[Taxacom] S. B. Fairbank of India

[Michael Sundue]

Does anyone have information on the collector Rev. S. B. Fairbank who
worked in India in the 1870s? He authored the 1875 “Key to the Natural
Orders of Plants of the Bombay Presidency”, and “Popular list of the Birds
of the Bombay Presidency, with notes”.


We have a set of ferns and lycophtyes here at VT that I believe represent
his collections, but I am trying to gather more information to be certain.
We originally acquired the set as part of the Charles. C. Frost Cryptogamic
herbarium. Our sheets are annotated with a narrow label that looks as
though it were cut out of a publication or exsiccatae. They include a
binomial, a brief description [e.g. “in grass”] and what I believe is an
elevation in feet e.g. “P. 6000”.   I found the same annotations on a fern
sheet at NY that also had an additional label including Fairbank’s name,
and a locality in India.


I am hoping to test the idea that these minimally annotated sheets all
represent collections made by Fairbank, and that they were all made in
India.


Thanks,

Michael Sundue

The Pringle Herbarium

University of Vermont (VT)