BOTANY.

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Herbarium of pressed botanical samples. A scientific compilation of dried plants, each annotated with a Latin binomial and many with their seasonality; this selection comprises spring and summer samples. Such herbariums began to be compiled in the 16th century and many featured in "cabinets of curiosities". They were a tool used by the most influential natural philosophers of the day, including Linnaeus, Rousseau, and Goethe.The box, lettered "gewürzpflanzen" and "gewürz", was originally intended to house spice plants. The individual gatherings are numbered and the box reads "nicht voll" (not full), showing that it was an evolving project that functioned as a reference tool and is likely a surviving specimen of a now-separated larger private collection. Many of the samples are also annotated with reference numbers, perhaps to a printed botanical catalogue owned by the compiler, or to other parts of the now-scattered collection."A botanist who came across an unfamiliar plant might send it as a herbarium specimen to a colleague for identification. By comparing dried plants, it was possible to discover duplicates of the same plant but with different names. Such uses were possible only if the herbarium sheets were kept separate rather than being bound into books, [which] also made it easier to rearrange their order as new ideas about classification were developed and tested" (Allaby, p. 61).

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