93 



JAMES BOWIE. 



[We take the following sketch from an inter estmg paper on the 

 " Personalia of Botanical Collectors at the Cape," read as an 

 Annual Address before the South African Philosophical Society, by 

 Prof. Macowan, on July, 28th, 1886. It corrects, in some par- 

 ticulars, the previous notices of Bowie.] 



Bowie was the son of a London seedsman, carrying on business 

 in a humble way at the west end of what is now Oxford Street. 

 He entered the service of the Koyal private establishment at Kew, 

 in 1810, and after four years ' work was detached on collecting 

 service with Allan Cunningham, afterwards well known as a 

 discoverer of new Australian i^lants. They first went to Eio, and 

 remained travelling and collecting in Brazil until 1817. Cunning- 

 ham was then ordered to New South Wales and Bowie to the Cape 

 of Good Hope. Bowie remained here till 1822, collecting and 

 cultivating sufficiently for export to Kew a large number of bulbous 

 and succulent plants, forwarding seeds, and otherwise fulfilling the 

 duties of collector. He states in one of his letters (November, 1826) 

 that almost every Cape plant figured since 1817 was sent home by 

 himself. This is far from being the case, but still his industry 

 contributed largely to the greenhouse collections of Cape plants 

 then in high fashion. One of the most notable of those he sent 

 home was Imantophyllum Aitoni Hook, the beautiful Cyrtanthoid 

 Amaryllid, well known to Grahamstown cultivators from its station 

 in the Howison's Poort valley. Bowie, however, for prudential 

 trade reasons, reported it from " Orange Eiver." 



In 1822 the Parliamentary vote for the corps of collectors for the 

 Royal Gardens being reduced, Bowie was recalled, and spent some 

 time at Kew, unattached, but engaged in arranging such dried plants 

 as he had accumulated. He seems to have become incapable of regular 

 horticultural work, and though several of his patrons did what they 

 could for him, his want of application and business aptitude pre- 

 vented his thriving. His great pleasure was to spend his time 

 among the free-and-easy company of bar-parlours, recounting apo- 

 cryphal stories of his Brazilian and Cape travels, largely illustrated 

 with big snake and wildebeest adventures. In April, 1827, he 

 returned to the Cape, with the intention of dealing in objects of 

 natural history, especially Cape bulbs. As Villette had just sold off 

 the greater part of his zoological collections, and was giving up his 

 establishment at the corner of Wale Street and Long Street, 

 Bowie hoped to take over the chief part of this export trade. His 

 temper and want of perseverance and tact prevented his making 

 anything out of the opportunity. He writes in a very dissatisfied 

 strain of his prospects : — " There is not a snob, a tinker, or tailor, 

 or any other ignorant ass here but is dealing in cats, dogs, and 

 monkeys, and by the opposition to each other, and re-selling of 

 specimens, the prices are raised far beyond their value, considering 

 risk of sea voyage. There is even an officer of the army who has 

 sometimes forty soldiers told off at a time to collect for him." 

 Again, he falls upon the historic fathers of the Eastern Province 



