Introduction: Smeathmania

The Introduction describes the setting up of Smeathman’s collecting expedition in London in 1771, including details of his main sponsors, Dru Drury, Joseph Banks, and the Quaker physician John Fothergill. The recent and celebrated return of the Endeavour, laden with exotic naturalia, provided a dramatic instance of what a well-equipped expedition to unknown parts might achieve. The presence of Smeathman’s archive in Uppsala, Sweden, indicates his importance as one of Linnaeus’ lesser known disciples. His journals, plus his Shandyesque letters to friends and sponsors, are testimony to the collaborative dimension of knowledge-making in this period, rivalling in importance the insects, plants, and shells he sent home to Liverpool and London.

Itinerary and specimen list of M.A. Pocock’s botanical collecting expedition in Zambia and Angola in 1925

Mary Agard Pocock, bom in Rondebosch in 1886, and best known as an algologist, was also a ‘trailblazer' in the biological exploration o f Angola. She, and the ethnologist Dorothea Bleek, undertook a scientific expedition which started at Livingstone, Zambia, and ended at Lobito Bay, Angola, during the dry season, from April to October 1925.During the journey Mary Pocock collected ± 1 000 specimens in the Zambesian region o f endemism (II). as delineated by White (1983) o f which 12 were considered to be species novae. Many o f the specimens were painted by Mary. Some original paintings are housed in the Selmar Schonland Herbarium, Grahamstown (GRA). She also kept detailed diaries o f her route past villages and through the different vegetation types. Collecting locations, with specimen numbers relating to her collection in the Zambesian region, are indicated. An alphabetical list o f all the species collected by Mary Pocock during this exploration has been compiled