F. W. BURBIDGE. 



COLLECTOR IN BORNEO. 

 18771878. 



F. W. BURBIDGE, a native of Wymeswold, Leicestershire, 

 undertook in our service a collecting expedition in Borneo 

 during the years 1877 1878, the special object, the intro- 

 duction of certain Pitcher Plants known to inhabit that island, 

 and to be accessible. 



Burbidge was well equipped with both practical and 

 scientific knowledge to undertake such a mission : he had 

 distinguished himself as a student in the Royal Horticultural 

 Society's Gardens at Chiswick and in the Royal Gardens at 

 Kew, and had journalistic experience. 



The story of his travels and adventures is told in his book, 

 The Gardens of the Sun, written on his return from Borneo, 

 from which the following particulars are abstracted. 



The object of the journey was the collection and introduction 

 of beautiful new plants, as well as of birds and other objects 

 of Natural History, and he was fortunate in adding about fifty 

 new species of Ferns to the list of those already collected in 

 Borneo, and of this number about twenty were new to science. 



Perhaps the greatest good fortune which attended Bur- 

 bidge's work was the introduction of the Giant Pitcher Plant 

 of Kina Balu Nepenthes Rajah. 



This wonderful plant and its geographical allies were dis- 

 covered in 1851 by Sir Hugh Low, who made repeated 



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