学会历史与早期发展
1895 年 12 月 10 日晚,哈佛大学 William G. Farlow 医生在剑桥自宅邀请 11 位对新英格兰本地植物感兴趣的男士聚会,商讨成立专门研究本土植物的团体。1896 年 2 月 5 日,Joseph Churchill 法官在马萨诸塞州多尔chester 自宅召集会议,通过章程并定名「The New England Botanical Club」,首届主席由 Farlow 担任,会费定为每人每年 2 美元。同年 4 月 1 日,哈佛阿加西博物馆(今比较动物学博物馆)腾出一间房用于储藏植物标本,这一间房就是后来超过 29 万份标本的植物标本室雏形。1920 年 12 月 16 日,俱乐部正式以「The New England Botanical Club, Inc.」名义注册为非营利法人。1964 年章程修订删去「gentleman」字样,女性才获许申请入会;1968 年 12 月,哈佛大学的 Alice Tryon 博士成为首位女性正式会员,1978 年又成为俱乐部第一位女主席。
Rhodora 期刊与学术出版
1899 年 1 月 2 日,俱乐部正式出版《Rhodora》创刊号,首任主编是本杰明·罗宾逊(与 M. L. Fernald 合著 Gray 植物手册第七版的作者),月刊形式发行。《Rhodora》是同行评审的植物学期刊,主要发表与北美植物区系有关的论文、注释、植物系统学、生态学、生物地理学、种群遗传学、古植物学、保护生物学等领域的研究,每年出版四期,被 Biological Abstracts 与 Web of Science 收录,目前主编为 Melanie Schori 博士,常务编辑为 Abigail Christian。所有稿件通过 Scholastica 系统提交,设 10 美元投稿费。1999 年起俱乐部把 1896 年至 1999 年共 63 卷期刊在 Biodiversity Heritage Library 全文数字化,供全球研究者免费下载。
植物标本室与图书馆藏
新英格兰植物学会植物标本室(标本室代号 NEBC)成立于 1896 年,目前是全美规模最大的新英格兰本土植物标本收藏机构,所有馆藏都寄存于哈佛大学植物标本馆(Vascular Herbarium 共藏 273,000 余份维管束植物标本,Cryptogamic Herbarium 收藏约 18,000 份苔藓、藻类、真菌与地衣标本,总馆藏接近 291,000 份,其中包含 400 余份模式标本)。标本室同时保管一份小型专业图书馆与档案库,文献年代可追溯到 19 世纪中叶。学会积极接受新区域记录、稀有保护植物、特有标本与正式发表引用凭证,并在 Curatorial Policy 中公布接收原则与采集伦理标准。
学术会议与野外考察
NEBS 在学年内每月举办一次学术例会,通常在马萨诸塞州剑桥市的哈佛大学校园进行,会员可与来访学者面对面交流。每年春夏两季学会组织多次面向会员与公众的野外考察、采集旅行与周末植物认知活动,9 月一般会安排一次多日的集中采集旅行(Productive Collecting Foray)。学会还定期举办专题研讨会与公开讲座,2026–2030 战略规划已把「会议数字化与混合举办」列为优先方向,以扩大外地会员与海外合作者参与度。
研究奖项与会员支持
学会每年向学生、独立或专业植物学家、学术机构教师与《Rhodora》投稿人颁发多类奖项。2019 年新设立的 Junior Faculty Award 面向任职新英格兰高校不足 5 年的早期职业教师,资助其开展新英格兰植物区系相关的原创研究。其他项目包括面向学生、独立学者、业余爱好者的旅行奖学金、田野调查补贴、保护研究资助与论文出版补助;2026 年起学会扩大对外公开的捐款渠道与商品销售,所有收入用于奖助金、植物标本室扩建及《Rhodora》开放获取出版。
Founding and Early History
On the evening of 10 December 1895, Harvard professor William G. Farlow invited eleven men to his Cambridge home to discuss forming a society for the study of the local New England flora. A second organisational meeting was held on 6 January 1896, and on 5 February 1896 the constitution was formally adopted at the home of Judge Joseph Churchill in Dorchester, Massachusetts, with Farlow elected the first president and dues set at two dollars per year. The Club accepted a room at Harvard’s Agassiz Museum on 1 April 1896 to house a nascent herbarium; it incorporated as The New England Botanical Club, Inc. on 16 December 1920. The bylaws were amended in November 1964 to drop the word “gentleman” and admit women; Alice Tryon of Harvard became the first female member in December 1968 and the first female president in 1978.
Rhodora Journal and Scholarly Publishing
The first issue of Rhodora was published on 2 January 1899, with Benjamin Lincoln Robinson—co-author with Merritt Lyndon Fernald of the seventh edition of Gray’s Manual of Botany—as editor. The journal appeared monthly in its early years and has been in continuous publication ever since, now issued four times per year and indexed in Biological Abstracts and the Web of Science. Rhodora publishes peer-reviewed articles and notes on systematics, floristics, biogeography, ecology, evolution, population genetics, paleobotany and conservation biology of the North American flora, and accepts submissions through Scholastica with a ten-dollar submission fee. The current Editor-in-Chief is Dr Melanie Schori, with Abigail Christian as Managing Editor; volumes from 1899 through 2001 are openly accessible through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Herbaria, Library and Archives
The New England Botanical Society Herbarium (herbarium code NEBC) was founded in 1896 and today is the largest repository of New England plant specimens, with total holdings of nearly 291,000 specimens that include more than 400 type specimens. The Vascular Herbarium holds over 273,000 specimens of vascular plants, and the Cryptogamic Herbarium holds almost 18,000 specimens of bryophytes, algae, fungi and lichens. All material is housed at the Harvard University Herbaria, where specimens are accessible to visiting researchers. The Society also maintains a small research library and an institutional archive documenting the regional flora from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and publishes its Curatorial Policy and Plant Collecting Ethics online.
Meetings, Field Trips and Public Programs
NEBS holds monthly meetings during the academic year, normally at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where members hear visiting botanists present original research; meetings are open to non-members. The Society organises field trips, forays and identification workshops throughout the warmer months, including the multi-day Productive Collecting Foray held each September. Workshops and symposia, including the May 1979 symposium on Rare and Endangered Plant Species in New England, bring professional and amateur botanists into regular contact. The 2026–2030 strategic plan commits NEBS to expanding hybrid meeting formats and online programming so that members across the six New England states and beyond can participate more easily.
Awards, Membership and Strategic Goals
Each year NEBS funds research and publication awards for students, amateur and professional botanists, academic faculty and Rhodora contributors. The Junior Faculty Award, established in 2019, supports early-career faculty within their first five years at a New England post-secondary institution whose teaching and research engage the regional flora; travel grants, conservation research grants, and student scholarships to attend Society events round out the portfolio. Membership is open to anyone interested in the New England flora. The 2026–2030 strategic priorities emphasise investing in the herbaria, journal and library; reinvigorating plant-conservation leadership across New England; cultivating an inclusive pipeline of new botanists; modernising governance and finances; and broadening public engagement with plants.
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