Travel Tales 
|| of a Plant Collector J| 
E. H. WILSON 
Assistant Director of the Arnold Arboretum 
Author of “ Romance of Our Trees,” ‘‘Aristocrats of the Garden,” ‘‘A Naturalist in Western China 
and other works 
VII. A FINAL SURVEY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
Early Collectors on the Cape and What They Lound—Plants Eirst Seen a Hundred and 
Fifty Years Ago Still Spreading Bright Acres of Color for the Eyes of To-day’s Traveller 
Copyright, D. P. & Co., 1923 
fSfir^UCH was the fame of “Cape plants” toward the end of 
the 18th century that when the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
decided to send out its first collector the Cape of Good 
Hope was the region chosen for the discovery of new 
plants toward the improvement of the Royal Gardens. Francis 
Masson, one of his Majesty’s gardeners, was selected for the 
work at a yearly salary of about $500 and expenses not to exceed 
$1000 per annum. Sir Joseph Banks has left it upon record 
that Masson sent home a profusion of new plants which made 
Kew superior to every other European Botanic Garden. 
Francis Masson, pioneer and forerunner of the many plant 
collectors sent out from the famous Kew Gardens, was born at 
Aberdeen, Scotland, in August, 1741. He reached the Cape in 
1772, and on December 10th with oxen and cart and a Dutch 
guide, set out on his first journey. He travelled east as far as 
Swellendam reaching it on January 18th, and then returning 
to Cape Town. At Stellenbosch he noted the row of large 
Oak trees on either side of the solitary street; the Hottentots 
Holland Mountains delighted him with their wealth of plants. 
On this journey seeds of many beautiful species of Erica, later 
raised and successfully grown at Kew, were collected. In Sep¬ 
tember, 1773, accompanied by Carl Peter Thunberg, whose 
name is inseparably connected with early researches into the 
flora of South Africa and Japan, he carried out a journey east¬ 
ward to Sundays River where hostile Kaffirs necessitated their 
turning back. Cape Town was reached after an absence of four 
and a half months occupied in laborious and fatiguing travel. 
On the journey many plants including Protea grandiflora, 
Ixia viridiflora, Buphane disticha, Erythrina caffra, E. Humeana 
and numerous Heaths were collected. He notes the fruitful 
nature of the country in many places, especially the Drakenstein 
region, and is impressed with the infinite variety of plants. On 
the mountains near Kaffir Kuils River, Masson found Aloe suc- 
cotrina forming large clumps from 5 to 6 feet high and remarks 
that the peasants make great quantities of gum aloes from the 
leaves, which they sell at the Cape for sixty cents a pound. On 
September 26, 1774, he set out on a third journey and a few days 
later was again joined by Thunberg. They travelled through 
part of the Karroo, which is described as an extraordinary tract 
of land in great want of fresh water, coming back to the Cape on 
December 28th after great hardships and sufferings from thirst. 
On this journey, Masson collected a hundred new species and 
was much enamoured with the Stapelias, Euphorbias, Mesem- 
bryanthemums, Aloe dichotoma and other succulents. 
In 1774, Masson returned to England and in 1776 was sent by 
Sir Joseph Banks to the West Indies where misfortune dogged 
his steps. Most of his collections were lost at sea. When the 
French attacked Grenada, Masson was called upon to bear 
arms in its defence and was taken prisoner fighting in the 
trenches. From 1786 to 1795, he was again in South Africa. 
o 
Afterward he lived in England for a few years, but, tiring of this 
inactive life, he journeyed to America, to die at Montreal in 
December, 1805, or January, 1806. 
Masson introduced into Kew 47 species of Pelargonium and 
over 400 new species of plants. He is commemorated by the 
genus Massonia, named for him by Linnaeus, and by many 
species of Cape plants. The results of Masson’s labors adorn 
the gardens of both hemispheres, his portrait hangs on a wall 
in the Linnaean Society’s rooms in London and his mortal re¬ 
mains repose in an unmarked tomb in a Montreal cemetery. 
1 1 ' HAS been my privilege to traverse in South Africa much of 
the country visited by Masson and to gather specimens of many 
of the plants which he and Thunberg first made known to the 
world. On the Hottentots Holland Mountains in March, 1922, I 
plucked specimens of the lovely Erica Massonii with viscid, scar¬ 
let flowers tipped with yellow and green; and thrilled with delight 
similar to that the discoverer himself must have experienced 
when he first saw this exquisite gem. To me this plant beautify¬ 
ing the rock-strewn mountain slopes seemed a fitting memento 
of one whose life was spent in garnering material with which to 
beautify the gardens of the northern world. 
Pioneers the Gardener Gratefully Remembers 
HE first Englishman to collect at the Cape seems to have 
been George Stonestreet who flourished about 1695 and sent 
plants to Plukenet from the Cape and also from India. 
Another pioneer who did splendid work was Joseph Niven. 
He collected in South Africa for George Hibbert and the Em¬ 
press Josephine from 179810 1803, and from 1803 to 1812 for 
Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, a famous nursery firm of the period. 
Niven learned to speak the Kaffir language perfectly, and on this 
account was forced to accompany the British troops in the 
Kaffir War as guide and interpreter for which service he received 
neither recognition nor reward. He returned to England in 
disgust and in 1826 died in his native village, Pennicuik, near 
Edinburgh, at the age of fifty-four. He is commemorated by 
Nivenia, a genus of fine Proteaceous plants. 
The well-known Sparmannia africana is named for Anders 
Sparrman, a Swedish naturalist, who visited South Africa in 
1772 and again in 1775-6. That fine red-flowered shrub, Burch- 
ellia capensis, recalls a famous traveller and naturalist, John Wil¬ 
liam Burchell, who was in South Africa from 1811-15. The 
curious Bowiea volubilis, a poisonous plant with an onion-like 
bulb and a fleshy twining stem rather suggesting a kind of 
Asparagus, was named by Harvey in memory of James Bowie 
a second Kew collector to the Cape. Bowie in 1814-16 had 
accompanied the famous Allan Cunningham to Brazil and was 
sent to the Cape where he collected from 1817-22. He returned 
there in 1827 with the intention of making a business of collect- 
