Talk:Christison s.n., Simla (1859)

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Discussion for: Christison s.n., Simla (1859) • View • Links • Related changes

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Page scope

Christison s.n., Simla (1859) is about a single collection of cannabis, a seed lot or a herbarium specimen: where and when it was gathered, by whom, and what the sources say about the plants.

Data verification

Check the main page for documentation tier status. Discuss coordinate accuracy, photo quality, or collection details here.

Discussion

Evidentiary scope

The label is written in one hand and reads Cannabis sativa . var: indica, Male and Female plants. (both sexes were gathered), Simla, Northern India. and A. C. 1859. It says nothing about cultivation, wild growth, use or a local name, and it gives no altitude or habitat, so nothing shows whether the plant was cultivated, grew wild or had escaped. The accession is classified Unknown. It establishes the presence of Cannabis at Simla in 1859 and nothing beyond that: no stand, no landrace and no living holding. No conservation priority is assigned.

Georeferencing

Simla is present-day Shimla, in Shimla district, Himachal Pradesh. The label gives no site within the town, no altitude and no habitat, so no elevation is asserted and the coordinate is Shimla's own point in OpenStreetMap (node 316417040), 31.10, 77.17, used as a locality georeference rather than as a reconstructed collection point. The infobox uses the present-day district, as Fleming s.n., Simla (1849) does for the same place ten years earlier.

The coordinate georeferences the place the label names, at two decimal places, with the mapped object named above. Shimla's municipal area is 35.34 km² (English Wikipedia, Shimla), a circle about 3.4 km in radius, and 1 km is added for the rounding of the point. Basis: settlement point. Uncertainty: about 5 km. Éloise 06:11, 18 September 2026 (+07)

Editorial treatment

The label signs the gathering A. C. 1859 and gives no other attribution. A pencil note at the foot of the sheet reads Alexander Christison. The title, the collector field and the collector number all use that expansion, for three reasons:

the expansion is written on the sheet itself, not supplied by a catalogue;
Alexander Christison (1828 to 1918) was an Edinburgh graduate of 1850 who joined the East India Company's service as an assistant surgeon in 1851 and was posted at Agra from late 1858, so he was in northern India in the year the label gives (University of Edinburgh, Papers of the Christison Family);
the sheet is in the Edinburgh teaching collection of James McNab, which is where an Edinburgh family's Indian material would be expected to land.

This is a reading, not a signature. If it is not accepted, the title would be A.C. s.n., Simla (1859) and the collector field would carry the initials alone. RBGE and GBIF name no collector at all.

The scientific name field uses the label's Cannabis sativa var. indica, which the RBGE catalogue also carries. GBIF adds the authority (Lam.) Wehmer, which the catalogue page does not, so the authority is left off.

Source citations remain in the article. Éloise 04:43, 18 September 2026 (+07)