16 
HISTORY OF THE BOTANICAL 
num , or Frankincense-tree, Boswella Carteri, Birdwood, gathered by 
Mr. James Collins at Aden in October 1877.” 
W. Wykeliam Perry, 1878.— Fleet-Paymaster William Wykeham 
Perry, R. N., though not a professional botanist, has done valuable work 
by his accurate observations and untiring efforts in collecting plants 
wherever his service called him. When he was stationed in the Red Sea, 
he collected a considerable number of plants at Aden during the months 
of March, April, May, June, and July of 1878. The numerous notes 
which accompanied his specimens show distinctly that he was more than a 
mere collector. With the assistance of Captain Hunter he obtained speci- 
mens of the Myrrh and Olibanum trees of Somaliland. He was also the 
first to bring to Europe living specimens of the plant yielding Socotrine 
aloes, which proving new to science was named in his honour Aloe Perryi 
Baker. He further succeeded in procuring a specimen of the Dragon's 
Blood tree of Socotra, which yields the drug called cinnabar by Dios- 
corides. It has since been described under the name of Dracaena cinna- 
bar i. Independently of these important acquisitions, Perry collected on 
the Somali coast, in the Persian Gulf, in Sind, Madagascar, Johanna 
Island, Corea, Manchuria, Formosa and on the coast of China. All 
these collections were transmitted to Kew. 1 
J. B. Balfour, 1880. — Balfour visited Aden in January 1880, when 
on his way to Socotra. He collected a considerable number of plants of 
which there is a set of duplicates at Kew. 
Numerous references to the flora of Aden are to be found in his 
u Botany of Socotra.” 2 
F. M. Hunter, 1880. — The author of the “ Aden Handbook ” and of 
“ An account of the British Settlement of Aden ” had a wide range of 
interests. At the end of May and beginning of June he gathered about 
250 specimens of plants in the “ neighbourhood of Aden.” In a 
1 From the Kew Bulletin (1894), p. 397-398. 
For those who knew Perry personally we insert the short biographical note contained in 
the same Journal, 1. c. fi This officer, whose services to Kew deserve some record, died on 
the 14th of June, 1844, at the early age of 48, a fact that only recently came to our know- 
ledge. Mr. Perry distinguished himself 19 ) ears ago by an act of gallant courage. When 
Commodore Goodenough was fatally wounded in the Pacific by what was believed to be a 
poisoned arrow, Mr. Perry, although suffering from a sore mouth, devotedly sucked the 
wound, unhappily without avail. In 1873. with the co-operation of Commodore Goodenough 
he obtained a specimen of the only kind of tree that inhabits the remote Amsterdam Island 
in the South Indian Ocean. The existence of trees on the island had been observed eighty 
years previously, but not until Mr Perry sent a specimen to Kew was it known to be the 
same ( Phylica arhorea ) as that inhabiting the 6,^00 miles-distant Tristan d’Acunha group.” 
2 Balfour, J. B. Botany of Socotra. Edinburgh, 1888, 446 p p , 1GU pi. 
