Mosses and Liverworts (British and Irish Isles)
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Glasgow Museums has a large collection of nearly 30,000 moss and liverwort (bryophyte) specimens from the British and Irish Isles. These date from 1800 to present day. The collection consists of dried moss and liverwort samples, most of which are in small packets, while a few others are mounted on to large herbarium sheets or in ‘moss books’, known as exsiccata. The Glasgow Museums civic collection (GLAM) contains about 8,000 specimens, while the Strathclyde collection (GGO) contains 1,329 specimens, mainly from Scotland, which were collected in the 19th century. The University of Glasgow collection (GL) is the largest, with over 19,000 specimens; it represents many important collectors from Scotland such as Prof. G W Arnott, A Croall, J Drummond, P Ewing, W Gardiner, R K Greville, C Howie, R Kidston, J R Lee, Rev D Lillie, S Macvicar, A Moffat, W Nichol and J Stirling, plus many collectors from the rest of the UK and Ireland. The most significant collection is that of James Stirton, who donated a collection in excess of 5,600 specimens in 1927. Most of these are Scottish and include 239 type specimens of 75 named species. The collection also contains a pocket herbarium from 1836, ‘Musci Britannici’, prepared by George Gardner and a two-volume set of mosses from about 1840, by collectors such as R K Greville, W Wilson and W Gardiner.
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