34 
JOHN MEDLEY WOOD 
working for the Colonists. This trading was not without its hazards. On 
one occasion when ’MPanda was in a killing mood refugees ran to the camp 
of our friend followed by an impi of the King and only by tactful conduct in 
the first place and rapid flight in the second did the party escape serious 
consequences. 
The immediate neighbourhood of the coast was extremely hot and in those 
days not very healthy, so Mr and Mrs Wood decided to move to the uplands 
of the Inanda some 20 miles inland and about 2000 feet above the sea. 
It was here about 1876 that I first made the friendship that was to last 
nearly 40 years. It was only a short time after my arrival in Natal that, 
deeply interested in all such a new country could show me, I went up to the 
Inanda. It was a delightful experience full of novel sensations and not 
the least of its delights was meeting Mr and Mrs Wood. At that time 
Mr Wood had about finished collecting and classifying, along with the 
Rev. John Buchanan, the ferns of Natal and was entering the wider field 
of flowering plants. He had a store for native trade at Inanda and another 
further into the location at Itafami and beyond the Itafamasi was the 
wild rugged Noodsberg escarpment facing the sea at a height of 3500 ft. 
The home at Inanda was a most delightful place surrounded by wild scenery 
and yet with an open view of the Indian Ocean, blessed with a lovely climate 
seldom too hot and yet frost free. A visit there was a true rest yet full of 
vivid interest in plants, natives, scenery, traditions of old Natal and Zululand. 
But Mr Wood was not to remain in this ideally restful spot. His investiga- 
tions into plant life and his collections including many new species exchanged 
with Kew and other European herbaria brought his name more and more 
into notice. The Committee of the Durban Botanic Society were indebted 
to him for much help and advice and 33 years ago asked him to undertake 
the management of the Gardens. He agreed but stipulated that he must be 
allowed to establish a Herbarium and he generously gave his whole valuable 
collection as a nucleus. From that time Dr Wood’s life has been that of the 
Gardens and Herbarium. It was a labour of love — he had found his life 
work. Systematic Botany was much to him and his name will ever be 
associated with the plants of the land he loved so well. But more in the 
lovely gardens which are such a feature of the Berea may be seen the results 
of his work in tree, shrub and flower, for many of those beautifying this 
lovely spot have been introduced by him. 
Of Dr Wood’s special work for Botany, three-eighths of his publications, 
I need not speak. Those who read this journal will know of these, but 
I would briefly speak of the man. Dr and Mrs Wood had no children of 
their own but he was devoted to young people and ever at home among 
them. He had numerous relations and kept in regular touch with them and 
the young had always a home at the Gardens. 
