Enrichment of the VIR herbarium collection with materials from France and its subordinate territories in the 1920–1930s

Since its establishment, the Herbarium of Cultivated Plants of the World, Their Wild Relatives, and Weeds (the VIR Herbarium, WIR) has fully embodied the Institute’s primary mission: to build a comprehensive collection representing the global diversity of cultivated plants. One of the most active periods of collection growth occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, while N. I. Vavilov was at the head of the Institute. It was the time when VIR organized numerous collecting missions worldwide and enthusiastically fostered international collaboration. This article examines the herbarium specimens that arrived between the 1920s and 1930s from France and its dependent territories (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon) and their sources. More than half of the specimens (2,765) represent various species and varieties of wheat, barley, goatgrass, vetch, peavine, and flax, with grapevines also well represented (100–400 specimens). The most valuable part of the collection consists of herbarium specimens collected directly from their natural habitats (originals), totaling 246 items. The remaining 3,948 specimens were collected from the experimental fields of VIR’s departments where they had been grown from seeds originally obtained in those countries. Vavilov’s collecting mission to the Mediterranean region (June 1926 – August 1927) supplied nearly 90% of the specimens to the VIR Herbarium. In addition to the collected samples, specimens were acquired from various scientific institutions, including botanical gardens, seed companies, and research centers, as well as from personal plant holdings of French scientists, such as Louis Blaringhem, Louis Charles Trabut, Léon Octave Ducellier, Émile Miège, and Félicien Boeuf.

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