r 



V '^ 



f^ 



30 



MR. JAMES! BRITTEN ON SOME 



In til 



e * Hortus 



(17.'?7) LinnfDns 



esiaWi?=lics the irenns 



Stapelia : " DIxl hoc genus a Jolianno Bodrvo a Sfcapel lalioriosissiino com- 

 mentatore in Theophr.isti opera, cum Is facile priinns fnorit, qui priorem 

 ^ 'le plant subsequently natned by Linnseus S. varlef/ata] detexit speciem " 

 . 77). The compliment was well deserved, but so far as tbe plant which 

 was the means of conveyino- it was concerned, the credit for its discovery 

 was due to Justus Heurnius, whose drawino;s, reproduced by Stnpel, witii 

 the accom[)anyiug descriptions, represent the earliest account of Capo plants. 

 It may be worth while to bring together the few scattered notices of this 

 pioneer of South African botyny, whose name, by what I take to bo an 

 accident, has not been accurately preserved by the genus named by "Robert 

 Brown (Mem. Wern. Soc. i. 22) in his honour. Tbe name itself stands 

 (/. c.) as Ihicrma ; lint Brown says " I have named the genus in memory 

 of Jusdis Heurnlus": it seems hardly likely that he intontioiially altered 

 tlio spelling of the name, hut it is almost equally strange that he should not 

 have corrected the prooF. In the reprint in Brown's collected worhs 

 (ii. 20C) the collector's name is printed ''Huernius": it does not occur in 

 Brown's MSS. 



The Cape plants figured 



Stapel from Heurnius's dn 



pp. 334-C of his edition of Theophrastus (A 

 introduced by the following note ; 

 ''Hoc loco plantas quasdam Tuc 

 Oriental! doctiss. & reverendissimus Pa.^tor 



awmgs occupy 



U) 



ac 



M 



cus lustus TTeurniu 



misit fratri Otthoni Heurnio medicine Doctori, ejusdem artis, Anatonn'm 



& Chi 



nruro'irc 



Professor! in Acadetnia 



Lugduno-Batava 



primario, a quo 



has describendas accepimus. Istis itaque magni loannis Ilcurnii fdiis 

 gratis agere de his debent, qui studium botanicum coliint." 



J. A. Schultes, in the list of "botanici et collectores " prefixed to his 

 edition (1823) of Thunberg's ' Flora Ca[)ensis,' gives a similar accouni of 

 Heurnius (substituting " Sacerdos " for '' Pastor ") and adds :— " Nnmeru<5 



quidem plantarum exiguus fuit, cum brevi heic yer;=atus oxcursiones suas ea 

 tempore vix ultra viciniam mentis Tabularis extendere potuisset ; sed sin^n- 

 lares hujus regionis gazjc non modo rarissinuc fueriint, sed snmmam quoquc 

 Botanicis Europaeis admirationem oxcitarunt." From this it appears that 

 Heurnius, as not unfrequently happened and as was the case with Hermann 

 later, visited tlie Cape on his way to or from India. 



Linnams (' Flora Capensis,' p. 4 ; 1759 : 'Amoon. Acad.'y. 35(i) thus refers io 

 the collection : " Fiierunt vero ha' : Canna, Kiggelaria afrirana, llccmantltus 

 coccineus. Cotyledon orliculata, Stapelia rariegata, Aloe Vvaria, Oxalides dine, 

 quasque Stapelius in Tueophrastum 16U p. 3:53 edidit et delineavit." 



Heurnius must have been a considerable botanist ; the descriptions 

 accompanying the figures are evidently based on material which he had 

 supplied, containing as they do full details as to the colour of the flowers, times 

 of flowering, and other details which could only have been communicated by 



