Dry Storeroom No. 1 (25 page)

Herbarium sheet carrying the cocoa plant, source of chocolate and happiness,
Theobroma cacao,
accompanied by its original drawing. This specimen was collected by Sir Hans Sloane in Jamaica, and forms part of the nucleus of the “BM” collections—still safely curated in the Sloane Herbarium in South Kensington.

Lichens growing on gravestones in Oxfordshire—the dates provide one way of computing the slow growth rate of lichens (
see Chapter 5
).

One of the Linnean herbarium sheets curated in the Linnean Society of London, and forming the foundation of the naming of plants. The colour has faded a little, but the specimen otherwise survives well. This is the sweet pea
Lathyrus odoratus
L.
905.12
(LINN).

A living plant that may be destined for preservation in the herbarium. This is a recently named relative of the tomato called
Solanum huaylasense
Peralta from Peru.

Beauty at small size: the delicate silica tests of diatoms under the microscope (
see Chapter 5
).

An attractive species of
Hypericum,
the genus that has been the lifetime’s work of Dr. Norman Robson (
see Chapter 5
).

“The Queen bee”: Miriam Rothschild, doyenne of Museum trustees.

Aleurocanthus woglumi
—a troublesome insect pest (
see Chapter 6
).

Encarsia perplexa
—a parasitic wasp that preys on
Aleurocanthus.

The homemade field laboratory of Vane-Wright and friends on location in South-west Africa in the early
1970s
.

A termite mound in outback Australia: one of the insect world’s most sophisticated structures.

Now thought to be related to cockroaches: the primitive termite
Bifidtermes
at work on wood; note wingless larvae (
see Chapter 6
).

Laid out for study: an historically important collection of butterflies and moths made by Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin’s co-author on evolution.