Abstract

STAUFFER, Fred W et al. The contribution of Dr. José María Vargas to botanical sciences in Venezuela. Acta Bot. Venez. [online]. 2006, vol.29, n.1, pp.135-164. ISSN 0084-5906.

    The botanical work of the Venezuelan physician José María Vargas is described through an analysis of the contacts that he maintained with contemporary botanists and naturalists, as well as through a detailed study of the collections he made in Caracas. The 200-300 collections, deposited in at least six different foreign herbaria, are sufficient evidence to consider Vargas as the very first Venezuelan plant collector. The Vargas collection included in the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle is one of the most important Venezuelan collections cited, based on the number of specimens and taxonomic novelties. A selection of previously unpublished images of Vargas collections deposited in the de Candolle Herbarium (G-DC) at the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of Geneva and in the American herbaria of the New York Botanical Garden (NY), and the Smithsonian Institution (US) is presented.

Keywords : Botany; Floristic; History; José María Vargas; Venezuela.