Contents
of the summer 2009 Northants News
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Gordon's
Stapelia 1
Trevor Wray |
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While trawling the second
hand book shops of Dorchester I bought a picture of 'Stapelia gordoni'.
Obviously old taxonomy! Luckily we have an expert on this sort of thing in
the branch. I sent a snapshot to Colin Walker and asked if he had any idea
where the print came from. It was such a curious representation I thought
it might be a NN filler if I could source some background info. Our emails
ran...
Hi
Trev, Looks familiar. Do you want to bring it along tonight? I’ll
bring along Masson’s Stapeliae Novae where there’s a plate that
looks like this. If it’s indeed that original plate then you’ve got
yourself a very interesting plate, but it may be a copy from elsewhere.
Gordon’s Stapelia is the one from 41 plates in this book that
Masson didn’t paint himself. Cheers, Colin
Hi Colin. I just love your
expert responses! Thanks. Yes I'll bring it tonight. Doubt if it is an
original (for £10?) but there is the number 40 top right which suggests a
page number. See ya. Trev
Hi Trev,
Found it! After a better surf. Your plate is definitely the Masson Stapelia
gordoni, whether original or copied. How big is it – ‘cos as you
know, size IS important? Apparently plates in Stap. Nov. are
38 x 27 cm, i.e. folio. So if yours is only small, i.e. less than A4, then
it isn’t an original. And does it look old, the paper,
etc.? Cheers, Colin |
Hi Colin. The print is at least
225 x 330mm. So a fair bit bigger than A4. It certainly doesn't look like
old paper. However the provenance is assured cos the vendor has written
'Original flower print' on the sticker. Absolutely true!
Must also be good because Sue
said 'That's horrible! Where you going to hang it? There's no room in this
house'. So, a collector's item. All this going in that article. Trev
Anyway I took the print to the
meeting that night for Colin’s appraisal. Did you think it was an original?
(for £10?). Read the background and definitive answer from Colin below …
Trev
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Gordon's
Stapelia 2
Colin C
Walker |
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Trevor’s botanical print
is a reproduction of the first published illustration of what is now a Hoodia
– this is its story.
The Royal Botanic Gardens
at Kew were established in 1759 and during the reign of George III, Sir
Joseph Banks became the unofficial director. Francis Masson (1741–1805),
a dour Scot, was appointed as a gardener under William Aiton, the first
curator/head gardener. Banks was keen to expand the living collections at
Kew and Masson became Kew’s first overseas plant collector, with South
Africa being the first destination because of its rich flora. Between
December 1772 and March 1795 Masson undertook four collecting trips at the
Cape and sent back to Kew large consignments of plants. He discovered and
collected hundreds of new species, notably of Pelargonium, Erica
and Oxalis that were first introduced in to cultivation via Kew and
described by Aiton in his book Hortus Kewensis (first edition
1789). Masson is commemorated in the genus Massonia Thunberg ex
Houttuyn (Hyacinthaceae), a fitting memorial to an explorer who played a
major role in the enhancement of the reputation of Kew and in the
development of British horticulture (Gunn & Codd, 1981). |
Branch
members Peter, David, Colin and Jack compare the print with Colin’s
facsimile reprint of Masson’s Stapeliae Novae. |
Meanwhile Dutch born, but also of
Scottish descent, Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon (1743–1795), went to the Cape in
1772–3, met with Masson and together they went on foot on a trip at the Cape
in May 1773. Later, in July–August 1779 Gordon went on an expedition with
another Scottish explorer – Lieutenant William Paterson – up the west coast
of South Africa to the mouth of what Gordon named the Orange River, after
William of Orange. It was on this trip that Gordon discovered a new stapeliad.
He like Masson was a competent draughtsman and he drew this new plant, but his
drawing was never published by him and the original is now in the Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam (Gunn & Codd, 1981).
Masson went on to publish his
only botanical work, Stapeliae Novae, in London in 1796–8, as the first
monograph of South African stapeliads in which the majority of the 41 species
included were newly described. In this now very rare book, 40 of the 41 hand
coloured engraved plates were based on his original water colour paintings, all
produced in the field during his travels in South Africa (Masson, 1796–8). The
odd one out here is what he first described as Stapelia gordoni Masson in
honour of Gordon, but the engraving in Masson’s book is a copy based on Gordon’s
original drawing. As far as I’m aware, this is the only plant named after
Robert Gordon.
For Masson, all his 41 stapeliads
were species of the single genus Stapelia, but following on from him the
genus was split into many smaller genera, such as the familiar Caralluma,
Duvalia, Huernia and Piaranthus. In 1844 Gordon’s Stapelia
was transferred to the new genus Hoodia where it now resides as Hoodia
gordonii (Masson) Sweet ex Decaisne, with Masson’s engraving in his book
being the type. An intriguing mystery here surrounds the Mr. Hood of England
after whom this genus was named, since we know absolutely nothing about him
other than he was a grower of succulents (Bruyns, 2005).
Today Hoodia is genus of
13 species distributed through western Angola, Namibia and South Africa, with a
smaller disjunct range in eastern Botswana and south-eastern Zimbabwe. H.
gordonii is the most widely distributed species, ranging from just north of
Mossel Bay on the south coast of South Africa and east to Kimberley, then north
of Windhoek in Namibia. Not surprisingly for such a widespread species it’s
very variable and has been redescribed as at least 10 other species that are
today all lumped together. Its flowers are up to 10 cm across and range from
pale flesh-coloured to deep purple-red (Bruyns, 2005).
Finally what of the source of
Trevor’s so-called “original botanical print”? Well, regrettably for
Trevor, it’s no such thing. The “print” turns out to be a page untimely
ripped, or at least cut, from The Book of Flowers (Coats, 1973), so
unfortunately for Trevor he hasn’t found a rare original print at a knock-down
price that he could resell on eBay for vast profit!
Colin
(Ed: and I
thought I might retire on the profits!)
References
Bruyns,P.V. (2005) Stapeliads
of Southern Africa and Madagascar. Umdaus Press, Hatfield, South Africa.
Coats,A.M. (1973) The book of
flowers. Exeter Books, New York.
Gunn,M. & Codd,L.E. (1981) Botanical
exploration of southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam.
Masson,F. (1796–8) Stapeliae
novae: or, a collection of several new species of that genus; discovered in the
interior parts of Africa. Facsimile reprint 1998, Casa Editrice Le Lettere,
Firenze, Italy.
