Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham] and 'List of articles contained in boxes HS92-107'

Title

Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham] and 'List of articles contained in boxes HS92-107'

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/7/1/1/71

Date

28-29 Oct 1841

Scope & content

Written from Loxa [Loja, Ecuador]

Letter No 55. Annotated: 'Recd [received] Ap 23 1842. J.L. [John Lindley, assistant secretary of the Horticultural Society of London]'

He sent 16 boxes yesterday to Guayaquil [Ecuador] to the care of Messrs Polhemus & Mickle [Charles Polhemus and Edward Mickle, American shipping agents in Ecuador], to be shipped around the Cape [Cape Horn, Chile] or via Panama, and encloses the list of contents; he requested the captain to keep the seeds in the cabin, 'for which reason they have been made up in a strong canvas bag with ropes round it, and the box well secured outside with hide'; he retained a third of the seeds to carry with him, as requested; most of the Orchidaceae are new and 'splendid', and he packed them in Tillandsia, 'the larger masses nailed to the sides of the chests'; he is preparing to go to Cuinca [Ecuador], but is not expecting to find much there, and then briefly to Riobamba [Ecuador] to explore Chimborazo [Chimborazo Mountain, Ecuador], arriving at Quito [Ecuador] at the end of January; politically, the country is now quieter: 'Obando [Jose Maria Obando, rebel leader in New Granada [later named Columbia], who was exiled to Peru and Chile after losing the War of the Supremes], one of the ringleaders, having been pressed hard from all quarters, has been obliged to run away and thus put an end to the war'

Hartweg's accounts for 13 Sep-13 Oct 1841 include 'keeping of two mules' $5.6, '16 boxes, HS92-107, a partition and porterage' $14.7, 'nails and tacks for [the boxes]' $4.3, 'cocoanuts [coconut]' $0.6 and '3 baskets for bulbs' $0.2 [here the list includes 8 more items]

'List of articles contained in boxes HS92-107'. Signed 'Loja Oct 28th 1841. Theodor Hartweg'. Comprises lists of plants, dried specimens and seeds sent to England:

List of plants, numbered [1-70], includes 'mosquito' ('on walls and rocks in and about Loxa'), a species of Maxillaria ('mountains near Loxa'), a species of Oncidium ('on rocks and walls, Loxa'), 'a basket with bulbs from a garden in Loxa' and a species of Maxillaria ('Rio de Loxa. Flower white & very fragrant') [here the list includes 65 more plants]. Includes a note regarding the growing conditions of the mountain plants, requiring temperatures of 60°-66° and 'a great deal of dampness' due to the climate on the mountains, whereas on the western side of the cordillera [mountains], the climate is much warmer and drier

Unnumbered list of specimens and seeds, including 2,636 species of dried specimens comprising52 species of Orchideae, five species of Cinchona and seven species of mosses; palm nuts, baskets of bulbs, two bottles with snakes and insects; and 83 species of seeds 'packed in a canvas bag, and a parcel of drugs'

Level

Item

Extent

7 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)