Edward and Sarah Bowdich´s names of Macaronesian and African plants, eith notes on those of Robert Brown

              BOTÁNICA MACARONÉSICA 6 (1978)
EDWARD AND SARAH BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF MACARONESIAN AND
AFRICAN PLANTS, WITH NOTES ON THOSE OF ROBERT BROWN.
D. J. M A B B E R L EY
Departments or Botany and Forestry, University of Oxford.
SUMMARY
The little known botanical activities of Edward and Sarah Bowdich on Madeira, Porto Santo,
Cape Verde Islands and in The Cambia are outlined. Their nina new generic ñames and seven-teen
new specific ñames are interpreted. This necessitates new combinations in Elaphoglossum
and Kohautia, but their new generic ñames Coodallia (Madeira), Coddingtonia and Keiria
(The Cambia) are still not identifiable with certainty. Robert Brown's overlooked ñames of
Madeira and African plants are usted. One of these necessitates a new combination in
Oenanthe and another is a later homonym of a synonym of an Australian Jacquemontia, for
which the earliest available epithet is another of Brown's, in Ipomoea, necessitating a new
combination in Jacquemontia.
RESUMEN
Se describen las actividades botánicas de Edward y Sarah Bowdich en Cambia y en las
islas de Madeira, Porto Santo y Cabo Verde. Se interpretan sus nueve nuevos nombres genéri­cos
y diecisiete nuevos nombres específicos.
Se ha hecho una lista de unos nombres de plantas pocos conocidas de Robert Brown de
Madeira y África, y se han hecho algunas nuevas combinaciones.
CONTENTS
Introducción 54
The bowdich plant ñames 58
Acknowledgurents 65
Referencias 66
53
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D. J. MABBERLEY
INTRODUCTION
Work on the papers of Robert Brown (1773-1858) at the Department
of Botany, British Museum (Natural History) towards a full
biography, Júpiter botanicus, has led to the consideration of his ma-nuscript
notes on the collections made by Henry Tedlie, Assistant Sur-geon
on the África Company's mission to Ashanti (1817), which expe-dition
was taken over in the field by Edward Bowdich. This, in turn,
has led to an evaluation of the botanical work carried out by Bowdich
on his final journey to Macaronesia and África with his wife, Sarah,
in 1823.
A mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee
An únele of Thomas Edward Bowdich (1791-1824) of Bristol
was Governor-in-Chief of the settlements belonging to the África
Company. Shortly after the marriage of his nephew, who was known
as Edward, in 1813, he obtained a writership for him at Cape Coast
Castle in what is now Ghana. Edward set out in 1814, his wife Sarah
(née Wallis, 1791-1856) sailing out later and unfortunately reaching
África by the time Edward had left for England. The following year,
the Company promoted a diplomatic mission to Ashanti to negotiate
with the King: Bowdich was to be scientific officer (Ward, 1966) on
the mission which was to be led by Frederick James, Governor of Fort
Accra. Events at the King's court at Kumasi led Bowdich to take over
and draw up a treaty with the King, resulting in a somewhat inconse-quential
agreement over the security of the Company's settlements.
Shortly after the mission, Bowdich's health began to fail, and he re-turned
to England to complete the writing-up of his journey as A mis­sion
from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (April, 1819), part of which
is reproduced in Tilloch's philosophical magazine 54: 26-34 (1819).
Bowdich presented specimens of all kinds to the British Museum, his
book and these materials exciting considerable interest at a time when
the activities of the Company were under some scrutiny. The only
plant taxonomic matter of any import is to be found in Chapter XI,
on materia medica and disease.
In Chapter XI, then, is a list of medicinal plants, which was
provided by Tedlie, who died at Cape Coast Castle. In arranging
Tedlie's list of vernacular ñames for publication, Bowdich 'was indeb-ted
to Mr Brown's knowledge for the ñames and references in the pa-rentheses'
which are contained in the Brown manuscript preserved in
the Department of Botany. According to a footnote in Tuckey's 'Con­go'
(see below), the materials reached Sir Joseph Banks and thus
Brown early in 1818 and included a drawing of the akee, Blighia sápi­da
Kónig, thereby establishing its native country for the first time.
54
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BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
55
The hst includes local ñames with short statements on the medicinal
valué of the materials. The only new species was the spectacular clim-ber,
Ashanti Blood, Mussaenda erythrophylla Schum. & Thonn. (p.
374, as M. fulgens R. Br., nom. nud.) though the ñame *Musanga
cecropioides R. Br. **(p. 372) was validly pubhshed here for the first
time. Brown's rough manuscript of the list is that preserved at the Bri­tish
Museum. In the herbarium (BM) are the surviving Tedlie and
Bowdich specimens, including a sheet of 'Mussaenda fulgens' with a
small watercolour of the plant executed by Tedhe himself as well as
the akee drawing and specimen and the Musanga specimen. Other
drawings are preserved with Brown's manuscript. According to Hep-per
& Neate (1971:78), some Tedlie specimens are also to be found at
Kew.
The Company seems to have taken a rather dim view of Bow­dich's
assuming comand of the expedition, despite its success, and
made its feelings clear by not awarding Bowdich a fitting bounty. And
so Bowdich wrote a pamphlet, The África Committee (October,
1819), pointing out the Company's parsimony 'in the confidence that
the government and the public will do me justice'. It was commonly
believed that the pamphlet was an important factor in the vesting of
the Company's settlements in the Crown, though this may well have
been exaggerated (Ward, 1966), Bowdich's pamphlet perhaps being
used as something of a scapegoat for the Government's already for-mulated
plans.
Bowdich then left for Paris to study mathematics and physical
and natural sciences with the savants there, becoming friendly with
Georges Leopold Cuvier, Jean Baptiste Biot and Alexander von Hum-boldt,
who dedicated a genus of South American leguminous trees to
him - Bowdichia, 'in honorem Eduardi Bowdich, britanni, peregrina-toris
strenui'. He impressed the French, particularly with his astrono-mical
and other mathematical facilities, writing papers on these to-pics,
and was even offered a post by their Government, an honour he
declined. Biot, an astronomer and mathematician, wrote to Banks in
1819 (Dawson, 1958:49) that Bowdich should perform astronomical
experiments in África and that the British Government should be
approached in the matter of supplying Instruments. Banks was in no
mood to patroni^e Bowdich for he wrote on 20 October to Sir Charles
Blagden, his physician friend in Paris, that Bowdich had written an at-tack
on his employers (Dawson, 1958:101). To finance a new expedí
•Additions and amendments te Índex kewensi: or Index filicum.
••This ñame was n'.t used, as far as we know, "jy Tedlie, so that is should not be attributed to him (cf. Lé-onard
in bull. Agre. Congo Beige '2:955 (1951) and de Ruiter in Bull. Jard. Bol. Nal. Belg. 46: 5 (1976).
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D. J. MABBERLEY
56
tion himself, the versatile Bowdich produced a prospectus Quart. J.
Arts Sci. 9:428-430, 1820) and set about writing a series of books, his
wife preparing the drawings: An analysis of the natural classification
of Mammalia (Paris, 1821), An introduction to the Ornithology of
Cuvier (Paris London, 1821), An essay on the geography of north-western
África (Paris, 1821), *The British and French expeditions to
Teembo with remarks on civilisation in África (Paris, 1821)
Elements of conchology (Paris, 1822) as well as editing Mollien's
Travels to the interior of África (London, 1820), publishing a reply to
an attack on Mission in the Quarterly review and An essay on the su-perstitions,
customs and arts common to the Ancient Egyptians, Aby-ssinians
and Ashantees (Paris, 1821), lithographing The coníradic-tions
in Mungo Park's last Journal explained (1821) and bringing out
his and Sarah's bestseller, Taxidermy (1820), which ran to at least six
editions.
Excursions in Madeira and Porto-Santo.
By 1823 then, after 'the painful struggles, the numerous priva-tions,
the years of intensive study', all was ready, and Edward, with
Sarah and at least one baby, set off for Sierra Leone from Le Havre,
calling at Lisbon, where the energetic Edward wrote an essay on Por-tuguese
discoveries in África from the manuscript material deposited
in the capital, and reached Madeira on 30 September, when they met
their first delay. Undeterred, Edward set about collecting and surve-ying,
preparing an important geological survey of Porto Santo. His
'Sketch of the geognosy of Madeira and Porto Santo' was published
in Edinb. Phil. J. 9: 315-322 (1823), *where he mentions a manuscript
sketch of a Flora' and a 'fuller report on the geographical distribution
of plants in Madeira' which he had 'already forwarded to Sir
Humphrey Davy [President of the Royal Society] and the Cambridge
Philosophical Society'. To Davy he was 'regulaiy transmitting one
set' of drawings to illustrate his manuscripts, and he intended to send
a second set of the '107 figures (several of which are coloured)' to the
library of the French Institute.
They sailed on to the Cape Verde Islands when the Governor of
Madeira had been replaced, travelling in an American brig, all hope of
a direct route to Sierra Leone being now lost. They left Madeira on 26
October and first reached Boa Vista, 'a mere sand bank', to engage
help for completing the rest of the voyage. Once again they were dela-yed,
and despite promises of trips to the other islands of the group,
were confined there, collecting more plants, though they did botanize
•A rare collector's ítem (The Times, 10 June 1978).
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BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
57
on S. Tiago. Badly treated, they eventually sailed in an infested ship, a
twelve days' voyage bringing them at last to África, to Banjul
CBathurst') in The Cambia.
Held up yet again, they both collected plants on the island of
'Banjole' and on Cape St. Mary's on the mainland. Edward set about
surveying the River Cambia, up which they hoped to continué their
journey. The surveying necessitated his making measurements at night
on the river. In the cold air he caught a chill which developed into a fe-ver,
and he died on 10 January 1824. He was buried in what was by
1917 'a small tumble-down brick grave with a cracked marble tablet'
(McDonnell, 1917) leaving Sarah a widow with three children. (An
engraved portrait of Edward was published in 1824 see Eur. Mag. 85:
383-384. A copy is preserved with an autograph letter in the Depart­ment
of Manuscripts at the British Library: Add. MSS 37951 f. 22).
They had arrived two months after the end of the rains and Sa­rah
later wrote (Bowdich, 1825: 266-267).
'Many faded and broken specimens were brought to me, of
which 1 took notes, hoping, at Mr Bowdich's second visit, to procure,
not only the perfect plants, but those we had missed by our late arri-val.
I preserved a numerous collection as vouchers for my veracity,
and, disappointed in all other respects, was returning with a splendid
herbarium, carefully packed in a case which seemed impenetrable.
The vessel in which I returned was so overladen, and consequently so
deep in the water, that, as we had a succession of storms, from the
moment we made the Azores till we reached Dover, her deck was in-cessantly
afloat; the water penetrated, and most of my property was
dtjtroyed. To examine the luggage in the hold was impossible, and it
would have availed nothing if I could have secured my plants in my
cabin, for I was there driven three times from my birth (sic) by the
torrents of water which set everything swimming, and which left me
nothing but wet bedding to sleep on during the last fortnight. I was fe-arful
that much destruction had taken place, but, when I went to the
decks to select the articles Hable to iuty, I can scarcely describe my
mortification, at seeing many of my valuablt books, maps, and engra-vings,
but above all my dried plants, drop at my feet in atoms. I was
thus disabled from comparing my herbarium with the magnificent
collections of England and France, and all 1 can now do with my new,
or imperfect genera, is to offer them as notes for any future traveller,
With regard to those which I profess to have determined, I of­fer
them with some degree of confidence, for, since my return, I have
re-examined my notes, and the remnants of my specimens, amid the
collections in the Jardin du Rol [P], and have scarcely had a single ins-tance
to alter'.
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D. J. MABBERLEY
THE BOWDICH PLANT ÑAMES
The new ñames of the Madeira plants in Excursions are therefore Ed­ward's,
those of plants from Cape Verde Is. and Banjul, Sarah's. No
complete Identification of these ñames has ever been attempted as far
as I know, ñor the scattered references to them gathered together.
Many of the new generic ñames are entered 'Quid?' in the latest edi­tion
(1973) of J. C. Willis's Dictionary of the flowering plants and
58
What happened to these 'remnants' is unclear, though Hepper
and Neate (1971:12) record that some specimens collected by Sarah
are at BM. I have been unable, however, to trace any bearing labels
with the ñames listed below. Equally unclear is the fate of Edward's
manuscripts which cannot now be found at Cambridge or in Davy's
papers, preserved at the Royal Institution.
On her return, Sarah set about arranging Edward's notes for
publication, adding a narrative of the later part of the journey and ap-.
pendices, including lists of plants of 'Bona Vista', 'St. Jago' and
'Banjole and its environs'. This remarkable widow was probably the
first woman to describe new genera of plants and was certainly the
first to collect systematically in tropical West África (Keay, 1960). She
seems to have received no help from Brown who was compiling a list
of Madeira plants for his friend Leopold von Buch and dealing with
the African collections of Major Dixon Denham and others made in
1822-1824 (see below) although Sarah was the intermediary in taking
specimens of Didymocarpus (Gesneriaceae) from Brown to Jacques
Gay in Paris in 1826 (BM Add. MSS. 32441 ff. 14-15). The Bowdich
account was published as Excursions in Madeira and Porto-Santo du-ring
the autumn of 1823, while on his third voyage to África (London:
May, 1825). The following year it was published in Paris and Stras-burg
as Excursions dans les isles de Madére et de Porto-Santo... with a
sepárate atlas of plates. An uncut copy from Prince Roland Bonapar-te's
library and now held at the Societé de Géographie, Paris, has been
examined. It includes 'Notes de M. de Humboldt' at the end and foot-notes
by Cuvier in the zoological appendix, pp. 426-455.
Sarah later remarried and, as Mrs. [Robert] Lee, wrote a
biography of Cuvier, a whole series of popular natural history books
and incorporated accounts of her African experiences in short stories
in Ackermann's Forget me not (collected together as Stories of strange
lands; and fragments from the notes of a traveller, 1835) and in (po-orly
received) 'novéis' like The African wanderers (1847).
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BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
59
ferns. The following is an attempt to remedy this. A dagger indicates a
new generic ñame.
I. MADEIRA
*ASPIDIUM LOBATUM T. Bowd., Exc. Madeira (ed. S. Bowd.): 50
1825 & Fr. ed.: 78 (1826). non (Huds Sw. (1800), nom. illeg. Dr. G.
Benl suggests that Bowdich's plant may well be Polystichum falci-nellum
(Sw.) C. Presl, which he has collected on Madeira.
*ASPLENIUM HIRSUTUM T. Bowd. op. cit. 50,153 (1825) & Fr.ed.
78,238 1826) = A. aureum Cav.
*CUPRESSUS MADEIRENSIS T. Bowd. op.cit.: 118 (1825) &
Fr. Ed: 185, 270 (1826) = C. Lusitanica L.
GNAPHALIUM TOMENTOSUM T. Bowd. op.cit.: 63,161 (1825)
& Fr.ed.: 99, 256 (1826), non Hoffm.ex J.F. Gmel. (1792), Nom.
Illeg. = Helichrysum obconicum D.C. (fide Lowe, 1868: 480).
t*G0ODALLIA T. Bowd. op.cit. 61 (1825), Fr.ed.: 96 (1826) non
Benth. (1845, Thymelaeaceae). The description of 4-valved cap­sules
arising from two "species" of plant resembling a Sempervi-vum
has been referred to Crassulaceae. It may possibly represent
Aichryson Webb «fe Berth. (1840) but may not be crassulaceous at
all, the fruit suggesting Saxífraga. Whatever it is, it will be neces-sary
to conserve Goodallia Benth.
tHERSCHELIA EDULIS (L.) T. Bowd., op.cit.: 34,35, 159 (1825) &
Fr.ed.: 53, 252 (1826) = Physalisperuviana L.
*L1LIUM MADEIRENSE T. Bowd., op.cit.; 34, 35, 159 (1825) &
Fr.ed.: 56,242, (1826) = Amaryllis belladona L. (Brunsvigia ro­sea
(Lam.) Hannibal.
*LOMARIA SEMICYLINDRICA T.Bowd. op.cit.50, 153 (1825) &
Fr.ed.: 78,238 (1826). The description is of an acrostichoid fern
suggesting Elaphoglossum. Dr. Benl kindly identified Bowdich's
description with the plant currently known as E.paleaceum (Ho-ok.
& Grev.) Sledge, a binomial based on a later ñame such that a
new combination, which should be attributed to Dr. Benl, is una-voidable:
ELAPHOGLOSSUM SEMICYLINDRICUM (T.Bowd.) Benl,
comb.nov. Lomarla semicylindrica T.Bowd., Excursions
(ed.S.Bowd.): 50,153, 'general, by streams' (1825) & Fr.ed. 50,
153 (1826). Acrostichum paleaceum Hook. & Grev., Ic. fil. 2:
t.235 & Índices (1831) synon.nov.
E. paleaceum (Hook. & Grev.) Sledge in Bull. Brit. Mus. Nat.
Hist. (Bot.) 4 (2): 95 (1967).
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D. J. MABBERLEY
f*CODDINGTONIA PARASÍTICA S. Bowd, op. cit.: 260 (1825) Fr.
ed.: 398
(1826). Often identified with Lonicera, this epiphytic (? and pa-rasitic)
shrub sounds very much like a rubiaceous plant, perhaps
the epiphytic Psychotria bidentata (R. & S.) Hiern, but the long
tubular flowers suggest Loranthus [non i. parasitus (L.) Druce].
•CONVOLVULUS CUJANENSIS S. Bowd., op. cit.: 252 (1825) Fr.
ed.: 387
(1826) = Merremia aegyptia (L.) Urb.
t*DUVAUCELLIA TENUIS S. Bowd., op. cit.: 259 (1825) Fr. ed.:
397 (1826) = Kohautia senegaiensis Cham. &Schlect. (1829) Sarah's
description is as follows: 'Classis 8. Ordo 4. Jasmineae? Calyx
tubulosus, 4-fidus. Corolla tubulosus, regularis, tubo longo et
limbo 4-lobo, lobis lanceolatis. Stamina 4, instra tubum. Stylus
60
[E. hirtum auctt., non (Sw.) C. Chr., see Pichi-SermoHi & Schel-p
e i n Webbia lV.U9{m%).]
tSEDGWICKIA HEMISPHERICA T. Bowd.. op. cit.: 35,152 & t.25
(1826) = Lunularia cruciata (L.) Dum. (see Müller, 1954:366 as
'hemisphaerica'). This is the only plant figured (by Sarah) in Ex­cursions.
II BOA VISTA Cape Verde Islands.
t*MANOELIA PALLIDA S.Bowd. in T.Bowd., Exc.Madeira (ed
S.Bowd):246 (1825) & Fr.ed.: 381 (1826) = Withania somnifera
(L.) Dun. Often refered to Lysimachia, but first correctly identi-fied
by Chevalier (1935:902).
•PRENANTHES SPINOSA T.Bowd. op.cit. 245 (1825), Fr.ed. 379
(1826), non Forssk. (1775), nom.illeg. = Launaea lanifera Pau;
'Boa Vista: Tres abundant á travers toute l'íle', Chevalier
(1935:887).
III. BANJUL, The Cambia
In compiling his Floruía gambica, Williams (1907) considered
the 193 plant ñames listed by Sarah but included only 51 of them,
'even now the benefit of the doubt has been given to too many'. Of
the remainder, three were cryptograms, 29 were cultivated plants, 50
only assigned to a genus and 60 were 'probably errors', 'many of them
only two [sic] obvious'. He made no attempt to interpret the seven va-lidly
published new ñames:
tBANJOLEA VIOLÁCEA S. Bowd., op. cit.: 258 (1825) Fr. Es.: 396
(1826) = Nelsonia canescens (Lam.) Spr.
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BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
61
1. Stigma ignotum. Fructus superus, dispermus. Herba tenuissi-ma,
pulcherrima. Flores láxate paniculati. Corolla intus alba, sed
extus rosea. Folia linearla, fasciculata'. The slender herb with
'clustered' linear leaves and reddish tetramerous flowers, rather
jasmine-like in appearance immediately suggests a species of
Kohautia, and indeed the (admittedly crude) description seems to
fit no other genus to be found in West África. The 'dispermus'
ovary is readily explained, as many Rubiaceae have ovules arran-ged
on two placentae, as clearly drawn for K. grandiflora DC in
Fl. Trop. East África, Rubiaceae I: 237 (1976). The paniculate
arrangement of the flowers which have lanceolate lobes in D. te-nuis
are characters which clearly distinguish K. senegalensis
from K. grandiflora, both of which have been recorded from The
Cambia. 1 have found no Bowdich specimen.
*KOHAUTIA GENUIS (S. Bowd.) Mabberley, comb. nov.
Duvaucellia tenuis S. Bowd. in T. Bowd., Exc. Madeira (ed. S.
Bowd): 259 (1825) Fr.ed.: 387 (1826).
K. senegalensis Cham. & Schlect. in Linnaea 4:156 (1829). sy-non.
nov.
t*FINDLAYA ALBA 5. Bowd., op. cit.: 258 (1825) Fr. ed.: 396 (1826)
Plumbago zeylanica L. Findlaya S. Bowd. antedates Findalaya
Hook. f. (1876), Ericaceae), Which it will be necessary to conser­ve.
t*KEIRIA LÚTEA 5. Bowd., op. cit.: 259 (1825) Fr. ed. Le. (1826)
Although described as a tree ('Arbor magna') allied to Olacace-ae,
with altérnate more or less glabrous cordate leaves and termi­nal
subcorymbose inflorescences of yellow flowers with 4-lobed
corollas and 4 stamens, giving rise to globose 7-ridged, 1-seeded
fruits, 1 cannont match this with any tree, and feel it may repre­sent
a liane emerging from the crown of a tree. In this case,
Keiria might possibly be Cissus populnea Guill. & Perr. [non C.
luteus Exell & Mendoza].
*PIRIPEA COERULEA S. Bowd, op. cit.: 251 (May 1825) Fr. ed.:
386 (1826) = Buchnera hispida [Buch.-Ham. ex] D. Don (Feb.
1825).
Sarah identified her plant with a specimen collected in Madagas-car
in 1820 by Georges Perrottet, and preserved at the 'Jardin du
R O Í ' . The sheet labelled 'Madagascar Perrottet 1820', which
must be considered type material, Sarah's specimen having been
lost, is still at P (!), and is a gathering of B. hispida, which spe­cies
is native to África, Madagascar and India.
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D. J. MABBERLEY
62
POSTSCRIPT: ROBERT BROWN'S ÑAMES OF MADEIRA AND AFRICAN PLANTS
Brown compiled the first 'Flora' of Madeira (Britten, 1904) for Le­opold
von Buch, with whom he had already collaborated on extending
the list of von Buch's records of Canary Island plants (1819). The Ma­deira
Flora, a mere list, was published in von Buch's Physicalische
Beschreibung der Canarischen Inseln, a privately circulated book, the
preface of which is dated 28 May 1825. It was not received at the
library of the Royal Society until 1827, and I have so far been unable
to date it with any precisión. It seems not to have entered the book tra-de,
not being mentioned, for example, in Oken's Isis for 1825 or 1826,
which may account for the overlooking of von Buch's remarkable
views on speciation (Mayr, 1963:483). There are five validly published
new ñames - Sideroxylon mirmulans R. Br. and the following:
•BUPLEURUM SALICIFOLIUM R. Br. in Buch, Phys. Besch. Ca­ñar.
Ins.: 195 (1825). This is the earliest publication of this ñame,
as was pointed out by Britten (1904:41).
•CELASTRUS UMBELLATUS R. Br., op. cit..: 198(1825); Britten,
J. Bot. 42:7 (1904), non Vell., F l . Flum.:92 (1825). This is the
earliest ñame for Maytenus dryandri (Lowe) Loes., but I have
been unable to show whether it was published before Vellozo's
ñame for a Brazilian species, now known to be "Reissekia smila-cina
(Sm.) Steud., Nomenct., ed. 2: 440 (1841 Rhamnaceae).
*CONVOLVULUS FLEXUOSUS R. Br., op. cit.: 193 (1825); Brit­ten,
op. cit.: 176 (1904), nom. illeg. (nec Spr. (1824) = Jac-quemontia
browniana Oostr. (see below), non Pomel (1860) =
C. siculus L.], = C. althaeoides L. Convolulus flexuosus Spr.
was a nomen novum for Ipoea erecta R. Br., a plant Brown had
collected on Matthew Flinders's voyage to Australia, 1801-1803.
Allied to this were two other 'species' discovered and described
by Brow:. his /. erecta had been collected on Sweer's Island and
Alien Island, Carpentaría; /. biflora was collected on Mt. Cale-don
in the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria (Arnhem South Bay
Point Ul; see Burbidge, 1956) and /. pannosa on the mainland
opposite Groóte Eylandt. The types of all three species ñames are
at BM. Brown's manuscript descriptions of 'C. lanatus' (I. pan­nosa)
and 'C. erectas' (I. erecta) made in the field are in the slip
catalogue of his plant descriptions preserved at the Department
of Botany, British Museum (Natural History). Although the type
of /. pannosa is more robust than that of /. erecta or /. biflora,
Brown included /. erecta in /. pannosa in his MSS, but main-tained
it as a distinct species in his Prodromus, marking the three
type specimens with their Prodromus ñames on the field labels,
which bear the provisional ñames of his field descriptions.
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BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
63
Bentham, Fl. Austr. 4All (1868) pointed out that the three 'spe­cies'
were probably forms of one variable one. They do represent
such forms of the species currently known as Jacquemontia
browniana. which must be renamed: * JACQUEMONTIA PAN-NOSA
(R. Br.) Mabberley, comb. nov.
Ipomoeapannosa R. Br., Pfodr. Fl. Nov. Holl.: 487 (1810). Ty­pe:
"Convolvulus lanatus", "Carpentería mainland opposite
Groóte Island", 4 January 1803, R. Brown (BM!, specimen from
Brown's own herbarium; also specimen selected by Brown and
Joñas Dryander for the 'National Collection', labelled /. panno­sa
in Dryander's hand).
Convolvulus pannosus (R. Br.) Spr., Syst. 1:612 (1824).
/. biflora R. Br., l.c. (1810). Type: "Convolvulus cinereus",
"Arnhem South Bay Point U l " , i.e. Mt. Caledon, 6 Feb. 1803
R. Brown (BM!, specimen from Brown's own herbarium), nom.
illeg.. non (L.) Pers. (1805) i.e. C. biflorus L. (1762).
/. diantha R. & S., Syst. 4:254 (1819). Type as for /. biflora R.
. Br., non C. dianthus J.F. Gmel. (1791) i.e. /. gracilis R. Br.
C. flexuosus Spr., l.c. (1824). Type as for /. biflora R. Br., non
R. Br. (1825) i.e. C. althaeoides L.
/. erecta R. Br., l.c. (1810). Type: "Convolvulus erectus",
"Carpentaria Islands a ¡Sweer's], c [Alien]", 17 Nov 1802,7?.
Brown (BM!, specimen from Brown's own herbarium; also a
fragment mounted with the 'National Collection' sheet of 7.
pa««osa'^-Ferdinand Bauer drawing '327' (?W), non J. erecta
Choisy (1845).
C. erectus (R. Br.) Spr., l.c. (1824).
J. browniana Oostr. in F l . Malesiana 1, 4:434 (1953). Type as
for /. erecta.
•SELINUM DIVARICATUM R. Br.. op. cit.: 195 (1825). Brown to­ok
up Daniel Solander's manuscript ñame and validly published
it. It is the oldest ñame for Oenanthe pteridifolia Lowe:
•OENANTHE DIVARICATA (R. Br.) Mabberley. comb. nov.
Lectotype (selected here): Madeira, Masson (BM., labelled with
Solander's MS ñame in Brown's hand). Another, '1776, Masson'
is labelled by Solander (BM!).
Selinum divaricatum R. Br. in Buch, Phys. Beschr. Ganar. Ins.:
195 (1825); Britten, op. cit.: 41 (1904). Type as above.
O. pteridifolia Lowe in Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc. 4:30 (1831).
N.B. The ñame of a Greek plant, 'O. divaricata Simón' (in Rev.
Bot. Syst. Geog. bot. 1:96 1903) of Index kewensis, was not va­lidly
published as a species ñame, being one of the 'cinq formes'
of 'O. biebersteiniiSimón dimorpha Simón'. O. biebersteiniiwas
Eugéne Simon's superfluous ñame for O. silaifolia Bieb. combi-
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2010
D. J. MABBERLEY
64
ned with O. media Griseb., Simón (p. 91) writing that all the
plants described under his O. biebersteinii were 'une seule et mé-me
espéce', which is the widespread plant now known as O. si-laifolia.
It has been said (Keay, 1960) that all material collected in West
África and deposited in the British Isles passed through Robert
Brown's hands. His work on the flora of África was mainly published
in three papers dealing with the collections made by Henry Salt in
Ethiopia, by Christen Smith made on Captain James Tuckey's Congo
expedition and by Dixon Denham, Walter Oudney and Hugh Clap-perton
in north-west África. Although these were all published as ap-pendices
to works of exploration, they have been considered by bota-nists,
and indeed the state of the nomenclature of African plants in
genral seems to be a good deal healthier than that of Indian plants, re-levant
to which many works seem to have been purposefuUy neglected
(see Mabberley 1977). Nevertheless a few ñames have been missed but,
fortunately, no ñame changes have to be proposed.
Of the 146 species ñames listed in the app^-ndix to Salt's A vo­yage
to Abyssinia (1814), only six of the new ñames are validly
published with references to earlier published descriptions. None of
the ñames therefore refers to Salt's specimens! The six, one of them
illegitimate, are: Buddleja acuminata R. Br. (non Poir. 1811) = B.
polystachya Fres., Cleome roridula R. Br. = C. droserifolia (Forssk.)
Del., C. siliquaria R. Br. = C. arábica L., Cordia abyssinica R.Br.
Kanahia laniflora (Forssk.) R. Br. and:
*HYPOESTES FORSKALEI (Vahl) R. Br., in Sah, Voy. Abyss.
app.: Ixiii (1814) = H. verticillaris (L. F.) R. & S.
Other overlooked Brownian binomials are:
*HOLCUS ACICULARIS R. Br., Bot. App. in Denham & Clapper-ton.
App. Narr. travels África: 244 (1826) sphalm., based on
Andropcgon aciculatus Retz. (1789) as 'A. acicularis' the rende-ring
of Willd. (1805), = Chrysopogon aciculatus (Retz.) Trin.
*MAERUA RÍGIDA R. Br., op. cit.: 226 (L1826) = M. crassi-folia
Forssk.
*M. SENEGALENSIS R. Br., op. cit.: 227 (1826) = M. crassifolia
Forssk,
*OXYSTELMA ESCULENTUM (Lf.) R. Br. in Tuckey, Narr. Exp.
R. Zaire: 450, 478 (1818). N.B. Brown's 'Observations on
the herbarium collected by Professor Christian Smith in the vici-nity
of the Congo....' also appeared as a sepárate with its own
pagination. A copy of this pamphlet was presented to the Linne-an
Society on 3 March 1818 (General Minute Book 2:142).
© Del documento, los autores. Digitalización realizada por ULPGC. Biblioteca Universitaria, 2010
BOWDICH'S ÑAMES OF PLANTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to Dr. Benl and Mr. Crabbe for assistance with the Madeira ferns, to Dr.
Bramwell and Mr. Chater for advice on the flowering plant ñames, to Mr. Marshall for Infor­mation
on Brown's herbarium, and to Dr. Brummitt, Mr. Hepper and Dr. Verdcourt for criti-cally
reading parts of the manuscript.
65
In January 1824, Brown received a letter from William Hamil-ton
(1783-1856), sometime resident doctor in Nevis, written on the
back of a printed circular, dealing inter alia with another African
plant. The circular, published on 1 January 1824 and printed at Ply-mouth
reads: "DOCTOR HAMILTON will feel much obliged to
[space for ñame of recipient in MS] should circumstances allow of it
during his stay in the West Indies to procure for him the Seeds, Flo­wers,
and Leaves, of the following Plants, which as desirable acquisi-tions
for our own Colonies in the West Indies, and at Sierra Leone, he
is anxious to obtain". There follow hints on collecting and descrip-tions
of three desiderata of which one is:
"3rd. Inga Faeculifera. Pois Doux. Vicinity of the City of San Domi-nigo,
Hispaniola.
This Tree, of which a specimen was first brought to France, in
August 1822, by the Surgeon of a French Brig, who gave it with some
of the Pods, to my learned friend M. Desvaux, is at present growing in
the Hot-houses of the Jardin des Plantes, at Angers... Inga Faeculife­ra
(which is a species hitherto unknown to Botanists)". There follows
a description of the fruits and their qualities. The tree is, of course,
Parkia biglobosa which had been introduced from West África. The
circular seems to contain the first use of the ñame Inga faeculifera
and, as it was distributed to travellers and botanists, it seems to me
that the ñame is validly pubhshed. A copy of the circular (No. 71) is
bound (as BM Add. MSS 32440:373) in the Brown correspondence
preserved in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library:
*1NGA FAECULIFERA W. Ham., 'Circ. Desir. W. Ind. P l . ' : [1]
(1824); Desv. W. Ham., Prodr. P l . Ind. Occ: 61 {\%25, fide
Pharm. J.6: 323
* PARKIA BIGLOBOSA (Jacq.) R.Br. ex. G. Don f. in Loud.
Hort. Brit.: 277 (1830).
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D. J. MABBERLEY
REFERENCES
BOWDICH, T.E., 1825. Excursions in Madeira and Porto-Santo during the autumn of 1823, while on
his third voyage lo África. London: Whittaker.
BURBIDGE, N.T., 1956. Robert Brown's Australian collecting localities. Proceedings of ihe Linnean
Society of New South Wales 80: 229-233.
BRITTEN, J., 1904. R. Brown's list of Madeira plants. Journal of Botany, London 42: 1-8, 39-46, 175-
182, 197-200.
CHEVALIER, A. 1935. Les íles du Cap Vert. Flore de l'Archipel. Revue de Botanique appliquée
et d'agriculture iropicale IS: 733-1090.
DAWSON, W., 1958 The Banks Letters. London: British Museum (Natural History).
HEPPER, F.N. & F. NEATE, 1971. Plant collectors in West África. Regnum Vegetabile 74.
KEAY, R.W.J., 1960. Early botanical collectors in West África, pp. 5-13 in R.W.J. KEAY' C.F.A.
ONOCHIE & D.P. STANFIELD, Nigerian Trees, Vol. 1. Lagos: Fed.Govt. Printer.
LOWE, R.T., 1868. Manual flora of Madeira and the adjaceni islands of Porto-Santo and the Desertas.
Vol. I: London: Van Voorst.
MABBERLEY, D.J., 1977. Francis Hamilton's Commentaries with particular reference to Meliaceae.
Taxon 26: 523-540.
McDONNEL, M.F.J., 1917. Foreign graves of British authors. Notes and Queries 12 ser., 3: 176-177.
MAYR, E., 1963. Animal species and evolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press.
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WARD, W.E.F., 1966. Introduction to T E . BOWDICH, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee,
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66
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