一个半世纪以来，美国古植物学在缓慢兴起和全面崛起的历史进程中经历了很多很多的艰难和曲折。美国很多大学曾经或正在开展很辉煌的古植物学（和古孢粉学）研究，但许多大学的古植物学都已经自生自灭，有些或将自生自灭；与此同时，古植物学的研究文献和标本变成“孤儿”(Orphaned collections of fossil plants and references)。这是美国古植物学研究的旧常态与新常态。导致这种情形的可能原因有：

（1）古植物学教授退休后无人接班；

（2）学校没有类似自然历史博物馆这样的空间保存古植物学标本（植物大化石、孢粉样品及凭证标本）；

（3）学校没有经费或没有专人负责管理古植物学标本；

（4）有些学校虽然有很优秀的自然历史博物馆，但在某一历史时期对“古植物学program”不再有兴趣，那么，古植物学标本会当作“孤儿”送给感兴趣的学术机构。

   标本的托孤是一件很有趣的事情。我们相信，世界上没有无缘无故的爱！

纽约春天的美丽使者--Purple Crocus [Photo credit: Qigao Sun’s image collection]

∮1 托孤

   纽约哥伦比亚大学的植物化石标本主要是1863年美国科学院首批遴选的美国第1位古植物学院士John Strong Newberry（1822--1892）和他的朋友们学生们采集的。这些珍贵标本于1901年被移交给纽约植物园，这是第1次“托孤”。这意味着--古植物学自那时起已被哥伦比亚大学扫地出门。

   为什么哥大的植物化石标本第1次“托孤”给纽约植物园，而没有送给同城的美国自然历史博物馆(American Museum of Natural History--AMNH)呢？我个人认为，John Strong Newberry的一个“牛逼”学生Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859--1934)起着关键作用。

   Nathaniel Lord Britton 时任纽约植物园首位主任[注：1914年当选为美国科学院院士]。

古植物学的故事236期[总第237期]

Story of Palaeobotany Series (No.236) [The 237^thissue in total]

Umbrella of American palaeobotany-7: the palaeobotany of Columbia University in NYC was gone for over one century.

美国哥伦比亚大学古植物学：百年凋零，难以重生

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-843018.html

2014-11-13 01:09

∮2 再托孤

   确切地说，纽约植物园的古植物学开始于1901年。John Strong Newberry的另一个学生Charles Arthur Hollick（1857--1933）在纽约植物园研究植物化石长达33年。

   经过几代人的努力，纽约植物园的植物化石和研究文献都有所增加。但是，纽约植物园古植物学在经历80年的发展后也自生自灭了。

   1983年，纽约植物园的植物化石被转移到耶鲁大学Peabody自然历史博物馆古植物部。这是John Strong Newberry等人的植物化石第2次被“托孤”！

古植物学的故事334期[总第335期]      

Story of Palaeobotany Series (No.334)[The 335^th issue in total]

Umbrella of American palaeobotany—92

路过美国--纽约植物园的古植物学往事（提纲）

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-884440.html

2015-4-23 01:32

∮3 困惑

   为什么纽约植物园的植物化石被“托孤”到耶鲁大学Peabody自然历史博物馆古植物部，而没有被送给同城的美国自然历史博物馆(American Museum of Natural History--AMNH)呢？这是一个“古植物学之谜”。

   关于纽约植物园具有历史意义的植物化石被“托孤”到耶鲁大学Peabody NHM的大致经过：

“The New York Botanical Garden’s paleobotanical collection was transferred in its entirety to the Division  of  Paleobotany at the Yale Peabody Museum in 1983.”

“This collection has a long history, originating in the early paleobotanical holdings of the School of Mines at Columbia College in New York City. In 1866 J.S. Newberry became Chair of Geology and Paleobotany at Columbia College, and it was during his term that the Columbia Geology Museum was established. Newberry had an extraordinary career. Before accepting the position at Columbia, he served as physician and naturalist on several expeditions between 1885 and 1859 led by the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers.These early expeditions gave Newberry the opportunity to gather significant fossil plant collections from Oregon, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico.Newberry also obtained valuable Mesozoic and Tertiary fossil plants from the Washington Territories, the Yellowstone River and Bridge Creek, Oregon, that had been collected by American pioneer geologists and paleontologists F.V.Hayden, Reverend Thomas Condon and Colonel George Gibbs.”

“Like the original Yale collection, the New York Botanical Garden Collection is one of the founding collections for North American paleobotany. It includes what could be the oldest existing figured materials in American paleobotany, the glosspertids, collected in 1839 by Yale’s own J. D. Dana during the Wilkes Expedition.”

“After Newberry’s death in 1892, Columbia’s fossil plant collection went to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York.Significant collections of late Cretaceous floras of New England, New Jersey and New York were added to it when Arthur Hollick, who had been teaching at Columbia, became an assistant curator at the New York Botanical Garden. Hollick also collected many Tertiary fossil plants from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Herman Becker succeeded Hollick as curator and spent his career studying the Tertiary floras of Montana, until his retirement in 1974. The collection remained uncurated until its transfer to the Yale Peabody Museum.”

以上英文均引自--

http://peabody.yale.edu/collections/paleobotany/new-york-botanical-garden-collection

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孙启高 2015年5月29日整理

======================

相关阅读：

古植物学的故事358期[总第359期]

Story of Paleobotany Series (No.358) [The359^th issue in total]

为何纽约和上海都不青睐古植物学？

Why are New York City and Shanghai NOT interested in paleobotany?  

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-893633.html

2015-5-28 04:52

古植物学的故事（42）：

耶鲁大学---美国古植物学的一个摇篮

----兼谈现代植物形态解剖学与化石植物生物学研究的联系

Story of Palaeobotany Series (No.42):

Yale University--A cradle of American palaeobotany [with reference to the connection between morphology and anatomy of modern plants and biology of fossil plants] [In Chinese with English]

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-225931-331226.html

http://www.sciencenet.cn/blog/user_content.aspx?id=331226

发表于2010-6-2 9:50:00

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