Herbarium: It is a store house where dried and pressed specimens of plants are placed on sheet in a systematic way of classification. They are basically used for education and research purposes in different institutes. Polythene bags, magazines, blotting papers, sheets, field notebook, glue, labels constitute the equipment of herbarium. In order to collect the specimen, first area is selected and then plant with intact parts is collected. This material is placed in polythene bags. The collected specimens are spread over magazine sheets. Magazines are now put inside the press which consists of boards and straps. Details should be noted down in the field notebook. A specific number is given to specimen who provides all relevant details. After a day sheets are changed and blotting papers are required. They provide drying effect. Sheets are color specific and labels are placed over them. Sheets are covered with tissue papers. Formalin solutions are used to preserve the specimen.
Herbarium is used as an information guide for the local as well as distant area flora. They also help us to identify unknown and wild varieties of plants. They also provide first hand information on morphological variations, seasonal flowering and quick referral system for taxonomic studies. The most important herbaria in India are Central National Herbarium, Kolkata consisting of nearly 2 million herbarium specimens. Madras Herbarium in Coimbatore & National Botanical Research Institute in Lucknow are other well known herbaria.
Species are identified by Manuals (handy book with certain guidelines relating to species in particular area), Flora (Informative book with respect to climate, habitat of plants in a specified area), Monograph (thesis with information on particular topic), Catalogue (list with specific numbers of species) and key.
Botanical gardens are large sized areas with almost every variety of plants. Hanging Gardens of Babylon are quite popular. Some of the world famous Botanical gardens are in India like Indian Botanical Garden in Kolkata (largest botanical garden in Asia), Lloyd Botanical garden in Darjeeling and National Botanical Garden in Lucknow.
