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EARLY CAPE BOTANISTS AND COLLECTORS. 41 



MacOwan's account that given by Thiinberg, who visited Aiige in 1772 ; he 

 writes: — "Among others I visited M. Auge^ the gardener, who has made 

 many, and those very long^ excursions into the interior parts oE the country, 

 and hus collected all the plants and insects, which the late Governor Tulbagh 

 sent to Europe to Linnaeus and to the Professors Burnmnn and Van Royen. 

 And as he still continued his journies yearly into the country, he sold to 

 strangers as well herbals as birds and insects. It was of him that M. Grubb, 

 the director of the bank in Sweden, purchased the fine collection of plants 

 which was afterwards presented to Professor Bergius and is well described 

 this latter gentleman in his book on the Flantcv CapeDses. M. Auge s 

 knowledge of botany was not very considerable, nor did his collections 

 in general extend much further than to the great and the beautiful ; but, in 

 the meantime, we are almost solely indebted to liini for all the discoveries 

 which have been made since the days of Hermannus, Oldenlandus, and 

 Hartogius in this part of Africa" (Travels, i. .105). Thunberg tells us 

 later (p, 183) that Auge acted as his guide in Kaffraria; he mentions 

 (op. cit. ii. 201} an expedition organized by Tulbagh in 1761 in which Auge 

 took part. 



The most important of the early collectors represented in the Banksian 

 Herbarium and, so far as I know, almost exclusively there, is Francis 

 Masson (1741-1805), of whom a full account is given in the SJournal 

 of Botany' for 1884, pp. 114-123. Born at Aberdeen in 1741, he became 

 a gardener^ made his way to London, and en|:ered the Rojal Gardens at Kew 

 as under-gardcner^ William Alton being then at the head of that establishment. 

 At the suggestion of Banks, Masson w^as sent to the Cape in 1772 to collect 



seeds and plants for the Gardens : here he remained for two years, returning 

 in 1786 and staying until 1795. During all this period he was an inde- 

 fatigable collector, both of plants and seeds, as will be seen from the 

 ' Botanical Magazine ' and other periodicals where his name is of constant 

 occurrence. He made various journeys into the interior, sometimes accom- 

 panied by Thunberg, and sent large collections to Banks; these have until 

 recently attracted comparatively little attention from monographers, but 

 when examined continue to yield new and interesting species : an example 

 of this is Thamnea Massoniana^ already referred to on p. 37. 



It would seem that when in London Masson was in frequent communication 

 with the Banksian Herbarium. The Solander MSS. contain many descriptions, 

 always in the hand of Sigismund Bacstrom — an assistant in Banks's library 

 of whom some account will be found in Journ. Bot. 1911, 92-97, — which 

 must I think have been transcribed from INLisson's MSS., as they contain 

 information as to locality which does not appear on the Banksinn sheets. 

 That he had a herbarium is clear: whether it wiis eventuallv transferred to 

 Banks I do not know, nor coidd the Lees, who came into possession 



