1886.] Presidonfs Address. xxxvii 



Oopenliagen, passing thence to Paris by way of Holland. Returning 

 to Amsterdam, he was received with much kindness by the two 

 Burmanns, father and son, as a favourite pupil of the great Swedish 

 botanist. It will be remembered that both these men were deeply 

 interested in the wonderful Cape flora, and had brought out several 

 volumes of plates illustrating its more remarkable plants ; but the 

 younger Burmann, who had just completed his Flora Indica, desired 

 new material for further work, and advised Thunberg to explore the 

 Dutch East Indies. This, however, was impossible with the slender 

 means at Thunberg's disposal. Ultimately he accepted the not very 

 dignified post of assistant ship's surgeon on board an East Indiaman 

 bound for the Cape. He reached the settlement in April, 1772. His 

 sojourn at the Cape lasted for nearly three years, and of his indefatig- 

 able industry during that period we may judge by the fact that his 

 Flora Capensis based upon his own collections, enumerates no less than 

 three thousand one hundred species. Nor had he any assistance. 

 Letters of recommendation addressed to Grovernor Ryk van Tulbagh 

 and Eheede van Gudtshoorn had been obtained for him, but he found 

 the former had long ago deceased, and the latter expired shortly after 

 his arrival. In his preface, referring to his straitened circumstances 

 and hard life at the Cape, there is a touch of real pathos. He says : 

 " Let the following pages show what augmentation I, with my best 

 endeavours and slender resources, have been able to make to this most 

 beautiful and rich flora. It was my chance to find not a few new plants 

 throughout those three years, but I could have done much more if I 

 had been better supported by the aid promised me. I know not how 

 it came to be my ill-luck that nearly always did I find my efforts frus- 

 trated, and myself kept down and repressed by penury. Without a blush 

 I frankly confess that there never travelled a poorer lover of flowers 

 than I, yet never one more ardent." The painstaking completeness of 

 Thunberg's researches is significantly shown by the fact that not a 

 few remarkable plants found and described by him a century ago 

 escaped the researches of both Ecklon and Zeyher, who beat over the 

 ground for thirty years, and of Drege, who completes the lynx-eyed 

 trio of collectors. Only now when railways and good roads have every- 

 where made things easy, are we smaller men beginning in our turn to 

 pick up these once found rarities. Such are Kleinia acaulis, DC, re- 

 covered by my friend and pupil Mr. Eobt. Eeid and myself, Palm- 

 struolcia Capensis, Sond, refound by Mr. H. Bolus, in Namaqualand, 

 Chamira corenta, Tlih., Eriosphcera Ocalus-Cati, TJib. Turning over the 

 pages of his Flora, it is easy to see the extent of country he traversed. 

 From the city northward along the Drakensteen, past Piquetberg, the 

 Winterhoek, the Bokkeveld, to the Olifants Eiver, westward by the 

 Zwartberg, past Swellendam, the Houtniquas, as names then went, 

 over the Karroo to the Gramtoos, the Sundays and Yisch Eiver. And 

 this wonderful collecting tour was completed, if I rightly construe his 

 Latin, without even the poor assistance of his bursary. Lestituhis 

 omni exoptato per hiennium suhsidio, are his words. Truly we have here 

 one of the martyrs of science. 



Thunberg makes brief mention of several travellers who collected 

 more or less about the time of his sojourn at the Cape. Andreas 

 Sparrmann made what he characterises as insignem collectionem upon 

 the Cape peninsula, but was tempted away to join the two Forsters, 

 father and son, who touched at the Cape on Captain Cook's second 



VOL, IV, F 



