V. I. Ermakov's “Chinese” collection of Petrozavodsk State University herbarium

A herbarium collection of Petrozavodsk State University has a “Chinese” assemblage put together by Vladimir Ivanovich Ermakov. V. I. Ermakov (1919-1999) is known as a Soviet forester and a specialist in selection and cultivation of woody plants. From 1968-1986 he worked as a director of the Forest Institute of Karelian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1954-1958 V. I. Ermakov worked as an advisor at the Research Institute for Tropical Agriculture (Hainan, Chinese People’s Republic). After the Second World War the Soviet Union experienced a great demand for natural rubber. In order to produce this strategic raw material a few plantations of Hevea brasiliensis, as world cultivated rubber species, were established in the tropical areas of China. Lots of Soviet specialists were involved in this work, including V. I. Ermakov. The collection in focus includes 30 specimens - herbarium leaves of shoots of Hevea brasiliensis, different species of eucalyptus (the strips of eucalyptus were planted to protect plantations of Hevea brasiliensis), as well as layers of natural rubber, obtained by different methods of treating the latex of Hevea brasiliensis. The covers of some herbarium collections have gift inscriptions of V. I. Ermakov written in Chinese and Russian. One of them says: “To our dear teacher Ermakov for good memories from all Chinese selectors of the Department of Selection of the Research Institute of Tropical Plants in South China. June, 5, 1956, the city of Canton”. The “Chinese” collection of V. I. Ermakov represents not only a particular Chinese period of his scientific work, but also opens up one of the pages describing the history of the Soviet- Chinese relations in the middle of the XX century.