Section A: the 4.846 seaweeds exsiccata include: Cyanophyta, Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta, both with soft talli and calcareous, for a total of 295 genera and 740 species. The most frequent genera are: Fucus, Dictyopteris, Dictyota, Cystoseira, Enteromorpha, Ulva, Ceramium, Nitophyllum); the species: F. virsoides, D. membranacea, D. dichotoma, C. crinita, C. fimbriata, E. intestinalis, U. rigida, C. ciliatum, N.punctatum. Digital photographic documentation is available for about a fifth of the specimens.

From a geographical point of view, the sampling areas of the specimens were divided in seven (7) main groups:

• the Northern Adriatic Sea with the Gulf of Trieste (from which 1450 exsiccata originate) and the Gulf of Venice (with 80 exsiccata);
• Istria (represented by 1420 exsiccata, collected between Capodistria and Pola);
• the Dalmatian coast (with 210 exsiccata, mainly sampled near of Spalato, Zara and, further north, around the Islands of the Quarnero);
• the Mediterranean, that includes sampling areas of the Italian coast of the central - southern Adriatic Sea, the Egean Sea, the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ligurian Sea and the coasts around Sicily and Sardinia (for a total of 650 exsiccata).

The clusters of the specimens collected from the nearest sampling areas are:

• Atlantic (with around 685 exsiccata, recorded from the Sea of the North and from the British and French coasts);
• central - southern America (with 130 exsiccata).

From a temporal point of view, the old specimens have been collected since 1759 (determinavit KRABLER); beetween 1850 and 1860 the exsiccata (85 sp.) were determined especially by TITIUS and ACCURTI. The peaks collection was recorded at the end of the XIX century (1015 exsiccata, mainly determined by LUCAS and KUCKUCK) and during a long period between 1960 and 1970 (sampled from botanists and phycologists as PIGNATTI, GIACCONE, DE CRISTINI¿). The most recent exsiccata are represented by those preserved, at the end of the XX century, from KOSOVEL, HYLMO¿. We can then summarize that this dry herbarium of algae is made above all of collected specimens in the most visited sites such as: Rovinij, in the Istrian peninsula (mainly by KUCKUCK) and Tri-este with its near localities (by PIGNATTI and GIACCONE).

Section B: one part of the algarium houses the "Nova Collectio Corallinales - TSB", a collection of calcareous red algae (Prof. Guido Bressan).
A particular section, built up again after a theft by vandals, carried out in the '90s, is stored in the Department of Biology and is entirely devoted to the CORALLINALES (RHODOPHYTA). There are 323 specimens (exsiccata) of calcareous red algae (articulated, encrusting and free-living), with a total of 44 species (6 forms and 2 varieties) and two holotypes; furthermore there are numerous fossil samples. The most frequent genera are: Amphiroa, Titanoderma, Lithophyllum, Lithothamnion, Corallina and Neogoniolithon; and the species: A.rigida, T. trochanter, L. incrustans, L. minervae, L. stictaeforme, C. elongata and N. brassica-florida. This Collection aims at archiving samples that are most representative from the taxonomical point of view. The samples, integrated with relevant accessory slides and/or stubs, are stored in appropriate boxes and catalogued. These boxes represented, at the time, the main reference for the draft of a monograph dedicated to the identification of Corallinales from the Mediterranean Sea, published in 2003 by G. Bressan and L. Babbini: "Corallinales del Mar Mediterraneo: Guida alla determinazione". The images in the monograph are accessible also on http://www.algaebase.org.

After an in-depth critical review, at present the collection aims at obtaining an increasing number of pictures (macro-, micro- and submicroscopic) of the samples and of their most relevant taxonomic features. These images will enrich the relational database CALCHERB available on INTERNET.