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A Specialist's Guide to the Sloane Database

Contents
  1. Style of Presentation and Chronology of Sloane's work on the Jamaican flora. An annotated chronological sequence of events.
  2. Problems of Identification
  3. New and Extinct Species
  4. Notable Omissions
  5. Notes on the plates and figures, including the erroneous Grias plate
  6. Sloane's Eclecticism - the Watchipicket story
  7. Sloane's itinerary and local awareness in Jamaica
  8. Collectors who contributed to the Sloane Jamaica herbaria
  9. Some of the botanists who have examined the Sloane Jamaica herbaria
  10. References
  11. Appendix - Sloane's Chapters
1. Style of Presentation and Chronology of Sloane's work on the Jamaican flora

The order in which the Jamaican flora was dealt with in the Catalogue and the two volumes of the History, was roughly followed in the arrangement of the specimens in the 7 volumes of the herbaria. Sloane's labels, eventually placed with the specimens, not only include the polynomials as they are written in the Catalogue but also the page references in that prodromus and each volume of the History. For those dealt with in volume 2 of the History, the volume number is included in the reference on the label. These facts clearly help to establish an order of events summarised as follows:

Sloane's work in Jamaica

1687 Sloane arrived in Jamaica in December.

1688 Sloane spent much of this year collecting plants and animals and writing copious habitat, usage and descriptive notes. Procedures he employed for the preservation and curation of his specimens have not been investigated but the long-sustained excellent condition of at least the Jamaican items bears out that they were adequately dried and protected from insect damage. The quality of the original preparation and the security of mounting may be judged by comparing specimens as they are today with the drawings made of them in 1700-1701. This is not true of the material gathered in Madeira and Barbados, etc. during the voyage out, where there is ample evidence that many specimens went mouldy on board ship.

Journals exist but these have not been examined in the present study. Inserted in a few places in the herbaria (e.g. H.S. 1: 24 verso, 33 verso) are quarto pages with notes in Sloane's hand associated usually with a specimen that he was unable to identify. These may be relicts of what could be regarded as his 'field notes' which would otherwise have been destroyed after the draft entry for the Catalogue, as well as the more extensive paragraphs for the History and the labels for the herbaria, had been written. A few drawings, mainly of plants or plant parts which are difficult to preserve, such as cacti, or succulent fruit or tubers, were made for Sloane by Rev. Garrett Moore 'one of the best Designers' in Jamaica (See plates and figures). There are even fewer crude ink sketches here and there in the herbaria which Sloane might have made himself (H.S. 3: 19; H.S. 4: 13)

Sloane's employer, the Governor, the Duke of Albemarle, died in October presaging the end of the Jamaica episode.

1689Sloane left Jamaica, early in the year (March), accompanying the Duchess and the embalmed body of the Duke, along with all his specimens. These and manuscripts reached England safely, and, except for some living wild animals, apparently without loss.

The preparation of the Catalogue involved a thorough study of existing literature and the compilation of polynomial descriptions and references within a scheme of classification, substantially based on the work of John Ray. This set the pattern for the systematic layout of the entries in the History and the arrangement of the plant specimens in the herbaria. It was an artificial utilitarian system (See contents of vols.1 and 2 of the History and summary of the chapters ahead).

1696 The Catalogue was published, an octavo volume of 232 pages plus index, entirely in Latin and omitting almost all the details of description and usage in Jamaica which would become the material of the English language component of the History. Jamaican localities were recorded.

The period following the publication of the Catalogue saw at least the formulation of the content of the 2 volumes of the History and progress towards the fulfilment of Sloane's intentions succinctly alluded to on their title pages, "... the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees, ........ illustrated with The Figures of the Things describ'd, which have not been heretofore engraved; In large Copper-Plates as big as the Life." These few words clearly state Sloane's emphasis, intentions and methodology, namely 1. the separation of herbaceous from woody plants in the classificatory system confirming that which was used in the Catalogue and adhered to throughout, 2. the 'new species' would have priority in the choice of plants to be illustrated, [This explains why a number of important common plants such as Anacardium occidentale, Ceiba pentandra, Tamarindus indica, Mirabilis jalapa, Petiveria alliacea, Portulaca oleracea and Cocos nucifera and others, were treated in the text but not depicted] and 3. the illustrations were to be drawn natural size and reproduced at the same scale (See 1707 on History vol. 1 and section on plates and figures in this Introduction).

1700 Sloane commissioned Everhardus Kickius to make drawings. This work was completed in about 1 year. During this period all the specimens that were drawn had been mounted but were probably not yet in bound volumes. (See section on plates and figures in this Introduction.).

1702 or later. Sloane received the gift of non-Jamaican specimens from Richardson. It is not known when these were incorporated but it was probably after the final arrangement of specimens into volumes had been made.

1707 The first volume of the History was published. Observations on the short stops at Madeira and Barbados and other small islands are set out before the separate section on Jamaica. The Jamaican flora is systematically dealt with in the first 17 of Sloane's 25 chapters, covering marine and a few freshwater aquatics (43), non-vascular cryptogams and mushrooms (26), ferns (103), grasses and sedges (57), plants with unisexual flowers (42), several broadly conceived groups of predominantly herbaceous plants distinguished on flower, inflorescence, fruit and vegetative characters (252), ending with clearly defined 'Herbs whose Flowers are composed of several Flowers', i.e. Compositae and Eryngium (31). The effect was to ignore monocotyledonous plants as such and split the herbaceous and woody legumes in an arbitrary way. Likewise herbaceous plants which are 'bacciferous or pomiferous', such as cucurbits or passion-fruit are dealt with in this volume, whereas trees with similar fruit, such as avocado, cashew or citrus are in the second volume.

Each entry has a reference to the page in the Catalogue where the polynomial was first written out and a cross-reference to the relevant plate and figure printed following the text. Volume 1 has 554 text-entries, mostly referring to single taxa, at least as Sloane conceived them at the time, and 156 plates with 1 or more figures in each plate. The figures are accompanied by the same polynomial as appears in the Catalogue and in the appropriate text-entry. All the material that was drawn and printed was reproduced actual size as intended, except one of a particularly large frond of Olfersia cervina (H.S. 1: 79; t. 37). Kickius drew this frond natural size, but the main engraving was reduced by a factor of 0.41; 2 separated pinnae were engraved nearly full-size. No engraver is indicated on the plate.

This great sample of Jamaican flora is vouchered in herbarium volumes H.S. 1-4, and the first 48 pages of H.S. 5. Some additional details of the contents of H.S. 1-5 are given by Dandy (1958: 205-6). The 'unique' Saccoloma sloanei (Dandy loc. cit. pl. 2) is an anomalous variant of the better known Saccoloma domingense.

Sloane's labels were written out and attached to the herbarium sheets. On adjacent pages, which might not have complete labels, are often to be found small slips in Sloane's hand indicating that he thought the specimen was the same as the one before or the one following or a variety of the specimen on the page with the relevant polynomial. Problems have arisen where these supplementary specimens are not parts of the same collection but of a distinct, even if closely related, taxon, and it is not always clear to what extent the polynomial in the label on the primary sheet was intended to include them. Comments in Sloane's English text may be helpful in this elucidation. This has been especially important where the supplementary specimen was the model of the published drawing.

In the Introduction to the second volume of the History, Sloane excused himself for the long delay in its appearance.

1725 The second volume of the History was published. The Catalogue references and cross-references to the relevant plates and figures were given as before. The remaining 8 of Sloane's chapters are dealt with covering the mainly woody groups (242), among which are the arborescent legumes, some of these being little more than undershrubs. The final plant chapter includes miscellaneous wood or fruit, etc. products (14). There are thus 256 text-entries and 77 plates of plants, the remainder being of animals and artefacts. The pressable items are vouchered in H.S. 5 from p. 49 and volumes H.S. 6-7. Additional details of the contents of H.S. 6-7 are given by Dandy (1958: 206). The tree described from Sloane's Barbadian collection as Mastichodendron sloaneanum Box & Philipson, for several years believed to be an endemic of that island but now extinct, has recently been shown to be not different from the widespread Caribbean species Sideroxylon foetidissimum. Sloane's own labels, including the Catalogue page numbers and the History volume and page numbers, were added to the herbarium sheets at this time.

The 2 volumes of the History describe 810 plant items of Sloane's Jamaican provenance.

1730 A collection of mainly Jamaican plants with this date was received from William Houston. They were incorporated in Sloane's herbaria but of course not mentioned in the Jamaican publications. The annotations were probably written by Houston. There is a much larger representation of Houston's plants of the same date from Jamaica and Veracruz in the General Herbarium at The Natural History Museum (BM).

1736 Linnaeus visited Sloane at Chelsea and commented 'Sloane's great collection is in complete disorder' (Stearn, 1957: 119), which makes one wonder whether the Jamaican herbaria had even yet been put together in bound volumes. On the other hand, being bound in volumes with the consequence that the specimens could not be rearranged, may have been the criterion of 'disorder' by which Linnaeus expressed his disapproval. It is well known that Linnaeus did not examine these specimens but rather used the Catalogue, and the illustrations published in the History, to authenticate many of the 1753 binomials which included a reference to a Jamaican plant. Linnaeus reproduced Sloane's polynomials verbatim only changing the Latin very slightly here and there.

Whenever they were bound, the 7 main volumes of Jamaican plants comprised 888 pages, excluding inserts.

1786 Swartz examined the Sloane collections and annotated some of them as well as the page margins of Banks's copy of the History.

2. Problems of Identification

The present survey reveals that a significant number of the specimens in the seven main bound volumes in which Sloane's Jamaican collections are housed remain to be identified with certainty. Two main groups of these may be excluded from serious consideration in the present context. The first group are the specimens collected from Madeira, Barbados and a few islands of the Southern Caribbean on the outward voyage. Some of these specimens are adequate and their names have been known for a long time, but others are mere scraps or became mouldy in the damp conditions on board ship. Names have been put on a few of them recently.

The other group of less importance at this time are the numerous additions from non-Jamaican sources, particularly those attributed to Richardson. For many of these, difficulties of identification stem from the fact that they are garden seedlings or sterile juveniles. Two of them, Carica papaya and Hylocereus cf. triangularis, discussed elsewhere, have acquired importance because Sloane added annotations, presumably because he wished to use them to represent Jamaican plants that he had made no specimen of himself.

Other specimens are of much greater interest. Numbers of Sloane's collections have been matched for the first time with known records of Jamaican plants. Further to that, it is quite a sobering realisation that, a specimen of a plant, never reported from the island before, could exist, that has escaped identification for more than 300 years. (See New and Extinct species)

Unidentified plants, of which some specimens are meagre and probably inadequate for complete determination, include the following - non-Jamaican in [ ]: Polystichum spp. (H.S. 1: 55 #2, H.S. 1: 73 #1 bis), Cyperus tenuis Sw. vel aff. (H.S. 2: 69 #1), Crinum ? (H.S. 4: 113), Hohenbergia sp. (H.S. 4: 115), Morus virginiana ? (H.S. 5: 52 verso, 53), [Coccoloba sp., Barbados 'Red-wood of Reid' (H.S. 5: 75)], [Fumaria sp., Madeira (H.S. 3: 95)], [Calliandra sp. , Provenance? (H.S. 6: 43* #1)], [Euphorbia sp. , Madeira (H.S. 3: 115)],? Paullinia barbadensis Jacq. (H.S. 4: 104), possibly aberrant with simple bracts and unbranched spicate flowering branches, Cardiospermum sp. (H.S. 4: 102 #1), Cucurbita sp. (H.S. 4: 72, a single seed only), Cayaponia sp. (H.S. 4: 77, a badly damaged leaf), Eugenia sp. (Hist. 2: 107), [Citharexylum spp., Barbados (H.S. 7: 18, 19)], Aegiphila sp., see New Species (H.S. 7: 110 #2), [Compositae indet., Madeira (H.S. 5: 4, 5)], Wedelia ? calycina Rich. (H.S. 5: 32).

Some difficulties of determination resulted from the incorrect reassembly of the parts of a specimen, which had become separated during drying, being perpetuated in the drawings, e.g. Trichilia moschata SW (H.S. 5: 74 and note in Fawcett & Rendle, Fl. Jam. 4: 211), and some of the ferns.

3. New and Extinct species

Hitherto unreported species include:

Eleocharis filiculmis Kunth(H.S. 2: 68; Hist. 1: 122 liv), Isolepis sp. vel aff. (H.S. 2: 69#2), Aegiphila sp. (Cat. 208; Hist. 2: 176 xli, t. 169, f. 3, H.S. 7: 110#2). This undetermined plant was described by Sloane as having 'pedicels short and small, axillary, flowers long, standing in a small perianthium of little leaves'. A reference to it is included erroneously in Fawcett & Rendle, Fl. Jam. 5: 307 under Bucida buceras).

A species which seems to have disappeared from the flora of Jamaica is Cleome houstonii R.Br. (H.S. 3: 108*; Cat. 80; Hist. 1: 194 iv).

Species which seem to have disappeared from the flora of Barbados are Sloanea massonii SW (H.S. 5: 77) and Miconia elata(SW) DC. (H.S. 6: 90).

4. Notable omissions

Some common and well known Jamaican plants were not mentioned in Sloane's work. Most noteworthy of these is Swietenia mahagoni, the West Indian Mahogany. This species is rare now, bordering on extinction in the relicts of natural forest, although there are some fine mature specimens in parks and gardens (Devon House, Kingston). In Sloane's time, this timber was used locally for all purposes. It became a major item of commerce and export in the early part of the 18th century when it was first used for furniture-making in England. In 1753, the year Sloane died, 521,300 ft, were exported from the island. By the end of the 19th century the exports were negligible. In 1908 'Several shipments came forward early in the year, but they consisted mostly of short, knotty, faulty and crooked logs.' (Fawcett, 1909: 17).

Portlandia sp., especially the spectacular Portlandia grandiflora, the Bell Flower, with trumpet-shaped flowers to 20 cm long, is relatively well represented on rocky limestone in the area where Sloane lived and explored.

Sloane did not deal with the common species Cordia gerascanthus, the Panchallon or Spanish Elm, in his text, and there is no specimen in the collections. He used the name Spanish Elm as an alternative to Prince Wood for Hamelia ventricosa. The Cordia and Petitia domingensis, a form of Fiddlewood, are both native and regular components of the harshly arid limestone woodlands of southern St. Catherine (Adams & duQuesnay, 1971: 104, 109), some parts of which have been little disturbed since Sloane's time. They may have become more common with the subsequent disturbance of humid interior forests.

Some omissions can probably be attributed to Sloane's limited travels in the island especially into the numerous montane and submontane forests. For example he did not report Vaccinium meridionale, Bilberry. In the wetter limestone forests at lower altitudes are Simarouba glauca, Bitter Damsel, or Picrasma excelsa, Bitterwood, both renowned for the bitter principles in their wood. In low open places are Catalpa longissima, Yokewood, and Trophis racemosa, Ramoon, both of which he missed.

Other now common and important plants were yet to be introduced to the island. These include Terminalia catappa, West Indian Almond, Ziziphus mauritiana, Coolie Plum, Prosopis juliflora, Cashaw, Samanea saman, Guango. Mangifera indica, Mango, Syzygium jambos, Rose Apple and Casuarina came along much later. Haematoxylum campechianum, Logwood, was supposed not to have been introduced from Central America until 1715. Sloane acquired from there, and illustrated, a billet of its timber (t. 231, f. 1, 2) and a sketch of the flowers was printed in the 1725 volume of the History (Tab X, f. 1 ,2, 3, 4); it is not known where the model for these came from or who drew them.

5. Notes on the plates and figures

Dandy wrote (1958: 204) 'There is thus present in the Department of Botany the whole of the material necessary for the identification of the plants collected and described by Sloane. The importance of this can hardly be over-estimated, as the figures and descriptions in Sloane's book were frequently cited by Linnaeus and other early authors in founding their species.' What Dandy emphasised was, of course, the apposition of the original drawings and the specimens in the bound volumes. If the herbaria are consulted with the appropriate volume of the History open alongside, one can indeed have the whole of the Sloane material to hand.

The plates in the 2 volumes of the History are in 4 groups. After the Introduction to Volume 1, there are 4 plates of general topics, numbered T. I-IV, followed by the more detailed depictions, numbered t. 1-156. In Volume 2, there is a further set of general plates, numbered T. V-XI, followed by plants in t. 157-232, 244, 246, 274. The general plates begin with maps (T. 1) and then cover plants and animals and a few artefacts. The second set of general plates includes several of the more common trees as habit sketches. Animals are dealt with consistently from t. 233 onwards beginning with invertebrates.

The drawings were made in a chronological sequence roughly following the order of the arrangement of the plants in the bound volumes. None of the drawings in H.S. 1 are either signed or dated. In H.S. 2, Kickius began to initial the drawings and the only dated one in this volume is that of Hackelochloa granularis (H.S. 2: 62) which happens also to be the earliest found. It could be the first which Kickius decided to annotate because it is one of the lengthiest, reading 'Everhardus Kickius fecit. Anno Etatis Juc. 64. July 26 1700'. Initialling became a regular practice in the remaining five volumes where many styles from simple 'E.K.f. ' (E. Kickius fecit) to the more elaborate 'E.k.k.us fecit ad 1700 dic. 10 br. 11 ' for Hibiscus pernambucensis (H.S. 4: 43) may be seen. At its simplest Kickius combined the capital E and K into a single character with the centre bar of the E replaced by 2 sloping lines rendered wavy (H.S. 5: 47). The later dated signatures appear in H.S. 6 and H.S.7, the latest found being 5 July 1701 (H.S. 7: 110,111). Some 60% (507) are initialled and 23% (118) of these are dated. The rate of progress was quite rapid, the dates indicating that 2 drawings on the same day was not unusual.

Kickius's tracings of herbarium specimens, while guaranteeing accurate shapes and natural size, imposed the condition that all the leaves were drawn in flat outline. They display poor lifelike posture. The pressure marks are often quite clear on the herbarium pages, which were occasionally damaged by the tracing process (H.S. 6: 58). He firstly, in most cases, made a pencil drawing, which was then inked. He used black pen for outlines, veins, etc. and grey colour-wash for relief. The latter could only be rendered by the engraver with hatching which usually produced a considerably altered effect.

A substantial contribution to the illustrating of Sloane's work was made by Rev. Garrett Moore by field sketches made in Jamaica. Moore drew plants or plant parts that were highly perishable or would lose their character in drying. He used terracotta crayon or pencil and his drawings can be readily distinguished from those of Kickius because, being done from life, they have depth and perspective.

The following are some of Moore's more interesting drawings: Jatropha gossypifolia (H.S. 2: 96, 97, t. 84), Renealmia antillarum (H.S. 3: 36, Moore's drawing was copied by Kickius and reproduced as t. 105, f. 1), Bromelia pinguin (H.S. 4: 114; the specimen comprises a leaf and two virtually identical drawings, the upper is in yellow and green, the other is in grey and wash and is a tracing, signed by Kickius, of the upper drawing. Neither of these was printed), Hippomane mancinella (H.S. 5: 56, t. 159, a Moore drawing again completed by Kickius), Plumeria rubra (H.S. 6: 56, 57, t. 185, t. 186, f. 1; the attribution of the drawing pasted to p. 57 reads 'Garrett Moore delin. E: k.k.us pfecit' in Kickius's hand without date. Kickius completed the drawing by inking it. On the verso of this drawing is an uninked pencil sketch, captioned by Sloane 'The pods and seeds of the Jasmin tree. vid. descript.', which was reproduced as t. 186, f. 1), Opuntia dillenii (H.S. 7: 82, t. 224, f. 1; 82; a coloured drawing of 2 whole and 1 cut fruit was copied by Kickius in ink line and monochrome wash; the engraved rendition has, because of the long-line hatching, lost all semblance of the true texture of this fleshy fruit).

A major error of depiction arose from disbelief in the accuracy of Moore's work who made an excellent drawing of Grias cauliflora, the Anchovy Pear Tree (H.S. 7: 57), a pencil sketch by Garrett Moore of the leafy shoot-apex and stem with flower-buds and an open flower. Kickius's completed drawing, the model for t. 216, is opposite, dated Jun. 17. 1701, and it is a good copy of the pencil sketch except for the spacing of the nerves of the leaf. The average spacing of the nerves in Moore's sketch is 17.4 mm and this accurately represents other available specimens of Grias cauliflora; the average spacing in Kickius's drawing is 7.6 mm which approximates to the spacing in the Polypodium specimen. There is no Sloane specimen of Grias and the only actual plant material in the herbarium collection is the Polypodium frond on p. 56 (t. 217, f. 1,2). Kickius believed, or was led to believe, that the spacing in Moore's drawing was inaccurate and he 'corrected' it. The figure (f. 216) was engraved and published accordingly.

The engraving was mostly done by Michael van der Gucht, whose name or initials often appears at the foot of the plate. A few (t. 6 - 2 birds, t. 26 Fadyenia hookeri, Tectaria heracleifolia, t. 28 Marcgravia spp., Schradera involucrata, t. 48 Thelypteris serra), were done by J. Savage. For many plates, the engraver is not indicated.

The drawings were invariably reversed ('flipped') in the printed version. This makes it necessary to state, when referring to 'left' or 'right', whether the original or the printed illustration is under discussion.

Details of what today are regularly regarded as important botanical characters, such as hairs, glands and stipules were often poorly depicted or altogether omitted. Noteworthy, for example, is that the strong angling of the rachis of the leaf of Senna alata (t. 175, f. 2) is not shown. The same omission applies in the drawing of the stem of Diodia sarmentosa (H.S. 2: 123; t. 94, f. 2). There is a suspicion that the artist spotted the thickened nodes in the lower part of the stem of Ruellia paniculata (H.S. 3: 25; t. 100, f. 2). Dandy wrote (1958: 204) 'but they cannot as a whole be considered satisfactory from a botanical standpoint'. In view of these facts and in consideration of the later use that was made of these illustrations, it is to be noted that the identifications by some of the botanists who have subsequently examined the herbarium specimens, and as was done throughout in the present study, are of paramount importance.

Some of the plants were not drawn, perhaps for reasons of technical difficulty, especially the impossibility of tracing many small adjacent parts, such as mimosaceous leaflets or the corona of Passiflora flowers. Because of the nature of tracing some narrow parts, like the pods of Indigofera, these were drawn wider than in reality. Cissampelos pareira was probably not drawn because the small size of the flowers rendered the details obscure in the dried state. As mentioned above, some species were not drawn because they were already well known. Some of the plants which Sloane reported but did not illustrate include, Ceiba pentandra, Silk Cotton Tree, Tamarindus indica, Tamarind, Mirabilis jalapa, Four O'clock, Petiveria alliacea, Guinea Hen Weed and Portulaca oleracea, Pussley. Other drawings were made but not printed, e.g. Maxillaria alba (H.S. 4: 116*).

6. Sloane's Eclecticism - The watchiepicket story (H.S. 3: 105).

When describing the common epiphytic bromeliad Tillandsia usneoides, Spanish Moss (or Old Man's Beard by resemblance with Usnea sp.), Sloane published two figures (t. 122, f. 2, 3). One was of the pale fibrous branched stems of the plant as normally seen and the other was what looked, with much finer black threads, like a bundle of horse hair (f. 3). He went on to describe the latter as 'The inward strong black Hairs of this Mosses Stalks, [are] made use of by the Birds called Watchipickets, for making their curiously contriv'd Nest, hanging on the Twigs of Trees. This, by lying in the Air and Weather, or being by other means cleared of its outward Skins, has another appearance' (Hist. 1: 191).

In 1759, Linnaeus described Renealmia disticha (Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 974), based on 'Sloane. jam. t. 122. f. ult.', which presumably meant fig. 3. From Sloane's illustration, it is virtually impossible to identify botanical features, but he had described the threadlike remains of stems of this plant, namely the central vascular bundle, after the epidermal and ground tissues had decomposed. Linnaeus must have realised that his species was based on a plant derivative rather than a complete living entity and made no further allusion to this material in later publications.

Sloane went on to refer to this unusual botanical product in his description of the bird (Hist. 2: 299-300), and wrote: 'xvi Icterus minor nidum suspendens. The Watchy Picket, or, Spanish Nightingale. They build their Nests of the Stalks or inward Hair of that Kind of Viscum, Herba parasitica, Moss, or Herb call'd Old Man's Beard, describ'd in the first Volume of this History, which they carefully weave amongst one another, from the utmost Extremities of the Twigs of high Trees Sack Fashion, after the manner of hang Nests, and therein lay their Eggs to avoid the Snakes, &c. who cannot then come at them. These Staks or Threads are vulgarly tho' falsely thought to be Horse Hair, such Nests are frequently seen on the further Twigs of high Trees when the Leaves are fallen off that hide them.'

It is noteworthy that Linnaeus reproduced the ecological part of Sloane's polynomial '... è ramulis arborum musci in modum dependens, .... ', which he habitually took out elsewhere in his rendering of such vouchers.

In modern books on the birds of Jamaica the name Watchipicket does not appear and the only bird which builds such a nest is the Jamaican Becard, using Usnea. No ornithological reference to the use of the skeletons of Tillandsia usneoides nor to Sloane's observations could be found.

7. Sloane's itinerary and local awareness in Jamaica

A detailed study of the localities mentioned by Sloane in the entries in the History has not been made as yet. What is certain is that he rarely moved far from Spanish Town (Santiago de la Vega) which was where the Governor resided. This city in the Parish of St. Catherine was the capital at the time, situated in the middle south of the island and not far inland and west of Port Royal across the mouth of Kingston Harbour. Most of his collecting localities were in this Parish. The Black River where he collected is not the large river system of the same name in the western Parish of St. Elizabeth but rather a small stream crossed by the road to Old Harbour and emptying into Old Harbour Bay directly southwest of Spanish Town.

Many of his named localities were on the plantations bountied to officers of Cromwell's army following the capture of the island from the Spanish in 1655. These were in the neighbouring parishes of Clarendon, St. Mary and St. Ann, all in central Jamaica. The location 'Caymanes' has nothing to do with the Cayman Islands but is the Caymanas Estate, a sugar plantation a short distance east of Spanish Town on the road to Kingston (See Opuntia spinosissima, Cat. 195; Hist. 2: 154, t. 224, f. 2. 'This grew in the Caymanes below Mr. Whorley's Plantation on the other Side of the Rio Cobre, and elsewhere in the Sandy Places, near the Shores of the Island.' H.S. 7: 83).

He went to the north coast at Ocho Rios (H.S. 4: 77) but seems not to have visited the Blue Mountains or eastern mountain areas nor the central-western high land or limestone cockpits of the northwest. Much evidence for this is emphasised by the paucity of Selaginella, filmy ferns, tree ferns and absence of higher altitude epiphytes (Elaphoglossum, Grammitis, etc.). It is likely that people who knew of Sloane's interests would have brought him the few specimens he received from further afield.

Another study yet to be undertaken in detail is that of the common names of plants which he records. It is a remarkable thing that, in a little over thirty years from the introduction of any English culture whatsoever, so many of the plants had already acquired vernacular names which are still in use. Many of these names would have originated in already settled islands such as St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and Barbados. Other names such as naseberry, a corruption of the Spanish word nispero, in anglicised form have come to have an exclusively Jamaican identity.

8. Collectors who contributed to the Sloane Jamaica herbaria

A handful of other collectors contributed material, some of it not from Jamaica, to the volumes under consideration here. They are well documented by Dandy (1958).

Harlow, James (Fl. 1660-1696)

Plants from Madeira and Jamaica were collected by James Harlow, and brought, in 1692, for Sir Arthur Rawdon's garden at Moyra, Ireland. Specimens of many of these were communicated to Sloane by Dr. William Sherard (1659-1728) and these are mentioned in the History. Dandy, in pencilled notes in the bound volumes, recorded the acquisitions from Harlow and Sherard.

Specimens attributed to Houston and Richardson, and a few others, e.g. Hamilton in Barbados (H. S. 3: 48 verso, Spermacoce assurgens) are scattered, on smaller pages, inserted at later dates, through H.S. 1-7.

Houston (Houstoun) William (1695-1733)

Probably wrote the annotations accompanying his specimens incorporated by Sloane, mostly from Jamaica in 1730. There are many Houston collections in the General Herbarium at The Natural History Museum (BM) from Jamaica and Veracruz. He is not mentioned in the History for the obvious reason that his gift was received after the publication of both volumes.

Richardson, Richard (1663-1741). Physician of North Brierley, Yorkshire

Introduced to Sloane by Thoresby in 1702. The specimens which Sloane incorporated seem almost entirely to have come from those collected by Richardson in the Botanic Garden at Leyden, where he was a student, before or early in 1689 (Dandy, 1958: 194). Dandy has indicated on the sheets which material came from Richardson, sometimes correcting an earlier belief that these specimens originated with Miller. The source of the Leyden garden material was probably mostly Surinam, but some may have come from Africa or Asia. None were from Jamaica. Very few of these specimens have flower or fruit and many are seedlings or in early juvenile states. It is not known when exactly these specimens were received or incorporated in the Sloane herbaria. There is no mention of Richardson in the History.

Richardson probably wrote the annotations himself. They are mostly polynomials and references, and only 2 have been found where there is also an annotation in Sloane's hand. These both accompany specimens of species which Sloane observed in Jamaica, listed in the Catalogue, and dealt with fully in the History, but for which there is no material of his own collection in the bound volumes. One is Hylocereus triangularis, Cat. Jam. 196; Hist. 2: 155; and the extensive entry includes mention of a Jamaican locality. Richardson's plant is at H.S. 7: 83*1. [If the provenance of the plant from which Richardson's specimen was derived was not Jamaica, then it is probably Hylocereus lemairei (Hook.) Britton & Rose, rather than H. triangularis.] The other is Carica papaya, Cat. Jam. 202; Hist. 2: 164. Richardson's plant is at H.S. 7: 88*; there is also a piece of this species collected by Houston at H.S. 7: 88. Sloane collected the small-fruited wild variant, Carica jamaicensis, H.S. 7: 89.

9. Some of the botanists who have examined the Sloane Jamaica herbaria

Fewer than 70 of the international community of systematic botanists have indicated on the herbarium sheets that they have examined the specimens in the course of their studies. Many of these have looked at one or only a very few sheets relevant to their respective specialisations. Those with broader interests include:

Dandy, James Edgar (1903-1976)

Specialist on aquatic monocotyledons, Magnoliaceae. Dandy wrote in the bound herbarium volumes, in pencil in a neat hand, the localities of specimens which Sloane stated in the History as occurring in Madeira, Barbados, Nevis and the Caribes, etc. Dandy also transferred to the albums instances where plants which were collected for Sir Arthur Rawdon's garden at Moyra, Ireland by James Harlow in Madeira and Jamaica, are represented by specimens communicated by Dr. William Sherard (1659-1728). Here and there Dandy's determinations appear. He was particularly interested in monocotyledonous plants but was by no means confined to these, and often stepped in when there was a nomenclatural problem to be solved.

Schradera involucrata (Sw.) K. Schum. (det. J. E. Dandy, on a 'J. E. Dandy' printed label, 1962 in H.S. 1: 68). The creeping juvenile (sterile) of this rubiaceous species was included by Sloane among the ferns.

Dandy was employed by the British Museum from 1925 (from Kew) and was Keeper of Botany from 1956 until 1966.

Fawcett, William (1851-1926)

After a career in agricultural and horticultural administration in Jamaica, Fawcett retired and involved himself deeply in the preparation of the Flora of Jamaica at South Kensington. He wrote names in pencil on many of the pages of Sloane's Jamaican herbaria and in Sloane's copy of the History. Many of these, as to location of specimens in the bound volumes and references in the History, were cited in the published parts of the Flora of Jamaica.

[Grisebach (1864: vii), in reviewing writings on West Indian plants, wrote "The first important works were those of Sir H. Sloane (1696-1725) and of Patrick Browne (1756), both on the flora of Jamaica: the former, whose collection exists still, and forms one of the treasures of the British Museum, gave many rough drawings; the latter, a small number of most elaborate figures. Both are excellent works for their time, and their drawings are in most cases highly valuable authorities for Linnaean and Swartzian species." There is no evidence that Grisebach examined the Sloane collections (Dandy, 1958: 205).]

Hitchcock, Albert Spear (1865-1935)

In the spring of 1907, Hitchcock visited European herbaria to study the types of American grasses. One of a series of publications on his findings was 'The grasses of Sloane's History of Jamaica', Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 12(3): 131-135. 1908. He did not annotate specimens in the Sloane herbaria.

Jenman, George Samuel (1845-1902)

While on leave from his post as Superintendent of the Botanical Garden, Georgetown, Guyana (British Guiana), after several years service as Curator of the Castleton Garden in Jamaica, Jenman made a detailed study of the fern specimens in H.S. 1. We do not know the exact date of this visit but he commented that the Sloane collection of Jamaican ferns is 'now two hundred years old'. He wrote the names in soft pencil on the pages and published his findings and a list of 97 Jamaican species, while noting others from Madeira or Nevis. He also included remarks on the few plants which Sloane put in this category which are not ferns. One group of these comprises 3 species of woody Phyllanthus section Xylophylla (H.S. 1: 62) and some sterile juvenile forms of Marcgravia, Schradera involucrata and Philodendron (H.S. 1: 64-70), the identity of which Sloane suspected when he called them Phyllitidi Scandenti Affines. (J. Bot. 24: 14-17, 33-43. 1886).

Maxon, William Ralph (1877-1948)

In the course of a visit to European herbaria, he made a careful study of Sloane's ferns and wrote determinavit slips for many of them - 13 -18 July 1928. (Expl. & Fieldw. Smithsonian Inst. in 1928: 100-111, ff. 94-99. 1929).

Proctor, George Richardson (1920-)

Danaea nodosa (L.) Sm. (det. G. S. Jenman). If Proctor had actually looked at the specimen which is the basis for the description on Hist. 1: 85 and t. 41, f. 1, he would probably not have confirmed Underwood's (1902) selection of lectotype for Danaea elliptica (1977: 48, 1985, 62). There are definitely no nodes on the stipe. Kramer (1978: 17-18), confirmed that the name Danaea elliptica, as used by many modern authors, refers to Danaea nodosa. His work adopted Danaea leprieurii for the plant with nodose stipe and usually 3-5 pinna-pairs.

Adiantum villosum L. (det. D. Solander; G. S. Jenman) (H.S. 1: 127). Designated neotype by Proctor (1977: 185); the specimen was not annotated by him.

Rendle, Alfred Barton (1865-1938)

Rendle was co-author with Fawcett of the definitive Flora of Jamaica. Evidence of his participation in the examination of the Sloane relicts is restricted to a single item. Mounted on the sheet of Ziziphus chloroxylon (H.S. 6: 94), there is a capsule containing a small piece of twig. The note written on the inside of the capsule reads: 'Examined microscopically & found to agree with the structure of Zizyphus chloroxylon Fl. Jam. 10 605 A.B.R. 21.x.21'. The anatomical study was made, presumably, to confirm a plant from Rhamnaceae rather than Lauraceae.

Solander, Daniel Carl (1733-1782)

Wrote determinations in Vols. 1 and 2 of the Herbarium, (Dandy, 1958: 27, 205). He also annotated, extensively, the 2 volumes of Sloane's History, which were Banks's personal copies, now housed adjacent to the Sloane Herbarium at South Kensington. It is not known why Solander did not annotate H. S. 3 and subsequent bound volumes. The annotations in the volumes of the History are helpful in linking Sloane's work with Linnaean publications, especially the second edition of Species Plantarum (1762-63).

Swartz, Olof (1760-1818)

Swartz wrote binomials in the margins opposite Sloane's descriptions in Banks's copy of the History. That was in 1786-7 (Fawcett & Rendle, J. Bot. 64: 103. 1926). He also annotated several sheets in the bound volumes. For example:

Polystichum mucronatum, H.S. 1: 73, in pencil at foot of Sloane's label. Several grasses, H.S. 2: 35-40, at least 2 of which, 'glutinosa' (Eragrostis glutinosa) H.S. 2: 35 and 'trichoides' (Panicum trichoides) H.S. 2: 39 are cited types. Piper verrucosum Sw. H.S. 2: 84 #1, in pencil, initialled 'Sz'. Mikania hastata H.S. 2: 103 #2, in dark ink 'Eupatorii Spec'. Two Malvaceae in H.S. 4: 53 ref. to Hist. 1, t. 136.

Swartz's writing is not easy to read, it is often meagre or abbreviated and rises to the right. It is not unlike that of Urban q.v. In his Prodromus (1788), Swartz cited 86 Sloane references, several of them incomplete or erroneous in detail of volume or page number.

Urban, Ignatz (1848-1931)

Specialised on West Indian Floras, at Berlin-Dahlem. He received a great bulk of collections from William Harris (Jamaica), W.E. Broadway (Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada) and Erik Ekman (Cuba, Hispaniola) and described hundreds of new species based on them. The Berlin collections and most Urban relicts were destroyed towards the end of the second World War. Urban's writing is small and sometimes difficult to read - see Swartz.

Melochia tomentosa L. H.S. 4: 58* 'Corchorus hirtus' H.S. 4: 58**. Passiflora perfoliata var. normalis H.S. 4: 84*
Wernham, Herbert Fuller (1879-1941)

Specialised in Rubiaceae in particular; sympetalous dicots in general. On British Museum staff 1909-1921. It took some time to identify Wernham as the determiner of many names. He was a contemporary of Fawcett and shared the naming of specimens in the Sloane herbaria with him. At that time the Fawcett & Rendle, Flora of Jamaica was in progress and the sympetalous dicots were in a very early stage (Vol. 7 - Compositae and Rubiaceae, was taken over by Spencer Moore, but Vol. 6 was never published).

Wernham relied on Grisebach's Flora as the main source of Jamaica determinations. Evidence for this is provided by Grisebach's interpretation of Sloane's illustration t. 228, f. 3, which was cited under Mimusops globosa but which is actually of Bucida buceras. Wernham followed the former. Fawcett cited this plate and figure under the latter. Another example occurs where Wernham determined a specimen of Calea jamaicensis (H.S. 5: 14) as Eupatorium schizanthum Griseb. following the citation of Sloane plate t. 151, f. 3 by Grisebach (Fl. 361).

Wernham's writing is a backhand, fairly large in dark soft pencil, with the binomial often underlined. The capital E is characteristically drawn with a single wormy curved line (Fawcett made the same kind of E and so does Queen Elizabeth in her signature); see word 'east' on sheet of Sabicea (monographed by Wernham) from Jamaica in the General Herbarium, compared with determinations of Evolvulus in the Sloane volume (H.S. 3: 19 #1, 20). This person, whose determinations are undated, was of the era in which species based on personal names were capitalised, as in Grisebach and the Fawcett & Rendle Floras, a practice common until the later 20th century. He also used the form 'Ipomea'. [In the Autograph collection, in the General Herbarium at South Kensington, there is only a letter from his son; Fawcett's List has nothing. In a discussion, Caroline Whitefoord agreed on the evidence of the shape of the 'E'.]

10. References

Adams, C.D. & duQuesnay, M.C. 1971. The Vegetation. In Woodley, J.D. (ed.). Hellshire Hills Scientific Survey 1970. pp. 49-119. University of the West Indies, Mona & Institute of Jamaica, Jamaica.

Box, H.E. & Philipson, W.R. 1951. An undescribed species of Mastichodendron (Sapotaceae) from Barbados and Antigua. Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) 1(1): 21-23, t.1.

Browne, Patrick. 1756. The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. London.

Dandy, J.E. 1958. The Sloane Herbarium, an annotated list of the Horti Sicci composing it; with biographical accounts of the principal contributors. pp. 246, plus 96 fascimiles of handwritings.

Fawcett, W. 1893. A provisional List of indigenous and naturalised Flowering Plants of Jamaica. pp. 57. Kingston, Jamaica. [Such publications, in the library of the Natural History Museum, often have contemporary marginal or interleaved notes made by the botanists who used them.]

Fawcett, W. 1909. Woods and Forests of Jamaica. pp. 18. The West India Committee, London.

Fawcett, W. & Rendle, A.B. 1910-1936. Flora of Jamaica, 5 volumes published (1, 3, 4, 5, 7). British Museum (Natural History), London.

Grisebach, A.H.R. 1859-1864. Flora of the British West Indian Islands. pp. 789. London.

Kramer, K.U. 1978. The Pteridophytes of Suriname. An enumeration with keys of the ferns and fern-allies. Uitgaven Natuurw. Studiekring Suriname Nederl. Antillen 93: 1-198.

Linnaeus, C. 1753. Species Plantarum. Vol. 1: i-xii, 1-560, Vol. 2: 561-1200, plus indexes and addenda, 1201-1231. Stockholm.

Linnaeus, C. 1759. Systema Naturae, ed. 10, Vol. 2: 825-1384. Stockholm.

Linnaeus, C. 1762-63. Species Plantarum. ed. 2. Vol 1: i-xvi, 1-784, Vol. 2: 785-1684 (1685-1748). Stockholm.

Proctor, G.R. 1977. Pteridophyta. In Howard, R.A., Flora of the Lesser Antilles, Vol. 2. pp. 414. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Proctor, G.R. 1985. Ferns of Jamaica. pp. 631. British Museum (Natural History), London.

Ray, J. 1686-88. Historia Plantarum. Vols. 1-2. London.

Sloane, H. 1696. Catalogus plantarum quae in Jamaica sponte proveniunt. pp. 232. London.

Sloane, H. 1707, 1725. [History]. A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica with the Natural History.....of the last of those Islands. Vol. 1: cliv, 264, TT. I-IV, tt. 1-156. Vol 2: xviii, 499, TT. V-XI, tt 157-274.

Stearn, W.T. 1957. An Introduction to the Species Plantarum and cognate botanical works of Carl Linnaeus. In Carl Linnaeus, Species Plantarum, a facsimile of the first edition 1753. The Ray Society, London.

Swartz, O. 1788. Nova Genera et Species Plantarum seu Prodromus. pp. 152, plus index. Stockholm.

Underwood, L.M. 1902. A review of the genus Danaea. American Ferns V. Contrib. Bot. Coloumbia Univ. 199: 669-679: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 29(12): 669-679.

11. Appendix - Sloane's Chapters
Sloane History 1. 1707

Chapter & Pages & Title

  1. 149-64 Of Submarine Plants
  2. 65-70 Of Mushrooms, Mosses, &c.
  3. 70-102 Of Ferns of Capillary Plants
  4. 102-123 Of Herbs with grassie Leaves
  5. 123-145 Of Herbs with less perfect or stamineous Flowers
  6. 146-170 Of Herbs with monopetalous Flowers
  7. 170-175 Of Verticillated Plants
  8. 175-187 Of Herbs that are leguminous, or have a papylionaceous Flower
  9. 187-192 Of Herbs whose Flowers are compos'd of two or three Petala or Leaves
  10. 193-202 Of Herbs whose Flowers are compos'd of four Petala or Leaves
  11. 202-210 Of vasculiferous Herbs with pentapetalous Flowers
  12. 210-212 Of Herbs which are of the Kindred of Umbelliferous Plants
  13. 213-214 Of Plants that are rough leav'd, called Asperifoliae
  14. 215-225 Of Herbs commonly accounted to have many naked seeds
  15. 225-244 Of Herbs that are Bacciferous or Pomiferous
  16. 244-254 Of Herbs with bulbous Roots, those of their Kindred, and of Herbs with Flowers that have six or more Petala or colour'd Leaves
  17. 255-264Of Herbs whose Flowers are composed of several Flowers
Sloane History 2. 1725
  1. 1-8 Of Trees which bear their Flowers and Fruit separated
  2. 8-30 Of Trees bearing dry fruit which are not Siliquose
  3. 31-75 Of Trees that have Papylionaceous Flowers, and are Siliquose
  4. 75-89 Of Trees which bear Berries, and are Umbilicated or Caliculated
  5. 89-110 Of Trees which bear Berries, that are neither Umbilicated nor Caliculated
  6. 110-138 Of Pruniferous Trees, or, such as bear Plumbs
  7. 138-183 Of Pomiferous Trees, or, such as bear Apples
  8. 183-187 Of Woods, Fruits, Rosins, &c.

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