Left,
James Keith's herbarium sheet of Mimulus luteus (Monkey Flower), from
Waterford, near Forres, Moray, in 1898. Right, the same plant, growing in
the same river gravel at Waterford, in 1996 - 98 years later. Rev James Keith, Parish Minister in Forres until 1905, was another enthusiastic collector of plants, and also produced an extensive herbarium, a large part of which is in the care of The Moray Council. James Keith was well known to John Innes, who was his Doctor, and who had advised him to take up plant collecting as an aid to countering his rather poor general health.
Left,
James Keith's herbarium sheet of Mimulus luteus (Monkey Flower), from
Waterford, near Forres, Moray, in 1898. Right, the same plant, growing in
the same river gravel at Waterford, in 1996 - 98 years later.
Keith's
specimen of Digitalis purpurea (Purple Foxglove) is dated July
28th, 1833 - it may be a specimen he acquired from someone else.
Amazingly, the flowers still show a distinct hint of their original purple
colour. The photograph on the right is of specimens within a mile of
Keith's site, taken in 1995.
James Keith also collected other plant groups, and was particularly interested in mosses and fungi.
As
is still common practice, Keith regularly exchanged specimens with other
botanists and institutions. Here is one item from his reference collection
of mosses, from a Norwegian source. His collection was meticulously kept,
with each moss in its own paper packet, labelled with the name in his own
writing, and containing the printed specimen details on a separate label.
Keith
specialised in fungi from all sorts of interesting sources - as this
packet and label clearly show. The specimen identification has been
verified by another botanist by the name of Plowright.