Feedback request: Scilla autumnalis (29741)

[David Price]

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Specimen #354211

Taxon:	Liliaceae: Scilla autumnalis L. ("Autumn Squill")
Filed in taxon folder:	Liliaceae: Scilla autumnalis L. ("Autumn Squill")
Collected by:	W M
Collection date:	1831 to 1835
Locality:	Great Britain, VC34 West Gloucestershire, Bristol, Clifton, ST57
ex herb:	Dr John Ralfs
Institution:	South London Botanical Institute (SLBI)
Image:

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by shaw30 on 15^th January 2013.

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User comments about this sheet

wonastow wrote

Could the Collector be William Middleton? This specimen and that at http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/343653/ can be linked by the name of Harry James Goddard who saved from destruction the herbarium of John Ralfs; see Goddard's obituary at http://archive.bsbi.org.uk/Wats1p185.pdf I realise this is rather tentative.
Can anyone provide any information about Middleton?

[Chris Liffen]

William Middleton is credited with contributing many plants to the herbarium of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

He was resident at Poppleton Lodge in 1841, and was aged about 60; a man of independent means.

[Roger Horton]

In The Floriculture Magazine, and Miscellany of Gardening, Volumes 5-6 1841, there is a comment on the contribution of William Middleton of Poppleton Lodge (or Poppleton Villa, NW outskirts of York: OS SE569532) to The Flora of Yorkshire, by Henry Bains, sub-curator to the Yorkshire Philosophical Soc:

[Chris Liffen]

Here is some further information on the Yorkshire Philosophical Society herbarium (with many references to famous botanists / collectors).

https://archive.org/stream/cu31924001678758#page/n3/mode/2up

[Roger Horton]

In Historical account of the herbarium of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society and the contributors thereto there is this reference to Scilla autumnalis:



Perhaps Middleton returned in later years!

[Roger Horton]

William Middleton's other h@h specimen is Silene conica, sand-hills near Sandwich, Kent, W.M. 1835. Yet according to the YPS records (already quoted) he was there in 1820. Did he return after 15 years or are the dates on the labels those of subsequent entry into a herbarium rather than collection? (Note: Sandown Castle is on the coast ~5km SE of Sandwich.)

[David Price]

Well researched, Gentlemen. Had I been a bit sharper I would have recalled the reference to Middleton (as contributor to Baines's 'Flora' and to the YPS herbarium) in J G Baker's magnificent 'North Yorkshire' (1863).

Baker also mentions "Middleton (R.M. tertius) of Northallerton" who must be the "Middleton, Robert Morton (1846-1909)" listed by Britten & Boulger (q.v.).

Are the two related, I wonder?