THE GENERA OF SOUTH AFRICAN PLANTS

Second Edition: 12*, lii, 483 pages, recently rebound in green faux leather, titled gilt on the spine, a very good copy.

This copy contains the extra leaf between pages 356-7, ORDER MUSACEAE, which is missing in most copies.

S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science (https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=1233) 'Harvey (William Henry) 1811 -1866) 'Harvey spent all his spare time at the Cape studying the local flora, often collecting plants or algae early in the morning before going to work. He befriended Baron C.F. von Ludwig, who grew many indigenous plants in his famous Ludwigsburg garden, and went on short botanical excursions with Reverend James Backhouse and Sir Charles J.F. Bunbury. Though his duties prevented him from travelling far (the furthest seems to have been a visit to Paarl in April 1838), he was able to extend his knowledge of more distant regions by studying the collections of others, such as James Bowie, then curator of von Ludwig's garden, Carl Zeyher, and Dr C.W.L. Pappe. In response to his request for additional specimens from inland regions he received material from Reverend Wallace Hewetson and John Peddie in the eastern Cape, and Reverend William Elliott at Paarl. His intention all along had been to produce the first comprehensive work dealing specifically with the South African flora and in a surprisingly short time he compiled a most useful work, The genera of South African plants, arranged according to the natural system, published in Cape Town in 1838. The book was dedicated to Baron von Ludwig. A second edition, edited by J.D. Hooker was published after Harvey's death in 1868. The purpose of the work was to provide an introduction to the flora of the Cape, in preparation for a more comprehensive Flora Capensis. However, it served also to inspire local plant collectors, such as Mary E. Barber, as it contained an introduction to botany and a glossary of botanical terms. Harvey was also an accomplished botanical artist. In October 1838 the book's publisher, A.S. Robertson, solicited subscriptions to finance the publication of a series of lithographic plates, in monthly numbers, under the title Illustrations of South African botany. It was to be edited by Harvey, but it seems that insufficient interest was shown by the public.....'

'....In 1856 the post of professor of botany in the University of Dublin again became vacant and he was appointed to it. Around this time he returned to the study of the Cape flora, as part of a larger effort to compile various colonial floras, supervised by Sir William Hooker. With Otto W. Sonder as co-author he compiled Volumes 1-3 of The Flora Capensis: being a systematic description of the plants of the Cape Colony, Caffraria and Port Natal. The work was published in parts between 1859 and 1865, in both Dublin and Cape Town, with financial support from the British government. Harvey wrote about two thirds of the text himself. The work was continued by others only in the late 1890's, and finally completed in 1933. The Flora Capensis has played a very important role in the development of South African botany, enabling botanists to identify plants and establish their recorded distribution in a single source. Harvey's initial work on this monumental publication constituted a contribution of extreme importance in the development of South African botany.'