The core of BRIT’s herbarium is the Lloyd H. Shinners Collection in Systematic Botany, begun at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 1944. The Botanical Research Institute of Texas was formed in 1987 to house the transfer of this collection, which moved to Fort Worth in 1991.  Areas of geographic concentration encompass Texas, the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia. The BRIT herbarium holdings are worldwide in scope, and represent most of the earth’s plant families.