Journal Number 110
November 2008

ORIGINAL PAPERS

The Library of the Swiss Orchid Foundation
at the Herbarium Jany Renz

The Renz library is one of the finest and most complete orchid libraries, and is a cultural asset,
now with a worldwide accessibility. The Renz library is a comprehensive reference collection of
orchid literature, which serves as excellent basis for research, conservation and horticulture.

The collection contains over 3,000 volumes, including an irreplaceable collection of rare and
antique folio volumes, which are considered to be among the best preserved copies in the world.

A complete reference of modern literature is a precious resource for the study of orchids, the
largest family of flowering plants. The collection contains around 5,000 scientific articles from
many sources and represents an extraordinary comprehensive and versatile collection of literature
on orchids.

The complete library was incorporated into the online catalogue of the University Library of Basel
and is now available at http://aleph.unibas.ch

A high-resolution image from RD FitzGerald's Australian orchids downloaded from http://orchid.unibas.ch,
the "Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz".

Some 90 select illustrated orchid books, containing over 7000 hand-coloured drawings, have
been digitized during the last five years and may be accessed online on the website of the Swiss
Orchid Foundation http://www.orchid.unibas.ch (see 'orchid books').

The rarity, originality and quality of these hand-coloured drawings is an invaluable source of
information and proves that scientific precision and artistic efforts are not mutually exclusive.

Scientific illustration is irreplaceable for exact documentation, as neither computer science nor
photography is able to present such a large amount of accurate and aesthetic information on a
single sheet of paper. A large number of the hand-coloured drawings were used for first
descriptions and are thus important for the interpretation of the scientific names of orchids.

In addition to the illustrations, over 52,000 photographs of orchids from around the world have
been scanned and their identity and names checked: they are available through the website of the
Swiss Orchid Foundation. Herbarium specimens, drawings or photographs of all orchids from
Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and North America are available online. Images of many other
Asian, Australasian, African, Madagascan and tropical American orchids are also available.

This World Orchid Iconography an important tool to obtain identifications and nomenclatorial
information on orchids.

Furthermore, the Foundation's website provides free access to BibliOrchidea, a comprehensive
literature database with more than 140,000 entries, covering over 80% of the orchid literature
available worldwide.

The database is continually expanded and kept up-to-date by the eminent orchid specialist
Dr. Rudolph Jenny. Scientists, horticulturists and conservationists, both professional and amateur,
can find publications easily, either by searching for a specific title, author or year of publication
or by browsing through a comprehensive list of keywords. First descriptions may be found by
specifying the taxon (genus, species, subspecies, and variety).

All results are accompanied by appropriate images from the Swiss Orchid Foundation database.

Sources of the digitized drawings

• A Century of Indian Orchids (J. D. Hooker)
• A Century of Orchidaceous Plants Vol. 1 (William Jackson Hooker)
• A Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants (James Bateman)
• Album des Orchidées d'Europe Deuxième Edition (Henry Correvon)
• Australian Orchids Vol. 1 & 2 (R. D. Fitzgerald)
• Bluetenanalysen neuer Orchideen, III. Afrikanische und madegassische Orchideen 3 (R. Schlechter)
• Collectanea Botanica (John Lindley)
• Dictionnaire Iconographique des Orchidées (Alfred Cogniaux; Alphonse Goossens)
• Die Orchidaceen Deutschlands, Deutsch-Oesterreichs und der Schweiz (Max Schulze)
• Die Orchidee, Vol. 56(6), 2005 (Otto Möller)
• Die Orchideen Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Gebiete (Erich Nelson)
• Die Orchideen Europas (Helmut Baumann; S. Kuenkele; R.Lorenz)
• Die Orchideen von Java (& Figurenatlas Vol. 1) (Johann Jacob Smith)
• Die Orchideen von Rhodos und Karpathos (C. A. J.Kreutz)
• Die Orchideengattungen Anacamptis, Orchis, Neotinea (H. Kretzschmar; W. Eccarius; H. Dietrich)
• Flore de Madagaskar, Plantes Vasculaires, 49 Famille - Orchidées Vol. 1 & 2 (Joseph Marie Alfred Henri Perrier de la Bâthie,)
• Flore Illustree de Nice et des Alpes-Maritimes, Iconographie des Orchidees (Jean-Baptiste Barla)
• Forest Orchids of West Africa (C.W. Chew)
• Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants Part IV (John Lindley)
• Genera et species orchidearum et asclepiadearum quas in itinere per insulam Java vol. 1-3 (Heinrich Kuhl; Johan Coenraad van Hasselt; Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda)
• Icones Orchidearum Austro-Africanarum Volume 1 " 2 (Harry Bolus)
• Icones Plantarum Helvetiae (Albertus von Haller)
• Icones Plantarum Japonicarum (Carolus Petrus Thunberg)
• Iconografia delle Orchidee d'Italia (Text: Walter Rossi /Plates: Anne Elderedge Maury)
• Iconographie des Orchidees du Brésil (Joäo Barbosa Rodrigues)
• Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants (Thomas Moore)
• Lindenia Iconographie des Orchidées (All Volumes) (Lucien Linden & Emile Rodigas)
• Monographie des Orchidées des Iles de France et de Bourbon Vol. 1 (Achille Richard)
• Orchidées du Departement de la Marne (Ch. Richon)
• Orchideen Deutschland (Walter Müller; F. Kränzlin)
• Orchidées de Magagascar, Orchidaceae Perrierianae Madagascariensis (Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter)
• Orchidées des Iles Australes d'Afrique Vol. 1 (Louis Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars)
• Orchids and how to grow them Vol. 1 (Samuel Jennings)
• Orchids of Africa, A Select Review (Text by J. Stewart ; Ill. by E.F. Hennessy)
• Orchids of Australia Vol. 1 (W.H. Nicholls)
• Orchids of South-Africa, Icones Orchidearum Austro-Africanarum, Vol.III (Harry Bolus)
• Paxton's Flower Garden, Vol. 1 - 3 (John Lindley; Joseph Paxton)
• Poeppig et Endlicher, Nova Genera Plantarum Vol. 1 & 2 (Eduardus Poeppig & Stephano Endlicher)
• Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described (Frederick Sander)
• Rumphia Band 4 (Carl Ludwig Blume)
• Select Orchidaceous Plants First - Third Series (Robert Warner)
• Sertum Orchidaceum (John Lindley)
• Southern African epiphytic orchids (John S.Ball)
• The Genus Masdevallia (Florence Woolward)
• The native Orchids of Florida (Carlyle A.Luer)
• The native Orchids of the United States and Canada excluding Florida (Carlyle A.Luer)
• The Orchid Album Vol. 1 - 11 (Robert Warner; Benjamin Samuel Williams; T.Moore)
• The Orchidaceae of Mexico & Guatemala (James Bateman)
• The Orchids of the Cape Peninsula 2 (Harry Bolus)
• The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalaya Vol. 1 - 3 (G. King and R. Pantling)
• The Slipper Orchids : Selenipedium, Phragmipedium, Criosanthes, Cypripedium, Paphiopedilum (Esmé Franklin Hennessy)
• Xenia Orchidacea (H.G. Reichenbach, F. Kraenzlin)