Fascinating specimens collected by anonymous collectors

　For the majority of the specimens in the Siebold Collection, the names of the collectors, the dates on which, and the locations where they were gathered are not catalogued. Nonetheless, it is possible to grasp Siebold's motives and the interests of his Japanese collaborators merely by looking at this herbarium collection.

　The collection includes plants that were quite common for the Japanese as follows:

Quercus serrata Thunb. Konara

TI No.143, 144,

  
Zelkova serrata (Thunb.) Makino Keyaki

TI No.286,

  
Fagopyrum esculentum Moench Soba

TI No.365,

  
Fallopia japonica (Houtt.) Ronse Deer. Itadori

TI No.047, 048,121,

  
Cinnamomum camphora (L.) J. Presl Kusu-no-ki

TI No.347, 348

  
leyera japonica Thunb. Sakaki

TI No.405

  
Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl. Biwa

TI No.100

  
Aralia cordata Thunb. Udo

TI No.398

  
Coix lacryma-jobi L. Juzu-dama

TI No.178

  
Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. Susuki

TI No.422

  
Gleichenia japonica Spreng. Urajiro

TI No.290

  

　There can be no doubt that to Siebold and other Europeans, these plants were both unusual and fascinating.

　On the other hand, when examining his collection one also finds foreign plants such as Celosia argentea L. (No-geitô in Japanese, TI No.011), Ruta graveolens L. (Henruhda,TI No.017), Achillea ptarmica L. (Oobana-nokogirisô,TI No.078), Can-na indica L. (Dandoku,TI.No.180) from which we learn of the profound interest that his Japanese contemporaries had in garden species.

　The specimens from the Siebold Collection donated by the NHN offer historical testimony of the cultural exchanges that took place between Japan and the Netherlands at the end of the Edo Shogunate, and are important cultural materials that allow us to learn about the people and plant species of the period.

　

　The challenge for the future will be to conduct research and comparative studies of the specimens stored in the Leiden University branch of the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, which holds the largest number from the Siebold Collection, those in the Utrecht Unversity branch, and the Botanische Staatssammulung München in Germany, the abundant collection of Siebold's personal effects stored in the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (St Petersburg), together with the 2,700 specimens acquired from the Komarov Botanical Institute by the Makino Herbarium (affiliated to Tokyo Metropolitan University) in 1963, those donated by the Leiden University branch of the NHN to the Ibaraki Nature Museum, and those stored in other institutions.