Thomson s.n. (by 1878)
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| Thomson herbarium specimen, north-west Himalaya (by 1878) | |
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| Thomson s.n. (by 1878) | |
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| Thomson s.n. from the north-west Himalaya, held by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as catalogue E00248600 (CC BY-SA 2.5) | |
| At a Glance | |
| Classification | Unknown |
| Location | |
| Country | India |
| Collection | |
| Method | Herbarium specimen |
| Sourcing Type | Historical |
| Collector | T. Thomson |
| Specimen | |
| Repository | Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh |
| Catalogue Number | E00248600 |
| Collector Number | Thomson, T. s.n. |
| Scientific Name | Cannabis sativa L. |
| Occurrence Record | View occurrence record |
Thomson s.n. is a herbarium accession of Cannabis sativa from the north-west Himalaya, collected by Thomas Thomson (1817 to 1878) and distributed in the Indian herbarium of Joseph Dalton Hooker and Thomson.[1] The label gives no date, so the title carries the collector's death year as its limit. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh holds the sheet as catalogue E00248600.[2] GBIF publishes it as occurrence 574922859.[3]
Collection and locality
The mounted label is a printed distribution label reading Herb. Ind. Or Hook. fil. & Thomson. Its filled lines read Hab. Himal. Bor. Occ., Regio. temp. and Coll. T.T.; the altitude line is left blank.[4] Himal. Bor. Occ. stands for Himalaya borealis occidentalis, the north-west Himalaya. Regio. temp. stands for the temperate zone. There is no date, no number and no named place.[4]
Pencil across the sheet reads Cannabis sativa. A second pencil word below it begins Kashm and runs under the mounted label.[4] The catalogue gives the collector as Thomson, Thomas and carries no date and no locality.[2][3]
In his narrative of the journey, Western Himalaya and Tibet (1852), Thomson describes hemp in the Kashmir Valley, which he reached in October 1848, when the season of vegetation was almost at an end. Hemp, he wrote, grows spontaneously along the banks of the river, forming dense thickets often twelve and fifteen feet in height, and almost impenetrable; it was used only to make an intoxicating drink and for smoking, and the whole plant was kept in store-houses in the town until it was needed.[5]: 454–455
Specimen and identification
Three long stems are mounted, all in heavy fruit, with the leaves reduced among the clusters.[4] The printed label names the plant Cannabis sativa. The catalogue records it as Cannabis sativa L.[4][2]
The sheet came to Edinburgh from Kew: it is printed at the head From the Herbarium, Royal Gardens, Kew. Presented. A circular stamp beside the label reads Herbarium Hookerianum 1867.[4]
- ↑ "Thomson, Thomas (1817-1878)". International Plant Names Index. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria and Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Cannabis sativa L., specimen E00248600". Herbarium catalogue. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Occurrence 574922859: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Digitised sheet E00248600: Cannabis sativa L." RBGE IIIF image service. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 17 September 2026.
- ↑ Thomson, Thomas (1852). Western Himalaya and Tibet: A Narrative of a Journey through the Mountains of Northern India, during the Years 1847–8. London: Reeve and Co. – via Project Gutenberg.