Botanica: The French National Herbarium

A tribute to the world's most extensive collection of botanical specimens, which scientists have meticulously gathered, preserved, and studied since the eighteenth century.

With over eight million samples, the Herbarium's prestigious botanical collection housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris is the most extensive in the world. The Herbarium's archive is a living testament to the world's major historical events--from the 1237 BCE funerary headdress of Egyptian king Ramses II, to third-generation botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu's groundbreaking natural classification of flowering plants, or Jean-Jacques Rousseau's hand-annotated botanical notebook. Today, scientists at the Herbarium continue their important work in the study and preservation of plant biodiversity.

The practice of assembling a herbarium, while first used as a scientific tool, became an art in its own right due to the beauty of its floral forms and colors. This handsome volume traces the creative, patrimonial, and scientific dimensions of this exceptional collection that safeguards a rare international heritage; a testimony to the modern challenges of biodiversity.

Marc Jeanson, former curator at the national Herbarium collections in France's National Museum of Natural History in Paris, now works as Botanical Director at the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech.
Serge Muller is a researcher and professor of ecology who oversees the scientific element of the national Herbarium in France's National Museum of Natural History. He is also the president of the French national environmental protection commission (National Museum of Natural History‒Sorbonne University).
Florence Tessier is an archivist of paleography, librarian, and head of the botanical library within France's National Museum of Natural History.