BIOGRAPHIES OF BOTANISTS ix 



season and peculiarities of the plant. Unfortunately the major portion of this 

 collection was destroyed by fire during the great conflagration of Hamburg 

 in 1842. 



Drege was the first to establish distinct botanical regions in South Africa, 

 and as Thunberg is the father of South African Botany so is Drege the 

 founder of its Botanical Geography*. 



Dregea floribunda^ the type of the genus, established by Ernst Meyer 

 in 1837, is considered by N. E. Brown to belong to the tropical genus 

 Marsdenia. (Asclepiadaceae, Vol. in.) 



William Henry Harvey, 181 1 —1866, had been placed at first in a 

 merchant's office, but his enthusiasm for Natural History did not allow him to 

 stay there. In 1835 he accompanied his brother to the Cape and conceived at 

 once the plan of writing a general treatise on the Cape flora. His stay here, 

 however, was very short ; but he returned the following year, having been 

 appointed Treasurer General for the Colony. Within two years he completed 

 the first edition of the " Genera of South African Plants," but a year later 

 failing health compelled him to return to England (1841). 



For some time he held various offices, until in 1856 he was appointed 

 professor of botany at Dublin. During this time he arranged with 

 Dr O. Sonder of Hamburg to publish a Flora Capensis; three volumes had 

 appeared (1859 — 1865), when his untimely death brought this work to a 

 standstill. Unfortunately it remained so for about 30 years and is only now 

 nearing completion (7 volumes in 10 sections). 



But his fame as a botanist does not rest only on these works. A large 

 portion of his time was devoted to the study of Marine Algae, of which he 

 published a series of volumes with over 400 plates, all drawn and lithographed 

 by himself. 



In reading his accurate technical descriptions one would not imagine what 

 a poetical mind Harvey had. In his letters he speaks of the sky-blue flowers 

 of Aristea cyanea as "the purest that ever were fed upon dew," of Bartholina 

 pectinata as "a plant to be dreamt of rather than seen," and of Gleichenia as 

 "an object to stand and look at till your eyes overflow with that mixed feeling 

 of gratitude and love that the sight of an exquisite production of nature 

 inspires." 



The genus Harveya (Scrophulariaceae, Vol. in) is well known to all lovers 

 of flowers in South Africa. 



Peter MacOwan, 1830 — 1909, the son of an English clergyman 

 at Hull, came to South Africa in 1861. For some time he was principal 

 of Shaw College, Grahamstown, and later on science professor at Gill College, 

 Somerset East. In 1881 he became director of the Botanic Gardens at 

 Capetown, and when these were handed over to the municipality as a park in 

 1892, he was appointed Government botanist and keeper of the Government 

 herbarium. This collection was in a very neglected state when he first took 



* See map in Drege, Zwei pflanzengeogr. Dokumente, Flora 1843, Band II, or its 

 reprint in Marloth, Das Kapland, 1908. 



