oldnick
Joined: 09 Oct 2009
Posts: 5472
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 Posted: Sat May 29, 2010 6:21 pm Post subject: Brocas and Mantua-Montferrat |
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| I have surprised myself while entering specimens of these 2 avid collectors of Grasses. When I saw the Prince of M&M's http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/299864/ was a collection from Walton on the Naze I thought Ah! He has gone to visit his good friend Brocas! The label is a perfect example of M&M's handwriting, with its curly-tailed Ms and as a bonus his scruffy pencil too. Previously, when entering Frederick Yorke Brocas' specimens I had thought, how touching, that an Essex lad should so admire this Prince, that he would collect so many specimens and send them all the way to him at his various residences in Lewes (under the alias C O Groom-Napier), Taunton and Swansea. Only then did I note the collection date of August 1880, and the similarity of the red ink of both collectors' labels! Not only that, but compare the handwriting with http://herbariaunited.org/collector/15062/ and http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/288549/ (M, W, T etc)! Could the stirring and exotic name of F Y B be another cunning alias, invented during August holidays in 1880 & 82......imagine my feelings. No wonder he got the labels printed, to avoid having to perfect another signature. Does anyone have reason to suspect or believe the same, 130 years down the line?? |
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