I I 



n - 



S . 



36 



MR. JAMES BRITTEN ON SOME 



from tlie Orioinal Plants growing luxuriently wWd^ about tliat Fertile 



Tl 



volunio containing these 



Promontory tlie Cape of Good Hope. 



*' paintings" — 73 in number, of wliicli (14 are reproduced on tt. 81-89 uE the 



' Gazoplijlacium 



IS a s 



mall <piart.o which ibrmcJ no. 88 of the Banksian 

 MSS. ; tlie figures in the ''herbal" style, though described by DryanJer in 

 the (Catalogue of the Banksian Library as ^' satis rudes," are for the most 



part identifiable, and represent characteristic Cape genera. 



They 



were 



compared by Petiver with a larger collection of similar ''paintings which the 

 States of Amsterdam presented to the Bight Reverend the Bishop of London 



[Henry 



] 



His Tjordsliip was at tlie Congress 



there A,D. 1G91/' from which some of the figures in Decade 10 were taken. 



Petiver's ' Hortiis Siccus Capensis ' contains numerous specimens from 

 other collectors, of- most of whom 



little is known. Among the more im- 



his position by ^'serveiiig 



portant of these is John Starreneuiigh (fl. 1700-09), a Dutchman resident 

 at the Cape, who sent Petiver two collections, "amongst which were some 

 very curious and altogether new^ gathered near 800 miles up the country " 

 (AIus. Pet. 80). From his letters to Petiver in the Sloane correspondence 

 (iSIpnne MSS, 40G3, 40()-4) it would appear that he was anxious to improve 



other curious gentlemen's natural ingenuity^' 

 and to take the position which had been occupied by Oldenland: "it would 

 be a great pity, after the death of Dr, Oldenland," he writes in 1701, "you 

 should be destitute of all collections here to be made : his widow is marryed 

 again to a man who will not trouble his head with these foelerys (as lie calls 

 'em) she being a woman of a covetous temper, who !ny very good friend 

 Silvanus Landon must sufficiently pay before he could get tliat remnant of 

 my neighbour Oldenland's collections last brought yon. 



jj 



Starrenburgh 



was well ac<iuainted with Dampier, for whom he had " a particular esteem 



for his delio-htful and with me 



r ms aeiignuui ana wiui nm semper agreeing compan}- 



?5 



Landon 



(fl. 1679-1701), "a worthy gentleman and most ingenious surgeon" (Mus, 

 Pet. [40], 1099) seems to have been the first naturalist to visit the Azores, 

 whence he brought plants to Petiver in 1679, Drouet (Cat. FL Acores) 

 mentions no one earlier than Adanson, who was in Fayal in 1753 and speaks 

 of the abundance there of the shrub {=]\/i/rira Fcvja, Ait.) known locally as 

 Fayal (an equivalent of " beech ") from which the island takes its name 

 (' Voyage au Senegal,' 185). 



John Foxe, a surgeon, brought Petiver a collection of Cape plants, one or 

 two of which are noted as from him : the most interesting is a specimen 

 o^ BaUana jylicata^ Ker (f. 184), a bulb of which was t^ent to Petiver and 

 was " flowered in Mr, John Tarrants garden at Hoxton " (Mus, Pet. n. 414) ; 

 specimens from George Stonestreet (fl. 1698), the first collector in the 

 island of Ascension, James Cuninghame already mentioned, Fredrik Ruysch 



(1 



(1637-97) 



