Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society [George Bentham], 21 Regent Street, London and 'List of articles contained in boxes HS44-49'

Title

Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society [George Bentham], 21 Regent Street, London and 'List of articles contained in boxes HS44-49'

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/7/1/1/52

Date

6-22 Jan 1840

Scope & content

Written from Guatemala [Guatemala City, Guatemala]

Letter No 37

He sent his collections in six boxes to Belize on 20 Jan, and encloses a list of the contents; he has appointed an agent at Izabal [Guatemala], Mr Henry Schurer [Henry Schurer], who will forward his collections to Messrs Nicholson & Wright [merchants] in Belize, and he has requested Messrs P. & I. de Aycinena [Pedro & Ignacio de Aycinena, merchants in Guatemala] 'to furnish him with means to defray the expenses of land freight and shipping at that port'; he wrote to Messrs Nicholson & Wright to tell them about the upcoming consignment; he arrived a few days ago, and has only made one excursion, but the country appears more promising than the 'burnt-up fields' near Quezaltenango [Quetzaltenango, Guatemala]

Hartweg's expenses for 17 Dec 1839-16 Jan 1840 comprise 'monthly allowance' $50, '6 boxes HS44-49 [and] nails' $10.4, 'freight of boxes to Guatemala' $18.4, 'felling of pines & freight of cones' $1 and 'a guide' $1 [here the list includes 3 more items], and 'received in cash' $100 from Don Manuel Martinez [?merchant] in Quezaltenango [Quetzaltenango, Guatemala]

'List of articles contained in boxes HS44-49'. Signed 'Quezaltenango [Quetzaltenango, Guatemala] January 6 1840. Theodor Hartweg'. Annotated at the top in another hand '44, 47, 48 recd [received] 24 April 1840', comprising a numbered list of plants sent to England:

List of plants, numbered, including 'flor de Jesus [?Laelia rubescens]' ('from the village of Betalulen[?]'), several species of Oncidium ('from the Rancho de Santa Rita', 'from the mountains of Sunil [Volcan Zunil, Guatemala], on rocks', 'from the active volcano de Xetuh[unidentified] near Quezaltenango') and tubers ('growing among moss on oaks') [here the list includes 36 more plants]

Includes notes that the plants in some of the boxes, 'being from very cold & exposed situations', will grow better in a greenhouse; the plants from the village of Betalulen were collected from the trees of Crescentia cujete, 'which are literally covered with them'; two of the boxes contain besides epiphytes two small boxes of acorns packed in sand; one of the boxes contains 23 kinds of seeds, Ayacahuite cones collected at the foot of the volcanoes Xetuh[?] and Santa Maria [Santa Maria, Guatemala] and specimens of 44 species of dried plants

Level

Item

Extent

4 page letter (2 sheets)

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

Royal Horticultural Society

Credit Line

RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)