Historical Background

The Beginnings

Serious plant collecting began in Trinidad and Tobago with the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Port of Spain in 1818.

Although the Superintendents of the gardens were enthusiastic botanists, it was not until the arrival of John Hart in March 1887 that any attempt was made to organise the collection so that it could be properly used.

Hart found the collections of his predecessors "tied up in brown paper parcels, put into out-houses, bed-rooms, closets, with no arrangement, or catalogue to guide anyone as to their contents. As a result 90% of the specimens were destroyed by insects."

Hart's priority was then to preserve, poison, mount and catalogue these specimens and to have them stored in specially designed cabinets where they were arranged systematically. In this he was ably assisted by the Herbarium Assistant, Paula McLean, whose devotion to her task for 32 years (1889 - 1921) was largely responsible for the preservation of the collection during this time. The number of specimens was increased under her tenure from about 3000 to 7000.

Removal to a New Home

At that time the Herbarium was housed at the offices of the Department of Agriculture in St. Clair near the Savanna in Port of Spain. There it provided a source of botanical information for the nearby Royal Botanic Garden and later the Department of Agriculture, the Forestry Department and, eventually, the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture and the University of the West Indies.

After the establishment of the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture at St. Augustine, the Professor of Botany, E.E. Cheesman, together with W.G. Freeman and R.O. Williams of the Department of Agriculture conceived the idea of compiling a Flora for Trinidad and Tobago based on these collections. The necessary research and further collection was undertaken by these men outside their normal teaching and administrative activities. The first volume was published in 1928.

In keeping with the expansion of botanical research at the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture after World War 2, the Herbarium was transferred from St. Clair to St. Augustine in July 1947. The collections were first housed in the Plant Pathology Department. When the Sir Frank Stockdale building was added to the College, provisions were made to accomodate the Herbarium, which moved into residence in September 1950. The Herbarium has been operating from this building up to the present.

The Modern Era

In 1960 when the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture became the Faculty of Agriculture of the then University College of the West Indies, the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology was charged with the management and financing of the Herbarium. Under the leadership of the Professor of Botany, J.W. Purseglove (1957 - 1967), ably abetted by members of his staff such as N.W. Simmonds, specific staff were assigned to the Herbarium to collect specimens and maintain the collection. Further volumes of the Flora were produced by local staff and overseas taxonomists.

In time the cost of running the Herbarium, with no specific budget, became too great for the Department to bear. The then Head of Department, F.W. Cope, initiated a financial take-over of the Herbarium by the Government, and eventually, through the National Scientific Advisory Council,and its Chairman, K. Julien, the Ministry of Planning and Development agreed to finance the Herbarium indefinitely, regarding it as a national asset, and the collection was renamed as the "National Herbarium of Trinidad and Tobago".

Although funded directly by the Government of Trinidad & Tobago the National Herbarium is administered by University of the West Indies through the Head of the Department of Life Sciences.