Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, Botany Collection

Containing around three-quarters of a million specimens, the botanical collection forms a physical record of where plants and fungi have been found. The Museum collection has grown from the mid-19th century onwards as people with a passion for the natural world have donated their personal collections. The backbone of the collection was created by merging three large private collections from James Cosmo Melvill (worldwide plants donated in 1904), Leopold Hartley Grindon (cultivated plants donated in 1910) and Charles Bailey (European plants donated in 1917). The most recent significant addition has been the collection of British brambles donated by Alan Newton in 2012.