Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya.

7, 1919-1922

Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya.

3, 1906

Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya.

5, 1911

L'herbari Bernades a l'Institut Botanic de Barcelona

The Bernades herbarium in the Botanic Institute of Barcelona (BC).- The BC-Bernades herbarium is one of the oldest collections conserved in the Botanical Institute of Barcelona. It contains part of the field collections of Miquel Bernades i Mainader and Miquel Bernades i Clarís, doctors of medicine and botanists of Catalonian origin living in Madrid in the 18th century. The collection consists of 817 sheets, the complete list provided in the annexe. We also present information concerning the localities of certain specifi c recollections, the taxonomic groups and families, as well as a list of sheets of special interest. This list contains witness of cornfi eld weed now very rare or extinct in Iberian lands, such as Hymenocarpos circinatus (L.) Savi or Securigera securidaca (L.) Degen & Dörfl , and also some of the first witness known from Spain of introduced plants, such as Aster cordifolius L. or Bidens bipinnata L.

Improving educational functions in botanic gardens by employing landscape narratives

Landscape narrative, combining landscape and narrative, has been employed to create storytelling layouts and interpretive information in some famous botanic gardens. In order to assess the educational effectiveness of using "landscape narrative" in landscape design, the Heng-Chun Tropical Botanical Garden in Taiwan was chosen as research target for an empirical study. Based on cognitive theory and the affective responses of environmental psychology, computer simulations and video recordings were used to create five themed display areas with landscape narrative elements. Two groups of pupils watched simulated films. The pupils were then given an evaluation test and questionnaire, to determine the effectiveness of the landscape narrative. When the content was well associated and matched with the narrative landscape, the comprehension and retention of content was increased significantly. The results also indicated that visual preference of narrative landscape scenes was increased. This empirical study can be regarded as a successful model of integrating landscape narrative and interpretation practice that can be applied to the design of new theme displays in botanic gardens to improve both the effectiveness of interpretation plans and the visual preference of visitors. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.