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SOME EARLY CAFE BOTANISTS AND COLLECTORS, 



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Some Early Cape Botanists and Conoctors. 



By Jaiies Britten, F.L.S. 



(Witb Plate 4; portrait of Fhancis Masson.) 



[Reiid 17th Janiuiry, 1918.] 



In tlie course of cataloguing the contents of the Sloane Horharium I have 

 been struck by the number of plants from the Cape collected iit an early date 

 which, so far as I am aware, have seldom been consulted. They are practically 

 ignored in the 'Flora Capensis': Mr. Hicrn, in his monograph of the 

 Scrophulariacece is, I think, the only anthor who quotes them. This may be 

 explained on the supposition that it was thought impossible to consult tlicm, 

 even if their existence were known ; but the index to the Herbarium supplied 

 by Sloane's annotated copy of Ray's ' Historia Plantarum ' to a largo extent 

 removes any difficulty that such a supposition presents. It may therefore 

 be worth while, in somewhat fuller detail than may be possible in the fortli- 

 coming Catalogue, to direct the attention of botanists to the existence of this 

 material, and at the same time to say something about some of the other 

 earlier Cape collections in the Department of Botany, especially of those 

 which were incorporated in the Banksian Herbarium. These latter, although 

 nowadays generally consulted by monographers, have in the past been 

 o-reatlv neolected, and even now do not always receive the attention which 



rhey deserve. This remark Indeed applies to the Banksian plants as a whole, 

 and in almost equal measure to what arc known as the " Solander ]\1SS. " 

 althouch Dryander had almost as great a share in their compilation. 



Tl 



are based on the collections of Sloane and Banks, and, being indexed, can 



readily be consulted. 



The Banksian sheets are usually endorsed simplj 



"Promontorium Borne Spei" with the name of the collector, and it has been 

 assumed that the locality whence the specimens were derived is not ascer- 

 tainable ; but this is frequently stated in the Solandcr MSS. and sometimes 

 in the MS. ' Florula Capensis' drawn up by Solamlor and describe.! by him 

 as " a systematic list of the plants of the Cape of Good Hope, witli records 

 of the persons who collected them and notes on the species" (see p. 51). 



For a general sketch of tlie early history of Cape botany, reference should 

 be madc"to the interesting Presidential Adtlress entitled " Personalia of 

 Botanical Collectors at the Cape " read before tbo South African Thilo- 

 sophical Society in July, 188G, by the late Peter ]\IacOwan (1830-3 909) 

 and ]mblished in the ^Transactions' of that Society (vol. Iv. pp. xxx-liii : 

 1887). In the following remarks, as already stated, T have limited myself 

 to the consideration of the earlier botanists and collectors whose work is 

 represented in the Department of Botany of the British M 



useum. 



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