(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

Born: 1854, Falmouth, England. Died: 1926, Martinique.

career:

Surgeon in the English navy (1876-85), commissioned for survey work and studying ethnology, geology and natural history, on the islands near Korea, the Solomon Islands, etc.; later he made extensive voyages in the Pacific Ocean, especially studying the problems of plant-dispersal.¹

Several plants were named after him.

Collecting localities:²

1888-89. W.Java: Buitenzorg, S. Bantam and S. Priangan. He travelled from Garoet through Soekeradja to Tjipatuja, along the beach to Ranzaherrang (westward), Tjimari, further west and then inland for Boengboelan, Tjikadjang; from Tjibeber to Sindang-barang; from Soekaboemi to Tjikaso, reaching Palabuan by crossing the Genting Promontory, following the Bantam coast via Tjisolok, Sirwana, Baia, Malingping, crossing the island to Djasinga and Batavia; from Soekaboemi to the S. coast by Sagaranten and Rambai; also in Krawang.

In a letter to Treub (dated Java, Jan. 4, 1889) he says to have walked from Krawang to Tjiandjoer, then from Lembang to Poerwokerto (= prob. Poerwakarta), back again to the railway at Jagolapoe (?) all on foot; in a letter (dated Febr. 20, 1889) he intends to leave next mail and says to have spent 3 weeks on the south coast (Genting, Promontory and Bantam), crossed Bantam to Batavia on foot from Malingping, collected littoral plants W of Palabuan (Wijnkoopsbaai) and also in the vicinity of Tjiara.

collections:

Herb. Kew [K]: 400 nos from Solomon Islands, Keeling Islands, Java (1885-89); Herb. Bog. [BO]: fruits from SW. Java. Also in Herb. Brit. Mus. [BM], chiefly ferns.

literature:

(1) Author of many important papers and books on the latter subject, e.g.: ‘Observations of a naturalist in the Pacific between 1896 and 1899’ (London 1906; Plant-Dispersal vol. 2); ‘Plants, seeds and currents in the West Indies and the Azores. The results of investigations carried out in those regions between 1906 and 1914’ (London 1917).

(2) Guppy gives a list of plants observed on the south coast of Java in ‘The dispersal of plants as illustrated by the flora of the Keeling and Cocos islands’ (Transact. Vict. Inst. 1890) p. 293-299. cf. also Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc. Lond. 1889, p. 696 (abstract).

H.B. Guppy: ‘The south coast of Java’ (Scott. Geogr. Mag. 5, p. 625-637).

biographical data:

Journ. Bot. 64, 1926, p. 161-162; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936.

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