Roger Horton
Joined: 02 Oct 2012
Posts: 1545
Location: Cambridge, UK
|
 Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 2:00 pm Post subject: HERB. McRAE |
 |
|
There are several h@h sheets rubber stamped "HERB. McRAE" all 1903 and from Scotland, most entered under 'A MacRae' (sic), but one under 'I MacRae'.
Internet search finds many references to a James McRae who predates these collections:
The voyage of HMS Blonde (1824-1826) took the bodies King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu back to Hawaii after their having died of measles in England. Andrew Bloxam was naturalist on the voyage, and the Royal Horticultural Society sent the Scottish botanist James Macrae.
Hawaiian Natural History, Ecology, and Evolution (A. C. Ziegler) refers to 'Botanist James McRae (frequently misspelled "Macrae")'.
The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India, China, and Australia: 1834. Ceylon. Marriages. July 8. 'At Colombo, the Rev. Thomas Kilner, Wesleyan missionary, to Sarah, relict of the late James McRae, Esp., superintendent of the Royal Botanical Garden in this island', having previously reported his death at Candi 2 June 1830. The Lindley collection in the Cambridge University Herbarium has sheets labeled 'Ceylon Macrea 1829' (example). Desmond in Dictionary British And Irish Botantists And Horticulturalists also identifies "Macrae, James ( -1830)" in Ceylon.
Other M(a)cRaes:
Simpson's Biographical Index has "New records of plants in South Aberdeenshire, by A.C. Macrae & Macgregor Skene, Annals of Scottish Natural History (1907)".
Desmond also lists "McRae, William (1878-1952)" born and died in Scotland but worked as a mycologist in India.
Kent & Allen gives 'Macrae A', 'Macrae I', and 'Macrae John', all associated with the ESNHS (Edinburgh Scottish Natural History Society). All three are in the pick-list. Do we know if one kept the herbarium, and how, if at all, were they related to James McRae?
ps: is there a hint in the superscript 'c' in McRae on the stamp which suggests it was cut from a capital 'S'?! |
|
Log in to check your private messages
