Mund and Maire

Last updated

Johannes Ludwig Leopold Mund (1791-1831) and Louis Maire (fl. 1815-1833) were natural history collectors who worked in the Cape Colony under the sponsorship of the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Museum specimens they collected were always labeled under the names, "Mund & Maire".

Contents

Both were born in Berlin of French parents. Mund, a qualified apothecary, and Maire, a qualified physician, had both served in the Prussian Army during the Napoleonic Wars with Karl Heinrich Bergius. Mund served as field apothecary and was released from military service by the intervention of Minister Altenstein. Maire had later been employed as a gardener in Berlin. They were sent to South Africa by the Museum at the behest of the Prussian government and travelled via England, where they met Sir Joseph Banks at Kew.

They arrived at the Cape in October 1816 and re-established contact with Bergius, who introduced them to interesting collecting localities. Mund had a passion for orchids and accompanied Krebs on many of his excursions around Cape Town. Adelbert von Chamisso called in at the Cape in April 1818 aboard the "Rurik", entertaining Krebs and Mund, Mund awaking to find the ship at sea. He was most fortunate to be transferred to a port-bound vessel that they happened to encounter. Mund and Maire sent off two large consignments to Berlin. However, the Museum was not pleased as it felt the pair had squandered the grant made to them, part of which came from the House of Rothschild in Paris. Martin Lichtenstein complained bitterly in an 1820 letter that the pair had not come up to expectations and ordered them to return to Berlin, an order which was ignored by both, leading to a formal termination of their services in 1821. George Thom, the Scots missionary and minister, wrote to Hooker in 1824, claiming that "the collectors from Prussia spend their time in sloth and gaiety in Cape Town, and are now sunk lower than any Colonist".

After the termination of his contract, Mund drifted eastward, visiting Plettenberg Bay and Knysna and reaching Uitenhage. Later Mund took up the position of land surveyor at Plettenberg Bay, with Maire deciding to practise medicine in Graaff-Reinet. From his letters to William Hooker in 1827 and 1829, Mund continued to collect, though likely on a smaller scale. Both Thomas Miller and George Thom, who were sending botanical specimens to Hooker, had great difficulty in persuading Mund to part with any of his collection - in Thom's case, not surprisingly. Carl Drège noted in his diary that when he and his brother Franz visited Mund in Swellendam on 4 February 1830, Mund had been in bed since November 1829, paralysed down his left side. Mund eventually succumbed to a bladder infection in Cape Town in 1831. [1] [2]

Mund is commemorated in the genus Mundia (since synonymised to Acanthocladus and Nylandtia), and in several species names such as Protea mundii , Helichrysum mundtii , Bupleurum mundtii , Scolopia mundii , Thaminophyllum mundii , Leucospermum mundii , Otholobium mundianum , Phoberos mundii and Afrocanthium mundianum . He is denoted by the author abbreviation Mund when citing a botanical name. [3]

Maire was commemorated in Mairia , a South African genus of 3 species in the family Compositae. The specimens they collected were always labelled 'Mund and Maire'.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelbert von Chamisso</span> German poet and botanist (1781–1838)

Adelbert von Chamisso was a German poet,writer and botanist. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamissode Boncourt, a name referring to the family estate at Boncourt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Guybon Atherstone</span> South African geologist (1814–1898)

William Guybon Atherstone (1814–1898) was a medical practitioner, naturalist and geologist, one of the pioneers of South African geology and a member of the Cape Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Bolus</span> South African artist and botanist (1834–1911)

Harry Bolus was a South African botanist, botanical artist, businessman and philanthropist. He advanced botany in South Africa by establishing bursaries, founding the Bolus Herbarium and bequeathing his library and a large part of his fortune to the South African College. Active in scientific circles, he was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, member and president of the South African Philosophical Society, the SA Medal and Grant by the SA Association for the Advancement of Science and an honorary D.Sc. from the University of the Cape of Good Hope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter MacOwan</span> British botanist (1830-1909)

Peter MacOwan was a British colonial botanist and teacher in South Africa.

Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher, was a botanical and insect collector who collected extensively in South Africa. He was the author, with Christian Friedrich Ecklon, of Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis (1835-7), a descriptive catalogue of South African plants.

Christian Friedrich Ecklon was a Danish botanical collector and apothecary. Ecklon is especially known for being an avid collector and researcher of plants in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Gueinzius</span> German naturalist, collector and apothecary

Wilhelm Gueinzius was a German naturalist, collector and apothecary.

Karl Heinrich Bergius (1790–1818), also known as Carl Heinrich Bergius, was a Prussian botanist, naturalist, cavalryman and pharmacist from Küstrin. He is notable for his natural history collecting in southern Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Pappe</span> (1803-1862) German-born physician and botanist

Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Pappe was a German-born physician and botanist who lived and worked in South Africa. He was the first person to hold the position of government botanist and the first professor of botany at the South African College. His herbarium became the oldest surviving botanical collection in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolus Herbarium</span> South African herbarium in Cape Town

The Bolus Herbarium was established in 1865 from a donation by Harry Bolus of his extensive herbarium and library to the South African College, which later became the University of Cape Town.

<i>Mairia</i> Genus of plants in the daisy family from South Africa

Mairia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants assigned to the family Asteraceae. All species have leathery, entire or toothed leaves in rosettes, directly from the underground rootstock, and one or few flower heads sit at the top of the stems that carry few bracts. These have a whorl of white to mauve ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets in the centre. In general, flowering only occurs after the vegetation has burned down. The six species currently assigned to Mairia are endemic to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Some of the species are called fire daisy in English and vuuraster in Afrikaans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arabella Elizabeth Roupell</span> British artist (1817–1914)

Arabella Elizabeth Roupell was an English flower painter, noted for an anonymous set of flower paintings published in 1849 under the title 'Specimens of the flora of South Africa by a Lady.'

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron von Ludwig</span> German natural history collector

Carl Ferdinand Heinrich von Ludwig aka Baron von Ludwig, the son of a clerk in the ecclesiastical administration, he was a German-born pharmacist, businessman and patron of the natural sciences, noted for having started Cape Town's first botanic garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clemenz Heinrich Wehdemann</span>

Clemenz Heinrich Wehdemann, a German soldier, artist and naturalist arrived in the Cape Colony in the service of the Dutch East India Company in 1784, and was probably a member of the Württemberg Regiment. Wehdemann was the son of a church minister and enjoyed a sound education.

<i>Gazania krebsiana</i> Species of flowering plant

Gazania krebsiana is a species of flowering plant in family Asteraceae. It is a low-growing herbaceous perennial native to Southern Africa, ranging from Angola, Zambia, and Mozambique to South Africa. It is one of some 19 species of Gazania that are exclusively African and predominantly South African - only Gazania krebsiana subsp. serrulata (DC.) Roessler ventures northwards from the Transvaal into tropical Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Ludwig Engelhard Krebs</span> German botanist (1792-1844)

Georg Ludwig Engelhard Krebs was a German apothecary and natural history collector who spent his entire career in South Africa.

Pallas & Poleman were South African pharmacists who played a considerable role in plant collecting in the Cape Colony during the years 1810 to 1839, by employing young German pharmacists such as Bergius, Krebs, Drège and Ecklon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Heinrich Friedrich Hesse</span>

Christian Heinrich Friedrich Hesse was a Lutheran minister, scholar and naturalist.

<i>Leucospermum mundii</i> Shrub in the family Proteaceae from the Western Cape of South Africa

Leucospermum mundii is an evergreen, upright, rounded and richly branching shrub of ½–1 m (1½–3 ft) high that is assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has greyish, felty hairy, or hairless leaves that are broadly wedge-shaped to very broadly inverted egg-shaped, 5–8½ cm long and 2–6½ cm wide and whorl-shaped flower heads that have shades of pale yellow to crimson, of 2–4 cm (0.8–1.6 in) long and 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) wide that grow in clusters of three to ten. Their long styles that emerge from the head jointly give the impression of a pincushion, with the pins upright. It is called Langeberg pincushion in English. Flowering heads can be found between July and November. It naturally occurs in fynbos in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Mary Paterson</span> South African plant collector

Florence Mary Paterson, née Hallack, also known as Mrs. T.V. Paterson, was a South African plant collector. Her specimens are kept in the herbarium of Albany Museum and the Bolus Herbarium of the University of Cape Town. She is honored in the plant name patersoniae and genus name Neopatersonia.

References

  1. "Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa" - Gunn & Codd (1981)
  2. "Ludwig Krebs, Cape Naturalist to the King of Prussia" - ffoliott & Liversidge (Balkema, 1971)
  3. Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN   1-84246-085-4.

Further reading