Sir Hans Sloane's herbarium on Radio 4

Are you listening to Dr Mark Spencer on BBC Radio 4's 'Natural History Heroes'? If you missed today's episode, you can catch it again here on iPlayer. 

Cabinets housing the Sloane volumes
Image courtesy of Natural History Museum

Mark talked about Sir Hans Sloane and his herbarium collection, which is housed at the Natural History Museum. Sir Hans' 265 volumes of pressed specimens are housed in a purpose-built special collections room, with each volume in its own temperature- and humidity-controlled cabinet. How very grand!  

We are hoping that Mark will agree to lead one of his famous behind-the-scenes tours of the herbarium at this year's BSBI Annual Exhibition Meeting (AEM), which this year is taking place at the Natural History Museum on Saturday 28th November. These tours have proved incredibly successful in previous years but Mark is incredibly busy this year with Orchid Observers and all his media appearances. Fingers crossed that he can fit us in! 

BSBI members should keep an eye out this week for the postie, who will be bringing you more info about the AEM and how you can book. 

If you are not yet a BSBI member, the AEM is one of the best ways to find out more about the society (and it's a great botanical day out and you get first dibs on next year's Field Meetings Programme and admission is free!) We'll be posting booking details on this page once all our members have been contacted.