Research Training Program

Andrea Nix
Duke University
Durham, NC

George Russell
Project Advisor
Department of Botany

"I will leave my internship with a strong feeling of accomplishment."

Type Register Projects

This project involved work in the United States National Herbarium on the Type Register project with Chris Tuccinardi and Dawn Arculus. This assignment included three major projects. The first of these involved a computer database that Chris had designed to print herbarium case labels. Data was collected from the herbarium and entered into the database to find weaknesses in the program. After assisting with the editing of the program, a documentation and accompanying figures were produced as a manual for the program.

The next aspect of the project involved changing the genus numbers of the Orchidaceae in the type collection to correspond with the recently revised general collection. This involved some research as some types had no corresponding specimens and had to be assigned new numbers. After all of the orchid types had been given accurate numbers, they were re-filed accordingly.

The third register project involved the family Arecaceae. The genus listing of these plants was in need of great revision. Corrections were made from a published list and the accompanying database was updated in the type register office. These corrections will be distributed to other offices so that all of the files will be accurate.

This research was supported by a grant from the Educational Outreach Fund.