H. G. FLANAGAN, F.L.S. 
Henry G. Flanagan was born at Komgha, a small town in the native 
territories in the Eastern Districts of the Cape Province, on January 22, 1861, 
and died on October 23, 1919, at the Grey Hospital, King Williamstown. 
He was educated at the Public School, Komgha, and early in his career became 
the owner of Prospect Farm, in the Komgha Division. In 1890 he married 
Florence Reynolds who, throughout the remainder of his life, shared her 
husband’s labours and hobbies with unlimited devotion. In 1898 Flanagan 
was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society. 
For years before this, and in the midst of the multitudinous calls made 
upon the time of a practical farmer, he had set himself to collect the native 
plants of his district, a task he performed with characteristic thoroughness. 
No pains were spared in order to ensure success. I have heard how it was 
his custom to take an oil-stove with him to the sea-side, expressly for the 
purpose of rapidly drying in the oven certain plants which would otherwise 
have been spoilt by weather conditions. To-day his carefully selected and 
well-prepared specimens are in some of the largest herbaria of the world. 
His own valuable collection, containing all the types of his many discoveries, 
is now an important part of the National Herbarium in Pretoria, to which 
institution it was bequeathed. 
Mr Flanagan’s first collections were sent to Dr Peter MacOwan, at that 
time Government Botanist in Cape Town, who with the experience of advanced 
years immediately recognised “a promising collector,” and set himself to give 
that help and encouragement which are of such vital importance to the 
beginner. 
Besides collecting in the Komgha Division, Mr Flanagan made some 
extensive journeys for the purpose of botanical exploration. Among these 
were several to Rhodesia and the memorable waggon- journey in 1895-96, 
when he was iccompanied by his wife and by his friend, the late Dr ILmy 
Bolus, throu; Pondoland to the Orange Free State, culminating in the 
ascent of the dont-aux-Sources. This trip yielded many novelties to the trio- 
some of the more notable being Zaluzianshja Flanaganii, Hiern, found on 
the summit (9i 90 ft.), and Erica Flanaganii, Bolus, on the landward slopes 
of the Mont-ai sources (8000 ft.); and the beautiful Balsam, Impatiens 
Flanaganiae, Hook, f., at Port St John. 
During the last twelve years or more of his life Mr Flanagan s attc ntion 
was chiefly turned to the development of his beautiful garden, contain n c 
