}vxxiv Prc'iideHt^.'s Addrc-ss. [July 28, 



sketches and collections of plants around Table and Saldanha liays. 

 A catalogue of eiglity-five of these follows his essay on tea. Breyn 

 gives the names of nineteen species which he liad received from Ten 

 Ixhyne (j). 178-9'), and elsewhere laments that another parcel of plants 

 and a Nectar iiiia, or sugar-bird, has been forwarded to his uncle, 

 Johan Brayn.e, of Amsterdam, to be sent on to himself, but " nee do 

 avieida, nee de plantis {quod max iiae dolet') quicquam percipere potuimns?'* 

 Ten Rhyne also published a tract entitled " fichediasma de Promontorio 

 Bonce SpeiP {Seafasii, 1686) but it contains verj'' little about plants. 

 (Jf the same station in life as Oldenland was Johann Andreas Auge, 

 born at Stollberg in 1711. Being passionately fond of plants, he 

 proceeded to Holland for improvement in his profession as gardener. 

 Here he was noticed and encouraged by Boerhaave, and acquired a 

 scientific knowledge of plants not then usual in men of his class. 

 Seeing the specimens which Oldenland had sent home, he determined 

 to go to the Cape, and arrived there in 1747, with recommendations 

 from his patron. The Governor, Swellengrebel, forthwith employed 

 him in the Company's garden, and ere long the succeeding Governor, 

 bluff Eyk van Tulbagh. with whom he was a favourite, made him 

 superintendent. His master, sharing the general passion for natural 

 history, sent him on many journeys to distant parts of the country in 

 search of plants, and Auge used his utmost diligence to bring into 

 cultivation every rare and curious African species and thus raise the 

 Company's Tuin above its original cabbage growing into something- 

 like a Botanic Garden. Some of the finest specimen trees still 

 existing are due to Auge's assiduous labours. He also collected 

 together a large herbarium, which ultimately fell into the hands of 

 Burmann, of Amsterdam, who used it in his public praelections. 

 Other sets of exsiccata of smaller extent appear to have been pre- 

 pared by him for sale or gift to distinguished visitors touching at the 

 Cape on the homeward voyage. Amongst these was one Michael 

 Grubb, a China merchant, who took home to his native Sweden a 

 parcel of Auge's plants, aijd gave them to Petrus Jonas Bergius, of 

 Stockholm, for description. In due time Bergius's opuscule appeared, 

 under the title ^^ Lescriptiones Plantaruni ex Capite Bona^ Spet\''^ 

 {Ifohnifc, 1767), and is, in truth, the iiYiit Florula Capensis, and, so far 

 as it goes, a very meritorious performance. But, alas, in the preface, 

 there is much fulsome laudation of the ** Vir f/enerosus nohilis-simm 

 atqiie (cstumatissiiaus,^'' — there is a plant called Gruhhia in liis 

 honour — but not one syllable about the collector, Auge. Really, 

 though it is a matter of a hundred and twenty ye*n's ago, it is tliis 

 day a pleasure to return to Auge the honour that is due, and to drag 

 up the perfidious Michael Grubb for scarification. In 1761 he was 

 sent to accompany an expedition under Commandant Hopp to the 

 Namaqua territor}^ and returned with a large luirvest of plants. 

 Eleven years afterwards he became the companion and guide of 

 Thunberg and Francis ISIasson in thoir collecting excursions, and made 

 the acquaintance of tlie travell(>r Sparrman, His sight began to fail, 

 and he was allowed to retire upon a small pension to the farm of an 

 old friend living on the Gamtoos River. Here, at the age of seventy 

 years, he became totally blind, and in 1795. when the English took 

 possession of the Cape, ho lost his pension. Yet did his worthy friend 

 not the less care for the old man. At this time the marauding bands 

 of the Kafirs were beginning to make descents upon the Eastern iron- 



