1886.] J^residenfs Address. xlv 



many remarkable mountain plants, Proteacese and Orchids. On 

 regaining Cape Town they commenced preparations for their great 

 expedition to the Eastern Frontier, which lasted nearly two years. 

 Their route was as follows: — From Cape Town, over the Hottentot 

 Holland Mountains, by Houwhoek to Galedon, thence to Cape Agulhas 

 and on to Swellendam. From Swellendam they passed through Kog- 

 man's Kloof over the Karroo to Gouritz River, near which they 

 encamped some time collecting, the peculiar Karroo flora. Skirting 

 the line of the Zwartberg, they turned off to visit George and Knysna, 

 and then proceeded up the Langkloof to Uitenhage and Algoa Bay, 

 • where they shipped their wagon-load of collections for Cape Town. 

 They then started through the Albany and Somerset districts, and, 

 turning eastwards, reached the Koonap and Kat Eiver. They ex- 

 jjlored the Katberg and Chumiberg above Balfour and Philipton. 

 The furthest point attained seems to have been the Kei River, some 

 way south-east of the site afterwards occupied by Queenstown, in 

 " Tambooki eland, " as it was then called. 



On their return, Ecklon arranged to go to Hamburg in 1832 to dis- 

 pose of their joint collections, and with the ambition of producing a 

 descriptive catalogue of the Cape flora. Out of the mass of duplicate 

 specimens five herbaria were assorted, the largest of which contained 

 3,000 species, priced at fifty shillings per centuria ; the next 2,000 

 species at forty shillings, and so on to the fifth, of 500 species at 

 twenty-five shillings the hundred. While this work was going on, 

 Ecklon was preparing his Enumeratio Plantarum Africce Australis 

 ExtratropiccB. Only four fasciculi appeared, dated 1835 — 1837, and 

 comprising about 400 pages. There is but little botanical sagacity 

 displayed in this fragment, which evinces tokens of great haste, owing 

 perhaps to the knowledge that Dr. Ernest Meyer, of Konigsberg, was 

 preparing for publication his Commentaries upon Drege's plants, 

 collected between the years 1829 and 1834. There is throughout a 

 tendency to rely on Qxievn^ fades for grouping plants together, instead 

 of working out less obvious but more reliable characters, and to multi- 

 ply species unduly. Walpers, in his Animadversiones Criticce speaks 

 of Ecklon' s dira cupido genenim specierumque novorum construendorum, 

 though he stoutly vindicated the priority of this publication over 

 Meyer's Commentaries. The University of Kiel recognised the value 

 of his laborious lesearches by granting him the honorary degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy. But the further publication of the Enumeratio 

 and Ecklon's stay in Hamburg, were cut short by the loss of the 

 whola remaining collection of plants, constituting his sole possession, 

 and which he was on the eve of advantageously selling. This occurred 

 through a fire which destroyed the warehouse in which they were 

 deposited-! Pi'oni Dr. W. Sender, Ecklon received such pecuniary 

 assistance as enabled him to return to the Cape, where he pro- 

 posed to recommence his labours. But the spring of his former 

 enthusiasm was broken, his health suffered, and occasional mental 

 troubles supervened. He still collected a little in an irregular 

 way, acted as botanical guide to chance visitors interested in the 

 Cape Flora, and made up for sale sets of the bulbs obtainable 



t This statement rests upon information given by several old acquaintances of 

 Ecklon in Cape Town. Dr. Seemann, in his notice of Ecklon and Zeyher. {Bonplandia, 

 Dec. 15, 1857), does not mention the loss by fire, and gives 1838 as the date of Ecklon's 

 return to the Cape. 



VOL. IV. a 



