(91) A Proposed Recommendation for Labelling Type Specimens

Most herbaria are rightly proud of having material in their possession, they take special care of it, often filing it separately or in special folders. Authors in the last century usually did not indicate on their herbarium sheets what they considered their original material when they established new taxa, such as is now required. In many cases it has been possible for later students by different means to prove what specimens could with certainty be considered the type, and the sheet has then been labelled type (isotype etc.). Great care has to be taken before such a determination is made. Study of the original literature must be combined with taxonomic study of the specimen in question, evaluation of the different labels attached, the handwriting, etc. To attach a label should involve a firm judgment based on all circumstantial evidence so as to ensure that the specimen in question is actually the one the original author had in his hand. Is a specimen with a Wall. Cat. number in Wallich's herbarium the type, or is the specimen rather the one with the same number in Lindley's herbarium? Are the many specimens in the Reichenbach herbarium now marked with a red label actually Reichenbach's type?