NSB Visit to Battye Library, 20 July 2016
The following are the notes provided by Steve Howell, Senior Subject Specialist at the Battye Library.
Botanical Material Relating to WA
William Dampier
William Dampier (1651–1715) was an English navigator, explorer, privateer and writer. He had numerous swashbuckling adventures around Central and South America and the Pacific, and in 1688 spent a short time in northwest Australia. His account of his travels, A New Voyage around the World, aroused the interest of the Royal Society and the Royal Navy. In 1697 Dampier was commissioned to explore the coasts of New Holland, as Australia was then known, aboard HMS Roebuck. Dampier arrived at Dirk Hartog Island in August 1699, but did not notice the inscribed plate left by Vlamingh two years earlier. Dampier explored the island and surrounding waters. Dampier made detailed observations of local wildlife and named the area Shark’s Bay because of the large number of sharks in the area. He also made the first scientific collection of Australian plants, marking the beginning of scientific interest in Australia. After a week in Shark Bay the Roebuck sailed north to Dampier Archipelago, Roebuck Bay, Timor and beyond. Dampier had planned to explore the east coast of Australia, but the Roebuck leaked so badly he was forced to return to England. The ship sank at Ascension Island, in the Atlantic Ocean, and Dampier and crew were rescued a month later.
William Dampier in New Holland: Australia’s first natural historian by Alex George (509.09 GEO 3rd floor)
A collection of voyages by William Dampier, London 1729 (O01144-47, volumes 1-4, 3rd floor rare)
A voyage to New Holland etc in the year 1699 by William Dampier, London 1703 (O00942, 3rd floor rare)
Jacques Labillardiere
Born Alençon, France, 28 October 1755, died Paris, France, 8 January 1834. Studied medicine and botany; travelled widely in Europe, including England, becoming a correspondent of Joseph Banks and J E Smith. In 1791-1794 he was botanist on the expedition commanded by Bruni d’Entrecasteaux (Recherche and Espérance) which visited Tasmania (Recherche Bay, D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Ralphs Bay, Frederick Henry Bay, Adventure Bay) and Esperance Bay and Recherche Archipelago in south-western Western Australia. In 1804-1807 he published Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen, the most comprehensive account of the Australian flora to that time. It was based largely on his own collections, but included unacknowledged material from others, including Baudin.
Novae Hollandiae plantarum specimen by Jacques Labillardiere Paris 1804-1802 (Q01122, 3rd floor rare – he was a botanist with D’Entrecasteaux during his search for La Perouse)
Nicolas Baudin
Thomas Nicolas Baudin was born in 1754 and joined the French Navy in 1774. From 1801-1803 he led a voyage of discovery that contributed significantly to the knowledge of Shark Bay and much of Australia. More than 100,000 specimens of Australian fauna and flora were collected, representing almost 4,000 species. Of these, more than 2,500 were new to science. In 1801 Baudin’s corvettes Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste spent 70 days in Shark Bay. During a trip to Dirk Hartog Island Vlamingh’s plate was discovered, However it was left there, but de Freycinet feared Vlamingh’s plate would be destroyed by the elements, and when he returned to Shark Bay in 1818 he recovered the plate and had it delivered to Paris. After surveying Tasmania and Australia’s entire southern coast, the expedition returned to Shark Bay in March 1803. Landing parties from Le Géographe made excursions to different parts of Peron Peninsula. Péron himself crossed from east to west, making notes on fauna, flora and the Malgana Aboriginal people. His were the first written descriptions of the Malgana to be presented to the outside world. Baudin died of tuberculosis in Ile de France (Mauritius) in 1803.
Baudin’s journal 1974 facsimile (Q919.4 BAU fixed compactus 3rd floor)
Baudin in Australian waters: artwork of the French voyage of discovery… Melbourne 1988 (Q741.944 BAU 2nd floor or Q01104 3rd floor rare)
Voyage of discovery to the southern lands… facsimile 2006 (O00553 3rd floor rare)
Robert Brown
Robert Brown, botanist, was born 21 December 1773, Scotland and died 10 June 1858, London. He studied medicine and spent five years in the British army serving in Ireland as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795–1800). In 1801 Sir Joseph Banks recommended Brown for the post of naturalist aboard the Investigator, for a surveying voyage along the northern and southern coasts of Australia under the command of Matthew Flinders. The Investigator reached King George’s Sound in December 1801. Until June 1803, and while the ship circumnavigated Australia, Brown made extensive plant collections. Returning to England in October 1805, Brown devoted his time to classifying the 3,900 species he had gathered, almost all of which were new to science.
The results of his Australian trip were partially published in 1810 in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen, a classic of systematic botany and his major work. Though the publication laid the foundations for Australian botany while refining the prevailing systems of plant classification, Brown was disappointed by its small sale and published only one volume. In 1810 Banks appointed Brown as his librarian and in 1820 bequeathed him his extensive botanical collection and library. Brown transferred them to the British Museum in 1827, when he became keeper of its newly formed botanical department.
Brown also conducted research into the oscillatory movement of microscopic particles and his work revealed that random movement was a general property of matter in that state, and the phenomenon has long been known as Brownian motion in his honour. Brown was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1810 and served as president of the Linnaean Society 1849-1853. A number of Australian plant species, including Brown’s banksia and Brown’s box, are named after him.
General view of the botany of Swan River (in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. 1, pp.17-21, 910 ROY, 1st floor serial stack or PR11261)
Nature’s investigator: the diary of Robert Brown in Australia 1801-1805, Canberra 2001 (919.4 BRO 3rd floor stack – with Flinders in the 1st navigation of Australia)
A voyage to Terra Australia 1801-1803 by Matthew Flinders, London 1814 (original in 3rd floor rare at Q00195 & Q00196; facsimile Q994 FLI in 3rd floor fixed compactus; Atlas has 10 botanical plates by Brown)
Prodomus florae Novae Hollandiae… by Robert Brown, London 1810 (581.994 BRO 3rd floor rare)
Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer was born 20 January 1760 into an artistic Austrian family. As a young man, he travelled to England, and then accompanied John Sibthorpe, a botanist from Oxford University, to Greece in 1784. This resulted in the publication of the now famous Flora Graeca (1806), which contains the magnificent artworks Bauer created to represent the Greek flora.
Bauer subsequently travelled to Australia on the ship HMS Investigator, commanded by Matthew Flinders, as botanical draughtsman to Sir Joseph Banks’ botanist, Robert Brown. It was on this famous voyage of exploration and scientific discovery that Australia was circumnavigated and charted in detail for the first time. Throughout the voyage, Bauer sketched the plants and animals that were seen and collected. His coloured artworks revealed the wonders of the Australian flora and fauna to European eyes for the first time. Some of the paintings were published as engravings in the 1813 work, Illustrationes Flora Novae Hollandiae. This was the first detailed account of the natural history of Australia. In later life, Bauer returned to Vienna, taking many sketches with him while leaving the watercolours in England as Admiralty property. Today, these illustrations are of immense botanical and historical interest, particularly and Australia. He died on 17 March 1826.
The Australian flower paintings of Ferdinand Bauer London, 1976 (EF759.436 BAU 3rd floor rare – Bauer was also with Flinders on the circumnavigation)
Cephalotus follicularis by Ferdinand Bauer London 1900s (EF0044, 3rd floor rare – print of Bauer’s original drawing of an Albany Pitcher Plant)
George Vancouver
George Vancouver was born 22 June 1757 in Norfolk, England and joined the navy at 15. He sailed several times under James Cook and later saw action against both the French and Spanish navies before being given the task of exploring the North-west American coastline. He left England in April 1791 with the Chatham and the Discovery, calling in at King George’s Sound in 1792. After returning to England in 1795 Vancouver was attacked in the press and assaulted in public by Thomas Pitt, whom George had sent home in disgrace. Claims and counter claims between Pitt and Vancouver were made about conduct during the voyage and the stress of this may have contributed to Vancouver’s early death in 1797 aged 40. There was also acrimony between Vancouver and his naturalist Archibald Menzies over the voyage.
Journal of Archibald Menzies, botanist, with George Vancouver at King George’s Sound, 1791 (Q508.9 MEN 3rd floor stack, photocopy of journal at 405A)
A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific…(Q910.4 VAN, 3 volumes plus atlas, 3rd floor rare)
Phillip Parker King
King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley and Anna Josepha King, and named after Governor Arthur Phillip, which explains the difference in spelling of his and his father’s first names. He was sent to England for education in 1796, joined the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, in 1802 and entered the Royal Navy in 1807, where he was commissioned lieutenant in 1814. King was assigned to survey the Australian coast not already examined by Matthew Flinders, and made four voyages December 1817-April 1822. Amongst his crew were Allan Cunningham (botanist) and John Septimus Roe. The first three trips were in the cutter Mermaid, but she was grounded in 1820.
The Admiralty instructed King to discover if any river led into the interior of Australia. The Colonial Office gave instructions to collect information about topography, fauna, timber, minerals, climate, and the natives and the prospects of developing trade with them. From February to June 1818, the coast was surveyed as far as Van Diemen Gulf. In June the Mermaid visited Timor and then returned to Sydney, arriving on 29 July. Next December and January King surveyed the recently discovered Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen’s Land and sailed in May 1819 for Torres Strait and continued to survey the coast between Cape Wessel and Admiralty Gulf, returning to Sydney on 12 January 1820.
King’s fourth voyage was undertaken in the sloop Bathurst. She headed north, through Torres Strait and to the north-west coast. Further survey of the west coast was made after a visit to Mauritius. In February 1839, King was appointed to the NSW Legislative Council, and in April the same year, was appointed resident commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company, a position he held for ten years. In 1855 King was promoted to Rear Admiral on the retired list. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and died on 26 February 1856 aged 64 in Sydney.
Early explorers in Australia: from the log-books and journals, including the diary of Allan Cunningham, Botanist, from March 1, 1817 to November 19, 1818 by Ida Lee (919.4 LEE, 3rd floor stack – Cunningham was the botanist for Phillip Parker King during his survey of the Inter-tropical coasts of Australia 1817-1822)
Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia: performed between the years 1818 and 1822…London 1826 (O00885, O00888, O00725, O00726, 3rd floor rare; also facsimile, Adelaide, 2012, 3rd floor stack and shelves, 2 volumes)
Johann Preiss
Johann August Ludwig Preiss, born 21 November 1811 was a German-born British botanist and zoologist. He obtained a doctorate, probably at Hamburg, and then emigrated to WA, arriving on board the Britomart on 4 December 1838. He remained until January 1842, becoming a British subject. While in WA, Preiss collected about 200,000 plant specimens, from 3,000-4,000 species. His collections, together with those of James Drummond, formed the basis for early study of W A flora. In 1842 he left WA for London, where he sold his plant collection to recoup his costs. Various botanists published species based on his specimens, and these were later collated by Johann Lehmann as the multi-volume Plantae Preissianae Sive Enumeratio Plantarum Quas in Australasia Occidentali et Meridionale Occidentali Annis 1838-41 Collegit L, published Hamburg 1844-1848.
Preiss returned to Germany in 1844 and settled there, dying on 21 May 1883. It had been on his recommendation that Ferdinand von Mueller moved to Australia in 1847. Preiss is commemorated in the names of about 100 species of flora in Western Australia, including plants in the genera Acacia, Eucalyptus, Grevillia, Hakea, Mellaleuca and Xanthorrhoes.
Plantae Preissianae…edited by Johann Lehmann Hamburg 1844-1847 (581.994 LEH, 2 volumes, 3rd floor rare)
Charles von Hugel
Charles von Hügel, was born in Bavaria 25 April 1795, an Austrian noble, army officer, diplomat, botanist and explorer. During his lifetime he was celebrated by the European ruling classes for his botanical gardens and his introduction of plants and flowers from Australia to Europe. He studied law at Heidelberg, was an officer in the Austrian Hussars and fought against Napoleon. He visited Scandinavia and Russia, before being stationed in southern France and then Italy.
In 1824 he established a botanical garden in Vienna and set up a company to sell its flowers. In 1833-1834 he toured Australia, visiting the Swan River Colony and King George Sound, Tasmania, Norfolk Island and NSW to observe the flora and collect seeds for his garden. During this time, he wrote a journal which, in addition to his botanical observations, is a rare record of an aristocratic European’s attitudes toward colonial Australia. In general his opinions of the administration, transportation, social life and missionary efforts in Australia were not favourable. Hügel also took exception to the ill-treatment and exploitation of the Aborigines that he observed on his travels.
After returning to Vienna, he founded the Imperial Horticultural Society (president 1837-1848). When the 1848 revolution broke out he sold his garden, and rejoined the Austrian army. From 1850-1859, he served as Austrian ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Florence. In 1860 he became the Austrian ambassador in Brussels. He retired in 1867 and on 2 June 1870, he died in Brussels on his way tot Vienna.
New Holland Journal November 1833-October 1834 of Baron Charles von Hugel translated by Dymphna Clark (994.02 HUG, 3rd floor rare)
James Drummond
James Drummond, born c1786 in Scotland, was an avid botanist and plant collector. He was curator at Ireland’s Cork Botanical Gardens from 1809, before migrating to Australia in 1829, becoming WA Government Naturalist. He was also appointed Superintendent of Government Gardens. He went on numerous expeditions across Western Australia where he collected thousands of seeds and plants for export to England and collected for James Mangles and Sir William Jackson Hooker. Today his plant specimens are found in herbaria across the world. He named several of Western Australia’s native species and 119 specimens have been named after him. He died 26 March 1863.
Series of letters in the Inquirer on the botany of Western Australia (letter 1 – 4 May 1842, p.4; letter 2 – 11 May 1842, p.4; letter 3 – 13 July 1842, p.5; letter 4 – 27 July 1842, p.4; letter 5 – 3 August 1842, p.4; letter 6 – 10 August 1842, p.4; letter 7 – 17 August 1842, p.5; letter 8 – 28 September 1842, p.3; letter 9 – 5 October 1842, p.5; letter 10 – 19 October 1842, p.4; letter 11 – 22 February 1843, p.4; letter 12 – 1 March 1843, p.3; letter 13 – 8 March 1843, p.4; letter 14 – 15 March 1843, p.4; letter 15 – 22 March 1843, p.3; letter 16 – 19 April 1843, p.4; letter 17 – 10 May 1843, p.3; letter 18 – 17 May 1843, p.5; letter 19 – 24 May 1843, p.5; letter 20 – 6 September 1843, p.5).
Letters from Charles Darwin to James Drummond 1860 regarding Leschenaultia (2275A)
James Mangles
James Mangles was born in 1786, the son of John Mangles. He entered the navy in March 1800, on board the frigate Maidstone. After active service on the coast of France, at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope, and at the British invasions of the Rio de la Plata, he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Penelope, in which, in February 1809, he was present at the reduction of Martinique. In 1811 Mangles was appointed to the Boyne, and in 1812 to the Ville de Paris, flagship in the English Channel. In 1814 he was first lieutenant of the Duncan, flagship of Sir John Beresford in his voyage to Rio de Janeiro. He was sent home in acting command of the sloop, Raccoon and was confirmed in the rank of captain on 13 June 1815. This was his last service afloat.
In 1816 Mangles left England on a lengthy tour in Europe, Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor. In 1825 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1830 was one of the first fellows and members of council of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1831 Mangles visited the Swan River Colony. Lady Stirling, wife of Sir James Stirling, was his cousin. As a consequence Mangles went into business, with his brother Robert, dealing in botanical specimens and seeds.
The red and green kangaroo paw, WA’s state floral emblem (Anigozanthos manglesii) and Melaleuca manglesii are named after him. Mangles died at Fairfield, Exeter, on 18 November 1867, aged 81.
Two volumes of handwritten transcripts of letters on botanical matters received by Captain James Mangles, many from Swan River, written by Georgiana Molloy, George Fletcher Moore, R G Meares, Ellen Stirling, James Drummond, Henry Mortlock Ommanney, Sir Richard Spencer and others (479A) 
Bookmark link for this record
Ludwig Diels & Ernst Pritzel
Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels was born in Hamburg 24 September 1874, the son of classical scholar Hermann Diels. From 1900-1902 he travelled with Ernst Pritzel through South Africa, Java, Australia and New Zealand. Shortly before World War I he travelled in New Guinea and in the 1930s in Ecuador. His collections of plants from Australia and Ecuador enriched the knowledge of their floras. His monography on the Droseraceae from 1906 is still a standard. The majority of his collections were stored at the Berlin botanical garden (he was Vice Director from 1913 and Director 1921-1945. His collections were destroyed in an air raid in 1943 and he died in Berlin 30 November 1945.
Ernst Georg Pritzel, born 15 May 1875, was a German botanist known for his research in the fields of phytogeography and taxonomy. In 1900–02, with Ludwig Diels, he collected plants in South Africa, Java, Australia and New Zealand. They published the results of their expedition (a collection of 5700 species, including 235 new species) in the Botanische Jahrbücher in 1904–05. The fungi genus Pritzellia was named after him in 1903 and Melaleuca pritzelii in 1923. He died on 6 April 1946.
Die Pflanzenwelt von West-Australien…by Ludwig Diels Leipzig 1906 (Q581.9941 DIE 3rd floor stack) Bookmark link for this record
Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae occidentalis…by Ludwig Diels Leipzig 1905 (581.9941 DIE, 3rd floor stack) Bookmark link for this record
Reisen in West-Australien by Ludwig Diels 1902 (Q919.41 DIE, 3rd floor stack or (O 00574 3rd floor rare) Bookmark link for this record
George Bentham
George Bentham was born 22 September 1800, Stoke, Devon, England. He was a British botanist whose classification of seed plants based on a study of all known species, served as a foundation for modern systems of vascular plant taxonomy. Bentham began to study botany while managing his father’s estate near Montpellier, France. In 1833, upon his inheritance of wealth following the deaths of his father and uncle, Bentham turned his full attention to botany. After he donated his herbarium of more than 100,000 specimens to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in 1854, the director of the Gardens, Sir William Hooker, invited him to establish permanent quarters there. Bentham participated in the Gardens’ definitive survey of floras of the British colonies and possessions, one of which was the Flora Australiensis (7 volumes, 1863-78).
Realising the inadequacy of criteria for assigning species to their appropriate genera, he undertook the task of compiling a descriptive classification of all seed plants. Collaborating with Sir Joseph Hooker, Bentham spent 27 years in research and examination of specimens for the work Genera Plantarum (3 volumes, 1862-83). It was published in Latin and covered 200 families of 7,569 genera, including more than 97,200 species. He died in London on 10 September 1884.
Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian territory by George Bentham London 1863-1878 (O02182-88 – 7 volumes, pick one relating to WA, 3rd floor rare; has much from James Drummond and Georgiana Molloy in it)
Ferdinand von Mueller
Ferdinand von Mueller was born at Rostock, Germany, on 30 June 1825. He studied pharmacy and took his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel in 1847. He came to Australia in 1848 for health reasons and became a great botanical collector and writer. He was Victorian Government Botanist from 1853, and for a time Director of the Botanic Gardens. He travelled widely in Victoria and was on the A C Gregory expedition to northern Australia in 1855-57. He supported botanical exploration and collecting throughout the colonies. His botanical publications are very extensive, and include Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae published over the period 1858-82. Mueller received honours from many of the ruling Royal Houses of Europe, he was made a Baron by the King of Wurtemberg in 1871, and knighted by Queen Victoria. He died at Melbourne on 10 October 1896.
Report on the forest resources of Western Australia by Ferdinand von Mueller London 1879 (Q00194, Q00199, 3rd floor rare; Q634.9 MUE 3rd floor fixed compactus)
Eucalyptographia: a descriptive atlas of the eucalypts of Australia and the adjoining islands by Ferdinand von Mueller Melbourne 1879-1884. (Q00836, 3rd floor rare)
The plants indigenous around Sharks Bay and its vicinity, chiefly from collections of the honourable John Forrest Perth 1883 (Q00136, Q00285 3rd floor rare)
Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae by Ferdinand von Mueller Melbourne 1858-1881 (O02189-200, 12 volumes, pick one relating to WA, 3rd floor rare)
Plants of North-Western Australia by Ferdinand von Mueller Perth 1881 (Q00300, 3rd floor rare; Q581.9941 MUE 3rd floor fixed compactus)
Rica Erickson
Rica (Frederica) Erickson was born in Boulder in 1908, the eldest of eight children of Phoebe Cooke and Chris Sandilands. She attended Boulder State School and won a scholarship to the Eastern Goldfields High School. She then studied teaching at Claremont Teachers College, and worked in various one-teacher schools in the South West where she painted local flora. She married Sydney Erickson in 1936 and raised a family of four children, returning to botanical studies and writing history in 1946. She has authored some twenty books on history and botany. In 2006 she was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in WA’s history and in 2007 won a State Heritage Award. She was publishing into her 99th year. Her paintings hang in Pittsburgh, London and Australia. Throughout her life and career her work was strongly linked to the development of the collections at the J.S. Battye Library of West Australian History. She died in Perth on 8 September 2009.
Wildflower drawings 5448A – retrieve one box (3rd floor rare – see wildflowers for more detail)