A beautiful and historically important part of the collection is a large series of botanical illustrations by Georg Roth.
Born in Germany in 1842, Roth studied forestry at Giessen, then worked as a forester until his retirement in 1887. Afterwards he devoted himself to the study and scientific illustration of mosses, rendering ca. 8000 species as highly intricate pen-and-ink drawings for his Die europäischen Laubmoose (1903-1905) and Die europäischen Torfmoose (1906). His attention to detail is demonstrated in every cell, sporophyte, and cross-section he drew. The several hundred illustrations we own include unpublished material.
At the time of his death, in 1915, Roth had completed illustrations of 9,260 species, but was unable to do more solely because of lack of funding. Historically, these illustrations are priceless because Roth had access to the Berlin herbarium (B) and to the many types designated by Carl Müller von Halle. During and after the Second World War, almost all of these types were destroyed, making Roth's illustrations the only direct link to this historical material. Roth's herbarium is at Stockholm (S), with additional bryological specimens in several other European herbaria (B, BM, H, M, PC). See Taxonomic Literature, Volume IV, P-Sak, by F. A. Stafleu and R. S. Cowan, 1983, pages 920-921, for further details.
The Hortorium welcomes inquiries about this part of our collection. The bryophyte images decorating the left margin of the Bryophyte Collection main webpage are from drawings by Roth in the Hortorium's collection.
To view some of Roth's other images, click below.
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