president of the McIlwraith Naturalists’ Club in the early 1920’s and his father, Robert McLeod, took him on many naturalist club outings.

He studied engineering and the sciences at the University of Western Ontario and graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1967. In the following year, he received his Ontario Teacher’s Certificate from the London Teachers’ College. David taught school for seven years and as he became more interested in outdoor education, he left the formal classroom to join the YMCA’s Outdoor Centre as a co-ordinator of their educational programmes. For the next 20 years (1980- 1998) he worked as a biologist, botanist and ecological consultant for various governmental and non-governmental organisations. It should be noted that during his time working in Ontario, he also spent some summer months in the early 80’s botanizing around Alnwick Parish, Northumberland County, NB. In the Connell Memorial Herbarium there are over 250 specimens he collected during 1979 to 1982 in Alnwick Parish.

Dave at Spednic Lake. Photo Credit: Clay Merrithew

After retiring in the late 1990’s he moved from Ontario with his wife, Ena (McKnight) to New Jersey, New Brunswick and took up residence in the McKnight homestead. At this time he became an assistant to Hal Hinds, Botany instructor and curator of the UNB Herbarium, to work on the revision for the 2^nd edition of the “Flora of New Brunswick”. He checked for current taxonomic and nomenclatural changes to scientific names, reformulating identification keys and proof-reading the text. Since then and to the present day, David has continued to work on botanical surveys and inventories for many local Miramichi organisations. In particular, he worked with Clay Merrithew (current volunteer with the herbarium) compiling botanical inventories in the French Fort Cove Nature Park for the City of Miramichi and on Beaubear’s Island for Parks Canada. More than 500 plant specimens from these surveys are in the Herbarium, and they can be found online in our database. Thank you David!

“ I spent three floristic seasons doing field work with Dave. He is a meticulous botanist with an all-encompassing knowledge of vascular plants. Despite the impediment of right-side weakness caused by a stroke, Dave had the iron will to spend long hours examining and collecting specimens in the field day after day.”
Clay Merrithew

Text: Clay Merrithew and Susan Belfry. Photos: Peter Gadd, Clay Merrithew.

Botanical Interest:

2022 Outings – Friends of CMH

In 2022, a small group of volunteers from the Connell Memorial Herbarium made some botanical explorations. These outings were usually spontaneous – from a need to get outside to discover and re-discover our native plants. The first outing was May 25th to Tower Lake, a small boggy area close to Fredericton. In the collection, there are 12 specimens of the Virginia Chain Fern (Woodwardia virginica) of which two were collected near Tower Lake. As some of the volunteers have never seen this fern in NB we ventured out to re-locate the plant. The herbarium specimens, collected in 1977, had vague descriptions for the location (N. Side of Tower Lake) and unfortunately, after a long day of wading through a boggy habitat, we did not find it. We were blessed, however, with large swaths of Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense), in full bloom.

Rhodora (*Rhododendron canadense*) Photo: Liz Mills

Our second outing on June 11^th, was to the Fred Tribe Forest near Lower Royalton. It is a preserve of the Nature Trust of NB and is now called the Sasokatokuk Nature Preserve. It is 90 acres of Appalachian Hardwood Forest with some calcareous cedar fen and abandoned farmland. A visit to the rich hardwoods forests of NB is always lovely – and we were not disappointed. Goldie’s fern (Dryopteris goldiana), Maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), Silvery spleenwort fern (Deparia acrostichoides) and Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) were in abundance.

Goldie’s fern (*Dryopteris goldiana*) Photo: S.Belfry

The third site for a botany outing was the Lincoln Trail that runs from Hwy 102 near the Fredericton airport to the Saint John River. The property is co-owned by the Lincoln Elementary School and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. This site was chosen by Gart Bishop because of its rich wetland and stands of Basswood and Butternut. A botanical survey has not been undertaken and thus with the permission of the Nature Conservancy, volunteers collected and documented the vegetation on two dates, July 9^th and August 6^th. This study will be continued in 2023.

Our final outing was a relaxing botanical foray along the Schribner Brook in the Oromocto River Watershed. Clay Merrithew chose this location as a matter of general interest in the area. We started at the Schribner Brook Falls trailhead on Hwy 785 near Central Blissville. It was October 16th and the fall colours were lovely as were the flowering Witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana). Also in abundance was Hop-hornbeam or ironwood (Ostrya virginiana).

Witch-hazel (*Hamamelis virginiana*). Photo: S.Belfry

Text: Susan Belfry Photos: Susan Belfry, Liz Mills Map: Google Earth

Volunteer Profile: Dr. C. Mary Young

C. Mary Young in the Connell Memorial Herbarium

The success of the Connell Memorial Herbarium is due to many people who have donated their time and expertise. However, one person stands out: Mary Young is the herbarium’s most longstanding volunteer. Since 1975 she has spent countless hours in mounting, identifying and archiving plant specimens for the collection.

Born and educated in England, she has a B.Sc in zoology and botany and a PhD from London University. She met her future husband (Dr. Murray Young) in London and after some years, they settled in Fredericton where he taught history at UNB. They raised a family of three children in a beautiful home with a large garden filled with vegetables and native plants.

Mary concentrated on identifying plants in the herbarium’s special collections such as Dr. Taylor’s Arctic Study (1944), Dr. Wein’s Yukon and NWT Study (1972) and several other collections from Nova Scotia and PEI. For more on the challenging work with the Taylor Collection please see the previous Blog, posted June 29, 2016. She played an active role in the establishment of the Nature Trust of New Brunswick (an organization dedicated to the conservation of critical natural areas), serving as secretary, president, and past-president. With her interest in plant distribution and diversity, the conservation of plants was also of great importance. For her dedication to conservation and her role in the Connell Memorial Herbarium, Mary was recognized by an Honorary D.Sc. from UNB in 2016.

As a veteran of the herbarium, Mary knows a lot about its history and she wrote an excellent account in the booklet, “The Connell Memorial Herbarium, University of New Brunswick 1838-1985”. This document is reproduced on the CMH website under About/ History of the CMH.

Her interest in the historical aspect of the collection led her to research and write of our province’s early naturalists and botanists. Her book, “Nature’s Bounty: Four Centuries of Plant Exploration in New Brunswick” was published in 2015 by the UNB Library. The electronic version of this text is freely available from UNB: https://naturesbounty.lib.unb.ca/

Both of these publications have been illustrated with Mary’s botanical sketches and paintings. As an artist, self-taught, she has sharpened her observational skills in botany by drawing the native plants of New Brunswick.

As I write this, Mary still lives in her home surrounded by her lovely garden of perennials and native ferns. Equipped with a microscope, a dissecting kit, plant keys and access to online databases, Mary continues her work on plant identification from her home. She is currently identifying and annotating some sedges from the collection and is grateful for the online digital database and high-resolution images of the collection that help in the identification of New Brunswick plants.

“This collection becomes more and more valuable as the data is available to anyone over the internet.”
_{Mary Young, email communication}

Her thoughts on those giving their time as ‘Friends of the Herbarium’ reflect her appreciation for the many people who keep all the data, photos and specimens together:

“I think they are a remarkably dedicated group of people. It does not seem to matter whether it is field work, collecting specimens, or some routine lab job, they do it with alacrity and dedication.”
_{Mary Young, email communication}

* The Connell Memorial Herbarium holds 205 specimens collected by C. Mary Young.

References/Sources:

Young, C. Mary. The Connell Memorial Herbarium, University of New Brunswick 1838-1985, University of New Brunswick, 1986.

Young, C. Mary. Nature’s Bounty: Four Centuries of Plant Exploration in New Brunswick. UNB Libraries, University of New Brunswick, 2015.

C.M. Young (personal communication, November 19, 2022)

Text: Susan Belfry. Illustrations: C. Mary Young. Photo: Roger Smith.

Volunteer Profile: Gart Bishop

Meet Gart, a renowned botanist in New Brunswick and an advocate for getting outside to learn about plants.

Gart is an active volunteer and member of the ‘Friends of the Herbarium’. He has a vast knowledge of the vascular plants including the challenging group of graminoids (grasses, sedges and rushes). Gart acquired his scientific expertise by self-study over many years of working through the plant keys, botanical surveys, attending workshops and collaborating with botanists.

He plays a vital role in the Herbarium, leading small groups of volunteers out to unique sites in New Brunswick to identify and collect. As of November 2022, Gart has collected over 3,370 specimens that reside in the Connell Memorial Herbarium. He also participates in the plant identification sessions held monthly called ‘Botany Blast’, which are open to the public. Often one can find Gart helping out a newcomer in working through the plant keys. All agree that he is a gifted teacher with experience developed during his years as Instructor of the UNB botany fieldcourse, “NB Plants”. He finds it exciting to take an unknown plant specimen and compare it to a range of confirmed examples in a herbarium. “It blows the buttons off your shirt!”, he says.

Gart was born in Toronto during the 1950’s. After high school, his interest in forestry brought him to UNB, however it was a BSc in Geology that he acquired in 1976. He became good friends with another geology student at the time, Bruce Bagnell. Geological work in the private industry took him to the Yukon for 3 years. In 1982 he returned to New Brunswick and worked in Sussex as a cabinet maker. He joined many NB nature clubs and learned as much as he could from the expert naturalists in the province. It was during this time that Gart fell in love with plants and with a local school teacher. He married Allison McArthur.

By 1988 his geology friend, Bruce Bagnell had returned to NB and was also interested in plants. They spent two summers documenting the plants in the West Quaco area. Their detailed botanical survey and acquired knowledge led them to meet members of the NB Museum, Stephen Clayden and Don McAlpine. Gart found botanical work with DNR for two summers and Bruce was working with Stephen Clayden on bryophytes. Later, he and Bruce Bagnell formed a botanical survey company, B&B Botanicals. This successful venture provided many important plant surveys for government departments and land trusts for the next 20 years.

Gart gives credit to those who have helped him over the years, especially the three big ones: Hal Hinds, Jim Goltz and Stephen Clayden who offered their time so freely. He also credits the wonderful nature groups of New Brunswick and is thankful for his own love of getting outside.

Text: Susan Belfry Photos: Robyn Shortt Date: Nov 16, 2022

Collector’s Stories: Katharine M. Connell (1899-1973)

Dr. Katharine M. Connell (née Jarvis) was born in Toronto in 1899, one of five children to Edward W. Jarvis and Kate Agnes Harris. Mr. Jarvis worked with the Bank of Montreal and moved his family around Ontario and the Maritimes. In 1921, Katharine received a BA (Chemistry) from UNB and a PhD in 1928, at the University of Michigan.

She married Mr. Connell, a forest ecologist, (Yale, U of T) and eventually they settled near his family home in Woodstock, New Brunswick. They had four children. ¹

In 1967, to mark Canada’s Centennial year, Dr. Katharine Connell decided to make a collection of the plants of Carleton County. She collected approximately one thousand plants, which were pressed and mounted with detailed documentation on herbarium sheets.²

Needing some assistance with collecting the plants, Jane Hadley (née Speer) spent two summers helping Dr. Connell collect and press plants.

“We collected plants in the afternoon and then went to her house for pressing. Areas with potential for plants were scouted out beforehand and she would bring a basket and a camera. The entire plant was collected and if she thought it was a rare plant – she would only take photographs. The plants were carefully laid out between newspaper and blotting sheets along with their identification cards and dried in plant presses. We mounted the specimens on the dining room table. She was very intelligent and always learning new things. She was patient, kind and wanted to share her knowledge of plants with others.“ ³

Katharine donated her plant collection to the UNB Herbarium in 1972. She died in 1973 and the UNB Herbarium was renamed the Connell Memorial Herbarium in 1976. A dedication plaque and a photograph of Katharine are located outside Room 17, Bailey Hall, UNB. The plaque inscription reads:

The University of New Brunswick Connell Memorial Herbarium. Dr. Katharine M. Connell, BA, MA, PhD. 1899-1973.

Dr. Connell’s collection of the plants of Carleton County, New Brunswick were housed in this herbarium by her family as a permanent tribute to an outstanding mother, educator and botanist. The University of New Brunswick Herbarium was renamed in her honor on this date October 13, 1976.

* The Connell Memorial Herbarium holds 794 specimens collected by Katharine M. Connell.

By C. Susan Belfry, 2022

Notes:

¹ Verbal communication with Dr. Lucy Dyer (daughter) and Dr. Mark Connell (son), Aug-Sept, 2022.

^2. Young, C. Mary. The Connell Memorial Herbarium, 1838-1985. Fredericton: University of New Brunswick, 1986.

³ Verbal communication with Jane Hadley, Sept. 2022

Botany Blasts Resume!

Nature NB Festival of Nature 2022

The Festival of Nature is taking place in Fredericton this year, and we (UNB Herbarium) are taking part by opening our doors for a tour on Saturday June 4!

Tour of the Connell Memorial Herbarium in the Biology Department at UNB — The Herbarium is a collection of preserved botanical specimens dating from 1834 to present. The specimens were collected all across New Brunswick, with some from other parts of Canada and the world. It is a valuable resource in many scientific disciplines and touches on history and art as well. During the tour, participants will have an opportunity to explore the herbarium, use keys to identify common plants, and learn how to prepare botanical specimens for science or art.

See you then!