' ■. ' "' . r,. i^f ■ 



w^_\ ^ 



40 



MR. JAMES BRITTEN ON SOME 



MaretSj at whose auction in Holland they were bonghL" It includes 

 nuni^rouSj mostly good^ specinienSj all named by Solander and n^in}- described 

 in his MSS. as new. Another volume (ccxci) of plants "gathered at 

 Surinam for Mr. Des Marets '' was bought at the same time, from which it 

 would appear that des Marcts employed collectors. He was a correspondent 

 of Sloanc, to whom he wrote in 1G8G asking him to obtain various Jamaica 

 plants {Sloane MSS. 4036, f. 20), and, later, thanking 1dm for seeds. 1 know 

 notliing more of him. 



Another collection corresponding in most particulars with the above, and, 

 like itj bought in Holland at the sale of the owner^s belongings, constitutes 

 Herb. Sloane Ixxvii. The specimens are good: anjong .Solander's MS. 

 descriptions is a new genus (f. 25) named Meerseveema (= ErlocepJuihis 

 racemosus^ L.) after the owner, who is described as '' collector phintai'um 



1? 



capensium but concerning whom no information is given. Norhavel any. 



Of Feanz Peiiu Oldenburg, Thunberg gives the following account : 

 '' Oldenburgh {sic\ Suecus*^, a mcmet incitatus eterudituSj in CampisUrbem 

 circumjacentibus comes ssepe mens indefessus Anno 1772 fuit, et eodem 

 anno iter cum D. Masson instituens, plantarum copiam coUegit. Anno 1774 

 insulam Madagascar adiit^ ubi febri maligna correptus diem o})iit supremum ^* 

 (Fl. a^p. 1823, x). ]t appears from Thunberg's ' Travels ' (i. 316) that Olden- 

 burg accompanied Masson ^^ partly as his comj)anion, partly as his interpreter ^' 

 (ii. 133) ; it was first pro})Osed that the voyage to Madagascar sliould be 



undertaken by Thunberg, who recommended Oldenburg, 



cc 



wl 



10 



had I 



)een 



practising botany for the space of two years that he had accompanied mo in 

 my excursions, to go as Surgeon's nuite. My recommendation was taken, 

 and Mr. Oldenburg even made several collections of plants, but did not live 

 to return from so unwholesome and scorchini; a climate. '' 



A MS. note by Robert Brown in Herb. Banks states that he was a private 

 soldier. Banks acquired about a thousand specimens collected at the Cape 

 by Oldenburg in 1772: these are numbered but not named, and were 

 originally mostly on small separate sheets, but are now incorporated in the 

 Herbarium : they are often referred to in the Solander MSS. Lessing 

 named in his honour the handsome South African genus Oldenhurgia. 



n 



Of Andreas Auge (1711-c. 1805) an exceedingly interesting account is 



given by MacOvvan in the paper already referred to. He collected a large 

 herbarium which \vas ultimately acquired by Burman, but ''other sets of 

 exsiccata of smaller extent appear to have been prepared by him for sale or 

 gift to distinguished visitors touching at the Cape on the homeward voyage." 

 It was doubtless from one of these that the numerous specimens from Auge 

 in the Banksian Herbarium were derived. It may be worth while to add to 



Masson (iu PliiL Trans. Ixvi. 268) refers to him as a '^Dutchman/' 



