Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham]

Title

Letter from Theodor Hartweg to the secretary of Horticultural Society of London [George Bentham]

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/7/1/1/87

Date

2 Feb 1843

Scope & content

Written from Bogota [Bogota, Colombia]

Letter No 70

He began his 'rambles' in the nearby hills and was 'well pleased' with his findings, as the apparently barren hills and the delta contain plenty of interesting plants, including Thibaudia floribunda, Oncidium with large pseudo-bulbs, a flower stem, three feet long, with yellow flowers, growing at the height of 9,000 feet, 'the prettiest' Begonia with large scarlet flowers ('[it] will make an excellent show plant') and Spiraea argentea [identification unresolved as at Jun 2019]; he is planting in boxes those plants which do not seed easily or are difficult to transport, including five 'very handsome' species of Fuchsia, comparable to Fuchsia fulgens, Fuchsia splendens and Fuchsia cordifolia [Fuchsia splendens] ('which I believe were raised from my seeds'), Mutisia grandiflora ('a noble climber'), a yellow Brugmansia from Popayan [Popayan, Colombia], an Alstroemeria and Melastomataceae with dark red large flowers; he has collected seeds of two 'handsome' species of Berberis, one with brighter flowers and thicker leaves than usual, and the other one is probably Berberis glauca, Clematis, a shrubby lupine, Hemimeris mutisii [Alonsoa meridionalis], two species of Vaccinium, Espeletia and Tacsonia ('pretty'); he fell ill again with the fever known as the 'Magdalena fever', common in the area; he met an English doctor 'of some renown' called Dr Blagborne [Joseph Blagborne, physician and naturalist in Colombia], who approved of Hartweg's method of treatment: 'my doctoring therefore cannot be called in question'; the last time quinine had no effect, but he was relieved by a 'strong sudorific [a drug to induce sweating]'; he will be able to resume collecting in four or five days; his journey is almost finished, and unless told otherwise, 'I expect to have made up a collection worthy of being taken home by myself'; he would prefer to return in August or September, as he wants to visit the mountains of Quindio [Quindio, Colombia] where Humboldt [Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian naturalist and explorer, who travelled in South America in 1799-1804] collected, a journey of about six weeks, but he will wait for orders before leaving

Hartweg's accounts for 13 Dec 1842-13 Jan 1843 comprise 'monthly allowance' $50, 'wages of mozo [servant]' $1.2, 'keeping of three mules' $5.1, 'postage of letters to London' $0.7 and 'freight of collection & luggage from Popayan to Bogota' $53.2

Level

Item

Extent

3 page letter (1 sheet)

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)