Feedback request: Salvia verbenaca (20256)

[Mike d'Apice]

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Specimen #282799

Taxon:	Lamiaceae: Salvia verbenaca L. ("Wild Clary")
Other name:	Gallitrichum rubellum
Filed in taxon folder:	Lamiaceae: Salvia verbenaca L. ("Wild Clary")
Collected by:	Mr Arthur Bennett
Collection date:	7/1881
Locality:	Cultivated Great Britain, VC17 Surrey, Croydon, TQ36, "From the Kew Thames side plant,[by] W.E.Nicholson" [William Edward Nicholson or George Nicholson?] Cultivated Great Britain, VC17 Surrey, Kew, TQ17, Thames side [site of origin]
communicated:	Rev. Augustin Ley Mr Arthur Bennett
ex herb:	Botanical Exchange Club of The British Isles
Institution:	University of Birmingham (BIRM)
Image:
fruits/flowers:	mature flowers
Filing note:	Gallitrichum rubellum

Inferred details are marked.

Documented by mikedaps on 13^th November 2009.

Checked by oldnick

Edit history

date	user	change
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Deleted determination (orig): Gallitrichum rubellum
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Added determination (orig): Gallitrichum rubellum
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Deleted note: ....." W E Nicholson (possibly 1866-1945?)- Jl at Crayden?
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Deleted locality: , "From the ???? Thames side ??????..."
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the ???? Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Deleted locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the ???? Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the ???? Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson [?William Edward Nicholson 1866-1945]
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Deleted locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the ???? Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson [?William Edward Nicholson 1866-1945]
14/11/2009	tom humphrey	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the Kew Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson
18/11/2009	mikedaps	Deleted locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the Kew Thames side plant, W.E.Nicholson
18/11/2009	mikedaps	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the Kew Thames side plant, (by) W.E.Nicholson"
18/11/2009	mikedaps	Deleted collector: Mr Arthur Bennett
18/11/2009	mikedaps	Added collector: Mr George Nicholson
30/03/2014	oldnick	Deleted collector: Mr George Nicholson
30/03/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Deleted provenance: exherb (Botanical Exchange Club of The British Isles)
30/03/2014	oldnick	Added collector: Mr Arthur Bennett
30/03/2014	<system> (minor automatic edit)	Added provenance: exherb (Botanical Exchange Club of The British Isles)
30/03/2014	oldnick	Deleted locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the Kew Thames side plant, (by) W.E.Nicholson"
30/03/2014	oldnick	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Croydon, "From the Kew Thames side plant,[by] W.E.Nicholson" [William Edward Nicholson or George Nicholson?]
30/03/2014	oldnick	Added locality: (cultivated) GB VC17 Kew, Thames side [site of origin]

N.B. reporting of the edit history is currently fairly unclear and misleading. Most edits made to specimens appear as a pair of 'add' and 'delete' entries, which may not be together in the list. There are also often 'minor' edits, which are made automatically (rather than due to user activity), for example to merge synonym names.

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User comments about this sheet

mikedaps wrote

I can't make out the words before 'Thames' and following 'side'.... The names above the date, if that is what they, are don't make too much sense either: Any better ideas?

[Tom Humphrey]

I've edited parts of the record, but am not sure of the precise original locality.

Nicholson's dates where a good find (it prompted me to google him and find Mark Lawley's excellent article on W E Nicholson [pdf] (pdf file).

[David Price]

Is the word before Thames, "Kew"?

The plant in hort Bennett must have been well established in order to provide this specimen in 1881, when W.E.N. would have been only 14 or 15 years old, and thus younger (and perhaps elsewhere) when it was found beside the Thames. Does this weaken the suggestion that the collector was indeed William Edward Nicholson the younger?

[Tom Humphrey]

Yes, it does seem somewhat improbably - I'd not considered his age.

I've changed the locality to Kew - I wondered about it previously but wasn't wholly convinced.

regards,

Tom

[Mike d'Apice]

Re age, perhaps it may not rule WEN out: The biography does rather give the impression that he was something of a child/teenage prodigy re natural history: "Nicholson was as much an entomologist as a botanist from childhood until his middle
years, and had an excellent collection of butterflies and moths." so if busy collecting these may also have collected plants and a visit to Kew from Lewes or Marlborough should have been feasible....
Fascinating to get a better idea of their lives - Thanks Mike d'A

[Chris Liffen]

Looking at Bennett's label

one might be tempted to interpret it as Mr G(eorge) Nicholson, who at this time was working at Kew, initially as Clerk to John Smith (Curator) but was then appointed Curator himself in 1886. He contributed a lengthy article to the Journal of Botany (1875) on "The wild flora of Kew Gardens and Pleasure grounds".
His main work was his "Illustrated Dictionary of gardening", which became a standard work (a french edition was also available).
see also
http://herbariaunited.org/wiki/George_Nicholson
Chris

[Mike d'Apice]

Mr G Nicholson makes a lot more sense than WEN... he has the best opportunity (age, experience, place and time). Also just noticed that Bennet's label on his biography page has a label in the same format as this apart from a "by" preceding the first name so he presumably forgot to for this. Amended collector accordingly. Mike d'A