The original 平特五不中 College Herbarium was founded in 1856 with a gift of more than 500 plant specimens collected in the Montreal region in the early 1820s by A. F. Holmes, one of the founders and first head of the 平特五不中 medical faculty.聽These records are among the earliest collected in Canada. In 1907, 平特五不中 founded a second herbarium at Macdonald College聽with a donation of specimens from John Macoun to be used for teaching in the Faculty of Agriculture.聽The Macdonald College herbarium subsequently developed extensive collections from the circumpolar arctic and subarctic through the research activities of students and staff, as well as exchanges with herbaria in Copenhagen and Leningrad.聽The 平特五不中 College Herbarium and the Macdonald College Herbarium were united into a combined university herbarium in 1971, at which time all plant specimens were moved to Macdonald Campus. As a result of the merger, the herbarium numbered nearly 90,000 specimens.聽It has since grown to more than 140,000 plant specimens that document the research activities of 平特五不中 staff and students over the past century and serve as a rich source of research material for biologists.
Read on for more information on the diverse set of 19th-century collections housed within the 平特五不中 Herbarium.