| Popis: |
Azolla is a worldwide aquatic or semiaquatic fern that was herborized for the first time in 1767, by Philibert Commerson and his co-worker Jeanne Baret, during Bougainville’s voyage around the world. It was in Montevideo and Buenos Aires and not at the Strait of Magellan, as it was referred by Lamarck in 1783, that this plant was collected for the first time for science and prepared for herbarium. Following Commerson’s death in Mauritius, his herbarium and manuscripts, including all biological specimens collected by him and Baret, were shipped to the Jardin du Roi in Paris and distributed among several other scientific institutions. The importance of this herbarium in the history of botany is mentioned, namely, what happened to the first Azolla samples and the other biological specimens collected by these two naturalists, which were though often used without proper attributions by the established scientific community of their time. |
