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<span style="" lang="NL-BE"><w:sdt
docpart="E37185C8F6E74FA886AC5E9EB4EE917B" id="-1803993157"><span
style="" lang="EN-GB">Dear Colleagues,</span></w:sdt></span><span
style="" lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span> <w:sdt
docpart="E37185C8F6E74FA886AC5E9EB4EE917B" id="-330455378"> </w:sdt>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><small><span
style="" lang="EN-GB">The management of the collections at the
National Botanic Garden of Belgium was transferred from the
Federal to Flemish Government on</span></small><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB"><small> </small>1<small>
January 2014. </small>This has resulted in a number of
changes, including the name of the institute that has officially
become “Agentschap Plantentuin Meise” (Botanic Garden Meise).<o:p></o:p></span><span
style="" lang="NL-BE"><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">The Flemish government is
heavily investing in the renovation of our digitization
infrastructure and in a large-scale digitization project where
the African and Belgian vascular plant herbaria are to be
scanned and databased. This 3 year project will run from 1
January 2015 to 31 December 2017, and will have a great impact
on the running of the vascular plant herbarium of the Botanical
Garden (BR). We are unfortunately obliged to progressively
restrict access to these collections. We have compiled the
following (provisional) timetable: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style=""><u><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Timetable 2015-2017:<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Hall 1.1 (African Dicots:
Acanthaceae to Leguminosae-Mimosaceae*): no access from 15 May
2015 to the end 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Hall 1.2 (African Dicots:
Leguminosae-Papilionaceae to end*): no access from September
2015 to Spring 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Hall 2.2 (Belgian
Herbarium): no access from November 2015 to end 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Hall 2.1 (African
Monocots) and Hall 0.1 (African Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms):
no access from January 2016 to end 2017.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 10pt;" lang="EN-GB">* Our collections are
alphabetically classified and the Families arranged according to
“The Plant Book, second edition (2000)” that largely follows
Cronquist (1981).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Please take the above
timetable into account when planning your visit to the
herbarium, as well as contacting the curator at </span><span
lang="EN-US"><a href="mailto:vasc.curator@br.fgov.be"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">vasc.curator@br.fgov.be</span></a></span><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB"> well in advance. In so
doing, the curator can give you more detailed information
concerning the availability of the desired collections.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">Loans during the above
periods will be limited.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="EN-GB">We hope that you will take
the above measures into consideration. We would like to thank
you for your understanding, and apologise for any inconvenience
caused by these measures. If you have any questions, please
contact us via the above email or directly through one of the
curators.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;" lang="NL-BE">Piet Stoffelen, Ann
Bogaerts & Sofie De Smedt<br>
</span></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ann Bogaerts
Curator Cryptogamic Herbarium
Botanic Garden Meise
Nieuwelaan 38
BE-1860 Meise
Belgium
Phone: +32(0)2 260 09 35
Fax: +32 (0)2 260 09 45
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.botanicgarden.be&d=AwMDaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=2aDd5-4BK2xUOvtLzYxbj5OeVWe9pA48TLz2C027VIY&s=g8i2GG5MZ9zaxRPfntKVUbj7hkLMFfOgWYb2Uokqeko&e=">www.botanicgarden.be</a></pre>
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