FORESTS & GARDENS OF SOUTH INDIA:
DRAWINGS COMMISSIONED BY HUGH CLEGHORN
14 May to 4 July 2010
Exhibition Guide by H.J. Noltie
Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,
Arboretum Place/Inverleith Row,
EDINBURGH. EH3 5LR.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5.30pm. Admission free.
To download exhibition text contact: Email ihouse@rbge.ac.uk,
or consult website www.rbge.org.uk/inverleith-house
Exhibitions programme supported by The Scottish Arts Council.
CLEGHORN AND HIS ARTISTS
When the Royal Scottish Museum donated its botanical collections, including the
Cleghorn Memorial Library and a vast number of botanical illustrations, to the Royal
Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 1941, Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn of Stravithie
(1820–1895) became, posthumously, one of our greatest benefactors. His herbarium
had been given to RBGE in 1896, but although illustrations and specimens were now
housed under one roof, no attempt to re-establish the connections between them has
been made until now.
Cleghorn was born in Madras, but came to Scotland at the age of four to be raised by
his aunts and grandfather near St Andrews. His schooling was at the High School of
Edinburgh and Madras Academy, St Andrews, followed by studies at the universities
of St Andrews and Edinburgh. At Edinburgh he studied medicine and took Robert
Graham’s summer botany class at RBGE in 1838 and 1839. In 1842 he joined the
East India Company as an Assistant Surgeon and returned to his birthplace. Cleghorn
probably had innate interests in the visual (his father was a friend of David Wilkie),
but his determination to use Indian artists to record plants was encouraged by the
Indian botanist Robert Wight (a family friend) and by the Director of Kew, William
Hooker. From July 1845 to September 1847 Cleghorn was based at Shimoga, in what
was then the Nuggur [= Nagar] Division of the princely state of Mysore (present-day
Karnataka), during which time he employed a ‘Marathi’ artist to draw a different
species each day. Illness forced Cleghorn back to Britain in 1848, where he stayed for
three years, during which he wrote his important report for the British Association on
the effects of tropical deforestation, and worked on Indian economic products for the
Great Exhibition of 1851.
After returning to Madras in 1851 he taught botany and materia medica at the
Medical College and was secretary of the Agri-Horticultural Society, and in both of
these roles he employed Indian artists – to illustrate lectures and publications, and to
record medical symptoms and botanical specimens. He was friendly with Alexander
Hunter, founder of the Madras School of Art, and from August 1852 employed two of
its students P. Mooregasan Moodeliar and T. Rungasawmy to draw plants and copy
book illustrations. On Wight’s departure from Madras in 1853 his artist Govindoo
was looking for a new patron and Cleghorn duly obliged. Inspired by the London
Great Exhibition of 1851, the first of the Madras Exhibitions took place in 1855, and
Cleghorn was greatly involved with the economic plant products exhibited. The
following year he was appointed by Lord Harris, Governor of Madras, to the new post
of Conservator of Forests. Before leaving for a second home leave in September 1860
Cleghorn established a forest conservancy system in Madras, undertaking three
extensive Forest Tours, apparently accompanied by Govindoo.
After returning to India in 1861 the rest of Cleghorn’s career was largely spent
working on forestry in the NW Himalaya, but this period resulted in only a few
botanical drawings (and those by Western artists); for a time he acted as InspectorGeneral of Forests and he has been considered to be the founder of Forest
Conservancy in India.
This exhibition is devoted to drawings from the periods 1845–7 and 1852–9; the title
is taken from a book he published in London in 1861 and reflects the two major
sources of Cleghorn’s botanical subjects.
FORESTS OF SOUTH INDIA
‘Forests’ is taken here in a wide sense, to represent the wild habitats from which
native species were drawn for Cleghorn. During his first two spells in the Madras
Presidency he experienced a wide range of such habitats. The Western Ghats, even
today, are thickly covered with evergreen forest, with an annual rainfall of up to 3000
mm largely during the summer monsoon. To the east of the hills is a plateau at around
900 metres – this is much drier (the annual rainfall of Mysore is 780 mm), but
extensively used for agriculture, with scrub vegetation especially on the numerous
rocky hills that dot its surface. Cleghorn got to know these habitats in the 1840s: from
the ‘the undulating plateau of the Mysore, the primeval forests of Coorg and Malabar,
where European furniture cracks and warps, and the Malabar ghauts, where in the
south-west monsoon the lancet, in pocket, coats with rust’. During this time his
anonymous ‘Marathi’ artist, doubtless recruited in Bangalore or Shimoga, drew native
species and some of the common agricultural crops.
After returning to India from Britain in 1851, Cleghorn was based in Madras, which
has a rather limited flora. He lived at St Thomé beside the sandy beach south of Fort
St George, and investigated sand-binding plants for the Government. Close at hand
were the mangroves of the Adyar River, the dry deciduous forest of Guindy Park (the
Governor’s country house), and salt marshes to the north of Madras. Species of these
habitats were drawn for him by Mooregasan and Rungasawmy. After becoming
Conservator of Forests 1856, his tours took him to teak and sal forests of the Northern
Circars of Andhra Pradesh, back to his first stamping grounds of North Canara and
the Ghats, and also to the Malabar Coast of what is now Kerala and the high hills of
Tamil Nadu – the Nilgiris and Anamallais. Some of the species of these habitats were
drawn for him by Govindoo.
GARDENS OF SOUTH INDIA
Cleghorn took a deep interest in the exotic plants that were then flooding into Indian
gardens from all over the world, especially from South America and Australia. Some
– such as timber trees, including acacias and eucalypts, and food plants such as Tacca
and yams – were grown for potential economic benefit; others such as the jacaranda
were purely ornamental.
From January 1853, with Colonel Francis Reid, Cleghorn was joint-secretary of the
Madras Agri-Horticultural Society. This Society, founded in 1835, had a semi-official
status in that the Madras Government provided their extensive grounds beside the
cathedral at a nominal rent. The Society ran flower-shows, distributed seed, and
awarded Government-funded prizes to encourage enterprise and quality. Cleghorn
worked closely with two garden superintendents sent out from Edinburgh by John
Hutton Balfour, Regius Keeper of RBGE – Andrew Thomas Jaffrey and his
successor Robert N. Brown. Both apparently took to drink, but Jaffrey, who lamented
the ‘anti-Horticultural climate’ of Madras, supervised the production of many of the
botanical drawings and annotated them. Jaffrey published pamphlets on practical
horticulture in Madras, and Brown a catalogue of the Society’s garden (which was
better than Cleghorn’s own earlier list!). Cleghorn’s role in the Agri-Horticultural
Society gave him access to a network of private gardens owned by senior Civil
Servants in Madras and its hill station of Ootacamund (Ooty), some of whom appear
to have imported exotics directly from British nurseries. After becoming Conservator
in 1856 Cleghorn’s responsibilities came to include two governmental gardens – the
Lalbagh at Bangalore, and the Government Gardens at Ooty, each overseen by a
gardener sent from Kew – William New and W.G. McIvor respectively. Smaller
numbers of drawings made in both these gardens are represented in the collection.
FORMAT OF ENTRIES
Currently accepted scientific name + authority (FAMILY)
Vernacular name (English, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Sanskrit). Indian names taken
from Botanical & Vernacular Names of S Indian Plants by M.R. Gurudeva (2001)
Notes. Where possible reference has been made to publications by Cleghorn and
contemporary Madras authors
Contemporary annotations
Dimensions
Collection number
Note. Most works are executed in ink and opaque watercolour heightened with gum
arabic.
1. Solanum lycopersicum L. (SOLANACEAE)
Tomato, love apple (Cleghorn cat.); goode hannu, kempu chappara badane (Kan);
thakkaali (Tam)
The tomato is native to the highlands of western South America; it was cultivated by
the Aztecs in Mexico and taken to Europe by the Spanish. It had reached Indonesia by
the time of Rumphius in the late seventeenth century, but the date of introduction of
the tomato to India is something of a mystery. Although, around 1800, Roxburgh
stated that ‘it is now very common in India ... generally cultivated over India, even by
the natives for their own use’, in 1891 Sir George Watt could still write that ‘Natives’
were only ‘beginning to appreciate the fruit, but the plant is still chiefly cultivated for
the European population’. John Graham in his Catalogue of Bombay Plants (1839)
wrote that ‘the plant grows wild in many parts of the Deccan; particularly about old
Forts. Probably it was introduced by the Musselmen, and has since been naturalized’.
At this time the fruit seems not to have been popular even with Europeans as Graham
could write that it was ‘also called the Wolf Peach [the literal meaning of the
Linnaean epithet]; in allusion to its very beautiful appearance, but worthless qualities
as a fruit ... used as a garnish ... [and] by some in soups &c.’ In any case this drawing
is probably one of the earlier representations of the plant made in India.
Annotations: 312. Solanaceae. Solanum Lycopersicum. ‘chappara badhane gidaa’ [in
Kannada script]. Shemoga, 20 Nov ’46.
232 x 300 mm.
CN 312
2. Gossypium arboreum L. (MALVACEAE)
Tree cotton; kari hatthi (Kan); parutthi (Tam); kaarpaasa (Sans)
Cotton was of great interest in India in Cleghorn’s time, and experiments were taking
place on the introduction of long-staple American varieties that could be exported for
spinning and weaving in Manchester, so that India would have to purchase back
woven cloth! Cleghorn’s boss, Captain Onslow, Superintendent of the Nuggur
Division, experimented with the cultivation of American Cotton at Kadur, using seed
sent from Coimbatore by Robert Wight, and Cleghorn reported on this to the
Botanical Society of Edinburgh in July 1850. This drawing, however, shows one of
the native, short-staple, Indian cottons. Although the flowers of most cotton species
open yellow and turn wine-red with age, some, such as G. arboreum var. rubicundum
Watt, are red from the time of opening and this drawing may show one of these. Such
forms are not used commercially but are grown on a small scale in gardens in South
India, and are used for making the sacred thread of the Brahmins.
Annotations: 394. Malvaceae. Gossypium arboreum, L. Shemoga, 3d May ’47.
232 x 299 mm.
CN 394
3. Bergera koenigii L. (RUTACEAE)
Curry leaf (Cleghorn cat.); karibaevu (Kan); kariveppilai, karivembu (Tam);
kiadaryah (Sans)
A small tree that can reach five metres in height, its leaves (fresh or dried) form an
essential ingredient of South Indian curries. It occurs throughout the Indian
Subcontinent, and in Burma, Vietnam and southern China. It was described by
Linnaeus from material sent to him from the Coromandel Coast by his pupil Johann
Gerhard König, who went as a surgeon to the Danish colony of Tranquebar in 1768.
König later became a professional naturalist, firstly to the Nawab of Arcot, and in
1778 to the Madras Government. His friend William Roxburgh (who was with König
when he died in 1785) wrote of the leaves of this plant ‘They have a peculiar flavour,
which I cannot describe; at first it is rather disagreeable, but most people soon become
perfectly reconciled to, if not fond of it’. Roxburgh also recorded its medicinal use by
‘native physicians’ – the bark and root as stimulants, to cure ‘eruptions and the bites
of poisonous animals’, and the green leaves, eaten raw, to cure dysentery. The hard
wood has been used for agricultural implements. The generic name commemorates
Johan Just von Berger (1723–91), physician to Christian VII of Denmark, and was
suggested to Linnaeus by König probably as a sop to his former patron G.C. Oeder,
with whom he had fallen out over the naming of a polygonaceous plant found by
König in Iceland (perhaps the reason for his banishment to Tranquebar). Oeder had
intended to name this plant in honour of Berger, but to his annoyance König had sent
a specimen to Linnaeus who named it Koenigia islandica after his former pupil.
Annotations: 427. Aurantiaceae. Bergera Konigii L. ‘karepaaka gida’ [in Kannada
script], Karbehoo Duk. [i.e., Dakhni], Kareepak, Duk., Kari vayroona sopoo (Bertie).
Dried leaves sold in the Bazar, considered stomachic. Gardens, Shemoga, May ’47.
232 x 286 mm
CN 427
4. Cicer arietinum L. (LEGUMINOSAE)
Chickpea; channa, kadale (Kan); chunda kadalai (Tam); chanaka (Sans)
The chickpea, probably derived from a species from SE Turkey and cultivated for
more than six thousand years, is the third most important pulse crop in the world –
eaten whole (fresh or after drying), or ground into a flour. The note on this drawing
refers to a paper on the meteorology, geology and natural history of the Southern
Mahratta country (immediately to the north of the Nuggur District) by Alexander
Turnbull Christie published in 1828/9 in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.
Christie listed chickpea as one of the crops sown at the end of the monsoon in
September/October and eaten by horses as well as ‘natives’ – he wrote ‘An acid
exudes from all parts of the plant, and is often collected in the following manner by
the Ryuts [tenant farmers]. The dew which is deposited on the plant over night, is
found in the morning to be strongly impregnated with acid. Long pieces of cloth are
then dragged over the plants until they become quite wet with the acid liquor, which is
then wrung out ... The liquor is of a brown colour, is slightly acid, contains a large
quantity of saccharine matter, which gives it a sweet taste, and when allowed to
evaporate very slowly, the acid is deposited in cubical crystals. It is sometimes used
by the natives in their curries, instead of vinegar; and is also employed by the native
doctors in medicine’.
Annotations: 57/723. Leguminosae. Viceae. Cicer arietinum Lin. Bengal gram.
Chenna Hurburray Hind., Kuddlay Can. Grown on regur [black] soil, less in Nuggur
than in Dharwar. The ryots here collect the exudations of a dewy morning as observed
by Dr Christie in the S. Mahr[atta] Country. This is a pleasant acid, and forms an
ingredient with opium in Cholera nostrums of Native Doctors’. 1. A flower, 2 & 3. do.
dissected, 4. A legume, 5. Do. opened, 6. &c Seed and sections. Cultivated, Ajampur,
23d Dec ’45.
205 x 273 mm
CN 57
5. Tamarindus indica L. (LEGUMINOSAE)
Indian date, tamarind; hunase mara, unara mara (Kan); puli, pulia maram (Tam); imli
(Hind); aamlika (Sans)
The tamarind, a large evergreen tree, is very widespread in the Old World Tropics and
has been introduced and naturalised in the New World. It has been modified by man
over a very long period, and is therefore considered to be a ‘cultigen’; its origin is
uncertain, though was probably in Africa. In India it is commonly planted along roads
and streets for the shade cast by its attractive, feathery foliage. Cleghorn described the
tamarind as ‘a large and very handsome tree, of slow growth; the wood hard, durable,
and fine-veined, but apt to be faulty in the centre ... used in the manufacture of oil and
sugar mills ... largely planted around villages for its fruit and shade’. The
characteristic, sour tasting, pulp that surrounds the seeds within the swollen pod is a
key ingredient of two staples of classic South Indian vegetarian cuisine – sambar (a
vegetable stew) and rasam (a thin soup), and, closer to home, of Worcestershire
sauce. It is a member of the Subfamily Caesalpinioideae, with modified, more or less
bilaterally symmetric flowers, with four calyx lobes, the petals (striped pink) and
three fertile stamens each reduced to three in number.
Annotations: 92/884. Leguminosae. Caesalpineae. Tamarind: Indica L. ‘hunase mara’
[in Kannada script]. Hurryhur, 16 Jany ’46.
231 x 294 mm.
CN 92
6. Punica granatum L. (LYTHRACEAE)
Pomegranate; daalimbe (Kan); maadaalai chettu (Tam); daadimaa (Sans).
There are only two species in the genus Punica, a name taken from the Latin
‘Punicum malum’ meaning ‘Carthaginian apple’. The one shown here is a cultigen of
very ancient origin, with a wild progenitor perhaps from NE Turkey; the other is
endemic to the island of Sokotra. In South India this small tree is grown largely for its
attractive orange flowers, as the fruits scarcely reach eatable size. Large, edible fruit
in Cleghorn’s time came from Persia and Afghanistan; the part eaten is the translucent
pulp around the seeds, which can be turned into juice (from which grenadine is made),
or dried and made into sherbet. The outline of the fruit, crowned with a persistent
calyx, has been much used as a motif in sculpture and the applied arts. The plant has
many uses: for example, the flowers and bark for dyeing, and the hard rind of the fruit
for tanning. It also has medicinal uses Robert Brown (1866) in his catalogue of the
Madras Agri-Horticultural Society Garden recorded ‘The bark of the root is a remedy
for tape-worm given in decoctions. It sickens the stomach, but seldom fails to destroy
the worm’.
Annotations: 91/1010. Myrtaceae. Granateae. Punica Granatum L. Hurryhur,
15 Jany ’46.
231 x 293 mm.
CN 91
7. Capparis cleghornii Dunn (CAPPARIDACEAE)
Cleghorn’s caper
When Cleghorn collected this plant on the 1500 metre hill of Ballalrayan Durga in
1846 he identified it as Capparis roxburghii, but in 1916 the Kew botanist S.T. Dunn
realised that it was a distinct species and named it after Cleghorn. Dunn based his
description on a Cleghorn herbarium specimen at Kew, with the number ‘D176’.
Although this drawing has been trimmed, from its position in the sequence it can be
identified as drawing number 176 of the Mysore series, and therefore the one referred
to on the specimen – it is therefore part of the type material of the species, and gives a
far better impression of its appearance than the rather poor specimen.
It is a thorny, woody climber that can reach a height of two metres, and is restricted to
a small area of evergreen forest in the Western Ghats of Karnataka between the
altitudes of 700 and 1400 metres. It is related to the European caper (Capparis
spinosa), the pickled flower buds of which are a well-known condiment. This species,
like its European relation, also has edible fruits, as noted on the drawing.
Cleghorn’s interests were not primarily taxonomic, and he was not a prolific collector
of herbarium specimens, so very few plants bear his name – only two species besides
this one, and a single genus (named by his friend Robert Wight).
Annotations: Capparidaceae. Capparis Roxburghii. Fruit edible. Balalroydroog,
13 April 1846.
226 x 280 mm
CN 176
8. Osbeckia stellata Ker Gawler var. hispidissima (Wight) C. Hansen
(MELASTOMATACEAE)
While on his first home leave (from 1848 to 1851) Cleghorn regularly attended
meetings of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and on 12 July 1849 exhibited his
collection of nearly 500 drawings made in Mysore, of which this is one. He lent this
drawing to Robert Wight in Madras, who got his artist Govindoo to make a copy of it.
In 1850 Wight published it as a new species Osbeckia hispidissima, with a lithograph
based on Govindoo’s version of the drawing (see Display Case IV). Cleghorn must
have been proud of this, as at a meeting of the BSE on 13 February 1851 he exhibited
Wight’s recent publication and the herbarium specimen on which this drawing was
based. Osbeckia stellata is a very variable shrub to 3.6 metres, widespread in the
Indian Subcontinent, and through Burma and Indo-China to China and Taiwan. It was
divided into a series of varieties by the Danish botanist Carlo Hansen, though as this
one, characterised by its spreading, bristly hairs, is restricted to SW India, it might
better have been treated as a subspecies.
Annotations: 46. Melastomaceae. Osbeckia hispidissima. fig 1/3 reduced. Berries dye
black. Wostara, 25–11–’45.
205 x 268 mm.
CN 46
9. Cyphostemma setosa (Roxburgh) Alston (VITACEAE)
Hairy wild vine (Cleghorn cat.); huli mangaravalli (Kan); pulinaralai (Tam).
An herbaceous scrambler, growing from a tuberous, woody rootstock; all parts are
covered in glandular, bristly hairs (hence the specific epithet); the trifoliate leaves are
succulent, and the berries red when ripe. The genus is mainly African, but this species
occurs both in SE Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique), and southern India
(Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka, where it occurs in coastal
habitats and dry plains, producing its shoots and flowers in the rainy season.
The whole plant is exceedingly bitter and William Roxburgh, when first describing it
(in the genus Cissus), from the Coromandel Coast near Rajahmundry, remarked, drily,
that ‘I unfortunately tasted both the roots and berries’. Roxburgh also recorded its
medicinal use ‘the leaves toasted and oiled, are applied to indolent tumours to bring
them to suppuration’.
Annotations: 448/419. Vitaceae. Vitis setosa, Wall. Cuddoor, 29 Jun ’47.
234 x 293 mm
CN 448
10. Momordica charantia L. (CUCURBITACEAE)
Bitter gourd; haagala kaayi (Kan); pavakkaayi (Tam); kaaravella (Sans)
Like most members of the family Cucurbitaceae (including melons, cucumbers and
marrows) the flowers are unisexual, borne on the same (monoecious) or different
(dioecious) plants. The plant depicted here appears to have only male flowers, which
are shown in detail at top left; at bottom left is shown the characteristic warty fruit at
an early stage of development. The plant is a scrambling annual, widely grown (on
trellises) in India, and elsewhere in the tropics, for its edible fruit and for medicinal
purposes. Heber Drury in his Useful Plants of India (1859) wrote: ‘the fruit is bitter
but wholesome, and is eaten in curries by the natives. It requires, however, to be
steeped in salt water before being cooked’, and, on its medicinal uses, ‘The whole
plant mixed with cinnamon, long-pepper, rice, and marothy oils (Hydnocarpus
inebrians), is administered in the form of an ointment in psora, scabies and other
cutaneous diseases ... the whole plant pulverised is a good specific externally applied
in leprosy and malignant ulcers’, which gives rise to one of its other vernacular names
– the leprosy gourd. Recently the plant has been used in the treatment of diabetes.
Annotations: 222/1086. Cucurbitaceae. Momordica charantia L. ‘haagala kaayi balli’
[in Kannada script]. 1– Calyx cut open, 2– Male flower, petal detached, 3–Young
fruit. Shemoga, 15 July ’46.
234 x 291 mm.
CN 222
11. Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott (ARACEAE)
Taro; kesave dhantu (Kan); shana dumpa, seppan kizhangu (Tam); arvi (Hin); aalooki
(Sans).
Taro is one of the most ancient crops and has been cultivated in tropical Asia for at
least 10,000 years: it is possible that rice was first known as a weed of taro terraces.
The wild progenitor possibly originated in India, but the plant has been spread
pantropically, and was taken to the New World probably (as later with breadfruit) as a
food for African slaves. It was cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean in Classical
times, and under his large genus Arum Linnaeus distinguished the New and Old
World forms as A. esculentum and A. colocasia respectively. The German botanist
Heinrich Schott carved up the genus Arum in 1832, retaining Linnaeus’ two species
(now regarded as synonymous), placing them in the genus Colocasia (a Greek name
originally applying to the sacred lotus).
As noted on the drawing the starchy tubers are the main reason for its cultivation, but
the young leaves are also eaten. The drawing shows the typical structure of the aroid
inflorescence, with a spike (‘spadix’) of minute flowers, enclosed in a waxy, creamcoloured bract or ‘spathe’. On the spadix the broad lower section bears female
flowers, above this is a narrower cylindrical male section, with a terminal, sterile,
pointed ‘appendix’.
Annotations: 451. Araceae. Arum Colocasia, Colocasia Indica. Kessaga (Can.),
Kaysevea gidda (Bertie), ‘kesina dhantu’ [in Kannada script]. Cultivated for the
nutritious matter obtained from the Tubers. Leaves & underground stem eaten.
Jungles & introduced into Gardens. Cuddoor, 15 July ’47.
234 x 292 mm
CN 451
12. Nelumbo nucifera Gaertner (NELUMBONACEAE)
Egyptian bean (Cleghorn cat.), sacred lotus; kamala, thaavare (Kan); ambal, thaamarai
(Tam); ambuja, padma (Sans).
There are two members of the genus Nelumbo, a yellow-flowered one (N. lutea) from
Central America, and the one depicted here, which is widespread in the Indian
Subcontinent and SE Asia into Australia. From the beauty of the flower, often
springing from muddy water, it is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists, the former
believing it to have sprung from the navel of Vishnu. The spirally thickened water
conducting elements extracted from leaf-stalks and peduncles have been used as lamp
wicks. More prosaically both seeds and rhizomes are eaten. With the advent of
classifications based on DNA sequences one of the greatest surprises was to discover
that the sacred lotus was not related to the waterlilies as had always been supposed,
but that it was related to the plane tree (Platanus) and the family Proteaceae
(including proteas and banksias), and that the similarity was due to convergent
evolution – from adaptation to a similar aquatic habitat and emergent growth form.
Annotations: 198/54. Nelumbiaceae. Nelumbium speciosum (Willd.) var. Rubrum.
‘thavare huvu’ [in Kannada script]. Shemoga, 15 Jul ’46.
225 x 292 mm.
CN 198
13. Actiniopteris radiata (Swartz) Link (PTERIDACEAE)
Peacock’s tail; mayoora shikhi (Kan)
The small number of drawings of ferns in his collection (only two in the Mysore
collection) suggests that, atypically for his era, Cleghorn was certainly no sufferer
from pteridomania. This was more than compensated for by Richard Henry Beddome,
an army officer, who in 1857 was made Cleghorn’s senior assistant as Conservator of
Forests for Madras. Beddome succeeded Cleghorn as Conservator, and contributed
greatly to the study of Indian ferns (also of molluscs, and flowering plants generally),
and, after Cleghorn’s retirement, Beddome continued to employ Govindoo and to
publish his botanical drawings. This xerophytic (drought-resistant) fern, with its
characteristic fan-shaped fronds, Beddome recorded as being ‘found all over the
[Madras] presidency in dry rocky places from the sea level up to 3,500 or 4,000 feet’.
It also occurs in dry parts of tropical Africa and the Mascarene Islands, and from
Arabia and Yemen, through Iran into India, and also in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Burma.
Annotations: 456. Polypodiaceae. Asplenium radiatum, Sw. Actiniopteris radiata,
Link. Cuddoor, 6 July ’47.
233 x 293 mm.
CN 456.
14. Indigofera linnaei Ali (LEGUMINOSAE)
Trailing indigo (Cleghorn cat.), red nerinjy; kenneggilu (Kan); cheppunerungil (Tam);
vasuka (Sans).
Indigofera is a large genus (with more than 700 species) of the pea-flower family, and
takes its name from the blue dye extracted from I. tinctoria. The species shown here is
a low-growing perennial with a woody base, widespread in S and SE Asia from
Pakistan eastwards to China, and throughout India, Indo-China, Indonesia to New
Guinea and Australia; it is largely lowland but occurs up to 1200 metres in the
Himalaya. The name pencilled on this drawing is in the hand of Robert Wight, to
whom Cleghorn must have shown these drawings for identification. Linnaeus’ name
I. enneaphylla is ‘illegitimate’ according to rules of modern nomenclature, so was
replaced with the present one, commemorating Linnaeus, by the Pakistani botanist
S.I. Ali in 1958. The plant has been used medicinally in India and Sir Whitelaw
Ainslie recorded its use against scurvy, and that an infusion of the plant was diuretic
and given for fevers and coughs. Ainslie, who was born in Duns (Berwickshire), was
a predecessor of Cleghorn as an EIC surgeon in the Madras Presidency; he was author
of the first book treating Indian medicines – his pioneering Materia Medica of
Hindustan (1813).
Annotations: 247/621. Fabaceae. Indigofera enneaphylla Linn. Mysore, Shemoga 4th
Augt ’46.
235 x 293 mm.
CN 247
15. Cosmos caudatus Kunth (COMPOSITAE)
The presence of this plant in South India, where it is now common as a roadside weed
in the drier parts of Karnataka, is somewhat of a mystery. It was first described from
Cuba where it was ‘discovered’ by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in
1801, and its native distribution is through the West Indies, Central and northern
South America. However, it was collected in the Baramahal district of Tamil Nadu by
Robert Wight prior to 1831, his specimens being identified by A.P. de Candolle as
Bidens berteriana and B. grandiflora (accounting for the name on this drawing). The
species is, however, widespread in SE Asia – including the Philippines, Burma, IndoChina, Sumatra and the Moluccas (also Mauritius, and Sri Lanka where it was
recorded in 1860) – suggesting that it was perhaps introduced by the Spanish or
Portuguese long before it was ‘known’ (i.e., named) to Western science. Although the
flower heads are small, the candy pink ligules of the ray-florets makes them attractive,
and once introduced it will, with the help of animal vectors (two- and four-footed),
easily spread due to the pair of barbed points on the seed-like fruits.
Annotations: 289. Matricariaceae. Bidens grandiflora. Shemoga, 22d Oct ’46.
234 x 288 mm.
CN 289
16. Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Brown (LABIATAE)
Catmint-leaved leonotis; gantu thumbe (Kan); murandai (Tam)
Leonotis is a genus of nine species named for the orange-hairy flowers that were
fancifully thought to resemble lions’ ears – all are native to Africa, but this species,
the only annual one, also occurs as a weed in tropical America and Asia, doubtless an
ancient introduction. The species was first described by Linnaeus (in the genus
Phlomis), based on an illustration and description of plants growing in the Leiden
botanic garden thought to have originated in Surinam. In India it was collected on the
Coromandel Coast by the Tranquebar Missionaries, and it may have been one of
these, J.G. König, who sent it to Sir Joseph Banks, by whom it was introduced to Kew
Gardens in 1778. It is an annual (or short-lived perennial) that can reach three metres
in height, and, as noted on the drawing, occurs in disturbed habitats such as waste
places, field margins and roadsides. The plant has been grown in British gardens and
glasshouses but in 1839 W.J. Hooker considered ‘the plant is often too tall, and its
leaves too coarse and common-looking to render it a general favourite’.
Annotations: Lamiaceae. Stachydeae. Leonotis Nepetifolia R. Br. 1– Corolla densely
hairy, 2– do: cut open, 3– Calyx spinous toothed, 4– Ovary 4-lobed. Abundant in
waste places usually erect from 3 to 7 feet high. Shemoga, 11th Sept ’46.
228 x 290 mm.
CN 210
17. Solanum virginianum L. (SOLANACEAE)
Jacquin’s nightshade, prickly brinjal; nelagulla, raamagulla (Kan); kandangatthari
(Tam); kantakaari (Sans)
In the first paper that he read to the British Association, at the Edinburgh meeting of
1850, ‘On the hedge plants of India’, Cleghorn drew attention to the prevalence of
spiny plants, including this species, in the drier parts of southern India, and their
nuisance to travellers over open ground: ‘The prickles and spines of these plants
wound the barefooted pilgrim, especially during the hot months, when the leaves
having dropped off, the thorns are left bare and exposed, which renders travelling
extremely difficult in some parts, as the spines are so strong as to pierce a shoe or
sandal of dressed leather; and if the weary traveller seek to rest himself, he must
beware as much of thorns, as of red ants, tarantulae, and other biting insects which
infest the soil’. C.L. Willdenow based a new species on Indian material from India
probably sent to him by one of the Tranquebar Missionaries under the Tamil name
‘kandan kattiri’ and named it after Nikolaus von Jacquin, friend of Mozart, who had
illustrated it in one of his lavishly illustrated works based on plants grown in the
Vienna botanic garden. Jacquin had used the Linnaean name S. virginianum, which
was based on American material, but the Indian and American plants are now these
are now regarded as conspecific, the species being a pantropical weed, which
probably originated in the New World.
Annotations: 327. Solanaceae. Solanum Jacquinii (Willd.). Gulagolakee ‘gola gauli
kaayi’ [in Kannada script]. Dewarhutty, 12 Dec: 46.
230 x 296 mm
CN 327
18. Portulaca quadrifida L. (PORTULACACEAE)
Passalaikkeerai (Tam); laghulonika (Sans)
This succulent annual occurs in disturbed habitats all over warm temperate and
tropical parts of the world (except Australia). As noted on this drawing it can be eaten
as a vegetable, and the cultivated purslane (a variety of P. oleracea) is well known as
a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants. The species was described and
illustrated in the seventeenth century by Paul Hermann, a German physician to the
Dutch EIC who made important collections and drawings (used extensively by
Linnaeus) in Ceylon; he was later professor of botany at Leiden. The illustration (now
taken as the type of the species) was published in Hermann’s posthumous catalogue
of the Leiden botanic garden (Paradisus Batavus), under the name ‘Portulaca
Corassavica lanuginosa procumbens’, meaning the ‘woolly, procumbent Portulaca of
Curaçao’, suggests that the Leiden plant originated from the Dutch Antilles. The
woolliness of the plant is variable, but is shown on the bottom right-hand detail – in
one of the leaf axils. Linnaeus later grew the plant, from an Egyptian source, in his
garden at Uppsala; the Linnaean epithet refers to the four-lobed corolla.
Annotations: Portulaceae. Portulaca quadrifida Linn. Wight Ill. t. 109. t. 12. eatable
mixed with Dholl &c boiled as Bagie. St Thome, 6th August 1853.
253 x 363 mm.
CNS 14
19. Boerhavia coccinea Miller (NYCTAGINACEAE)
Spreading hog-weed (Drury); mukuratthai (Tam)
In 1753 Linnaeus described four species in a genus that he named after the great
Dutch medic and botanist Hermann Boerhaave. Linnaeus had studied with Boerhaave
in Leiden, as had Charles Alston, Regius Keeper of RBGE (1716–60). The genus is
difficult taxonomically and is now considered to include about 20 species, mostly
widespread, pantropical, annual weeds. The plant depicted here has generally been
known as B. diffusa, a species based by Linnaeus on specimens from Ceylon,
Jamaica, and a plate in Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus – these are now assigned to
three different species, of which this drawing shows what is known as B. coccinea,
having dark pink flowers, and both terminal and lateral inflorescences. This segregate
species is almost certainly among the forms described (under B. diffusa) by Heber
Drury in his Useful Plants of India (1859) as, despite being a troublesome weed,
having useful medicinal properties – the powdered root was used as a laxative, and an
infusion against parasitic worms; it was also found a ‘good expectorant, and [has]
been prescribed in asthma with marked success, given in the form of powder,
decoction, and infusion’.
Annotations: Nyctaginaceae. Boerhaavia. Pasture land near the sea, St Thomé, 1856.
254 x 362 mm.
CNS 122
20. Vigna trilobata (L.) Verdcourt (LEGUMINOSAE)
Panipayir (Tam); mudgaparni (Sans)
Vigna is an important leguminous genus, to which the mung and adouki beans, and
the black gram also belong. This species, with its pretty, twice-trifoliate leaves was
described as Dolichos trilobatus by Linnaeus, based on an etching in a work of 1696
by Leonard Plukenet (see Display Case III). Plukenet was a London botanist and
physician to Queen Mary, and author of a series of encyclopaedic botanical works,
which included many species sent to him from Fort St George, the EIC headquarters
in Madras. The plants were illustrated and described with long Latin phrase names –
this one was called ‘Trifolium Maderaspatana, cauliculis pilosis, scandens, Passiflorae
modo trilobatus’, that is ‘the three-lobed Madras clover, with small climbing hairy
stems and the habit of a passionflower’ – descriptive, but hardly concise compared
with Linnaeus’ pert binomial. In the RBGE library is Cleghorn’s own copy of the
collected works of Plukenet, and in the herbarium is a specimen of V. trilobata
collected at Fort St George by Dr Edward Bulkley in 1703 under the Tamil name
‘narry-pyetty’. This drawing was made at St Thomé only a short distance south of
Fort St George. Although the seeds are tiny, this species is widely grown in the Indian
Subcontinent and SE Asia (there are also records from Africa and Peru).
Annotations: Fabaceae. Phaseoleae. Phaseolus triblobus? St Thome, Madras, July
1853.
253 x 364 mm.
CNS 59
21. Endosamara racemosa (Roxburgh) R. Geesink (LEGUMINOSAE)
Nagaru thige (Tel)
Cleghorn visited the Calcutta Botanic Garden in December 1855 and from the note on
this drawing he used the opportunity to match some of his unknown plant drawings
with the 2500 ‘Icones’ commissioned in the late eighteenth century by William
Roxburgh. Although this plant had been described by Roxburgh (in the genus
Robinia) his drawing shows the flowers as pink, so Cleghorn did not recognise it and
took his illustration to represent an undescribed species. In 1984 this species (which
occurs throughout Peninsular India, and in Thailand and the Philippines) was placed
in a new genus, characterised by its unique fruits. The inner layer of the pod (the
endocarp) becomes separated from the outer, dries and breaks up to form a papery
wing to each of the seeds – the seeds therefore come to resemble the winged fruit,
‘samara’, of the sycamore. This handsome woody climber was introduced to the
Madras Agri-Horticultural Garden by its secretary, Colonel Francis Archibald Reid
(1804–62), who in 1844 had been ‘Assistant to the General Superintendent of
Operations for the Suppression of Thuggee’ – he found it in what are now called the
Sandur Hills, to the south of the great ruined city of Hampi.
Annotations: Fabaceae. Milletia Nov. spec., not in Roxb. Drawings. Introduced from
Ramanmally Hills by Col. Reid. Hort[icultural] Gard[ens], July 1853.
253 x 357 mm.
CAH 27
22. Ananas comosus (L.) Merrill (BROMELIACEAE)
Pineapple; anaanus (Kan); anashippazham (Tam)
Although known in the West mainly for its delicious fruit, the pineapple is also the
source of an important fibre known as Manilla hemp. At the 1855 Madras Exhibition
‘a series of well dressed and hackled fibres, thread, yarn, twine and tow for sting,
prepared from the common Pine apple’ was exhibited by the School of Industrial Arts
run by Cleghorn’s friend, another Scottish surgeon, Alexander Hunter: it was
described as ‘nearly white, very soft, silky and plant’ and a ‘good substitute for flax’.
The pineapple is native to South America, where it was widely cultivated before
European contact, developed from a wild progenitor probably from Paraguay. It was
soon taken to the Old World, and Sir George Watt, in his Dictionary of Economic
Products of India, recorded that it was ‘introduced by the Portuguese into Bengal in
1594’, the precision of the date being possible as ‘its introduction is expressly
mentioned by Indian authors such as Abdul Fuzl in the Ayeen Akbarí, and again by
the author of Dhara Shekoih’. This exquisite drawing, with its partial colouring,
emphasises the geometrical properties of the compound fruit (a fleshy syncarp) and
shows the terminal tuft of leaves from which a new plant may be propagated.
Annotations: Bromelia Ananas, L. Ananas sativus Schultz. Koppah, 11 Feb ’47.
232 x 293 mm.
CN 379
23. Ocimum tenuiflorum L. (LABIATAE)
Holy basil (Cleghorn cat.); Vishnu thulasi, Shri thulasi (Kan); nalla thulasi, thulasi
(Tam).
The cabinet containing the genus Ocimum is one of the most fragrant in the hebarium!
The genus has about 65 species widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate
parts of the world (especially Africa). The most familiar in Britain is O. basilicum, the
basil much used in Mediterranean cuisine. The sacred basil (better known under its
former name O. sanctum) is widespread in the Indian Subcontinent and SE Asia,
reaching southern China and Australia. In 1857 Robert Brown was sent out from
Edinburgh to succeed Andrew Jaffrey as head gardener at the Madras AgriHorticultural Society. In the second edition (1866) of Brown’s Hand-book of the
Trees, Shrubs and Herbaceous Plants of the garden he noted of the sacred basil that
‘the whole plant is of a dark purple colour, and has a grateful smell. The root is given
in decoctions in fevers, and the juice of the leaves in catarrhal affections in children.
Also an excellent remedy mixed with lime juice, in cutaneous affections, ring work
&c. This plant is considered by the Brahmins as sacred to Vishnoo. The root is made
into beads and worn round the neck and arms of Vishnoo-Brahmins. Cultivated in
gardens and near Pagodas’.
Annotations: 25. ‘thulashi’ [in Kannada script]. Labiatae. Ocimeae. Ocimum Sanctum
L. Purple stalked Basil. Found abundantly in the enclosures round Hindoo templesThe juice highly esteemed as a cure for Cough. Held sacred to Vishnoo. Shemoga,
24–9–’45.
190 x 309 mm
CN 25
24. Carthamus tinctorius L. (COMPOSITAE)
Safflower; kusube enne kaalu, kusube (Kan); sendoorakam (Tam)
The yellow florets of this member of the daisy family are widely known as an inferior
substitute for (or adulterant of) saffron. In 1814, Benjamin Heyne, the official EIC
Madras Naturalist, recorded its use: ‘by the natives to dye their holiday turbans and
other cloths of a beautiful red: the moormen are particularly fond of this colour,
though it recommends itself rather by its brilliancy than its durability’. Heber Drury in
his Useful Plants of India (1859) provided further details: ‘The dried florets yield a
beautiful colouring matter which attaches itself without a mordant. It is chiefly used
for colouring cotton, and produces various shades of pink, rose, crimson, scarlet &c.
In Bangalore silk is dyed with it, but the dye is fugitive and will not bear washing ...
The flower is gathered and rubbed down into a powder, and sold in this state. When
used for dyeing it is put into a cloth, and washed in cold water for a long time, to
remove a yellow colouring matter. It is then boiled, and yields the pink dyeing liquid’.
As noted on this drawing the plant is also cultivated (on the dry plains of Mysore) for
oil, which is extracted from its seed-like fruits. The pale yellow oil used for culinary
purposes, and (at least formerly) for burning in lamps.
Annotations: 93. ‘kusabi’ [in Kannada script]. Matricariaceae (Cynareae D.C.).
Carthamus tinctorius (Willd.). Koosumba Duk. [i.e., Dakhni], Saffron. Cultivated for
the dye as also for the oil. Hurryhur, 17 Jany 1846.
231 x 295 mm
CN 93
25. Datura metel L. (SOLANACEAE)
Purple thorn apple; kari ummatthi gida (Kan); visha ummatthi (Tam); dhatthoora,
unmattha (Sans).
A coarse herb to a metre in height; the flowers can be white or purple – formerly
referred to D. alba and D. fastuosa respectively. It occurs in disturbed habitats
throughout the tropics and there is no agreement over its original home. This is likely
to have been New World, but its Sanskrit name, and use in Indian medicine, suggest
that its occurrence long antedates the arrival of the Portuguese. Like other members of
the genus the plant has gained notoriety from its poisonous alkaloids. In 1810 John
Fleming, Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, wrote: ‘the soporiferous and
intoxicating qualities of the seeds are well known to the inhabitants; and it appears,
from the records of the native Courts of Justice, that these seeds are still employed,
for the same licentious and wicked purposes, as they were formerly’. These
accusations were still being made in Cleghorn’s time and Brown in his 1866
Handbook of the Madras Garden wrote ‘a strong narcotic; in India frequently and
sometimes fatally employed by thieves and others to deprive their victims of the
power of resistance’; in Rajputana it was also reputed to be used, smeared on the
maternal bosom, for female infanticide. Used with suitable caution, however, it has
many more beneficial medicinal uses.
Annotations: 9. ‘ummathi kaayi’ [in Kannada script]. Solanaceae. Datura fastuosa L.
Springs up on rubbish, and seems to be one of those plants which follow man. Very
common, Shemoga, 29 Augt 1845.
195 x 313 mm
CN 9
26. Cannabis sativa L. (CANNABACEAE)
Indian hemp; bhangi gida, gaanjaa gida (Kan); bhangi, ganja (Tam)
This notorious, dioecious, annual herb, has two major uses: northern forms ‘subsp.
sativa’ (especially male plants) are an important source of fibre, at least formerly used
for ropes, fabrics (the origin of the word canvas) and paper; southern forms ‘subsp.
indica’ for their narcotic resin. Heber Drury in his Useful Plants of India described
the various products of the plant thus: ‘The officinal part of the Indian hemp consists
of the dried flowering-tops of the female plant, from which the resin has not been
removed. This is called Gunja. The resin itself, which exudes from the leaves, stem,
and flowers, is called Churrus. And what is known as Bhang is the larger leaves and
capsules without the stalks. The properties of Indian hemp are stimulant, sedative, and
antispasmodic, often equalling opium in its effects ... Gunja has a strong aromatic and
heavy odour, abounds in resin, and is sold in the form of flowering-stalks. Bhang is ...
only slightly resinous: its intoxicating properties are much less. Gunja is smoked like
tobacco. Bhang is not smoked, but pounded up with water into a pulp, so as to make a
drink highly conducive to health, and people accustomed to it seldom get sick’.
Clearly, then, as now, there have been different attitudes to its benefits to human
health and from his annotation on this drawing, Cleghorn’s view tended towards the
censorious.
Annotations: 28. Urticaceae. Cannabieae. Cannabis sativa L. Cultivated (too much).
1– A nut, 2– Vertical section. Shemoga, 29–9–’45.
192 x 245 mm.
CN 28
27. Cuscuta chinensis Lamarck (CONVOLVULACEAE)
Chinese dodder
The dodders form a cosmopolitan genus of about 145 species belonging to the same
family as morning glories, from which they differ in being parasites, with reduced
vegetative parts and lacking in chlorophyll, which obtain their nutrition from a
vascular plant host. This species was first described in 1794 by Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck from a specimen twining round a basil plant in the Jardin du Roi in Paris – it
is thought that its seeds had arrived from China, mixed with those of the basil. The
species has a wide distribution from Ethiopia through Afghanistan and India to China
and Australia and grows on a notably wide variety of host plants. The individual
shown here (of which the specimen survives in the RBGE herbarium – see Display
Case I) was growing on a member of the family Acanthaceae (perhaps a species of
Justicia) forming a garden hedge in St Thomé, the suburb of Madras where Cleghorn
lived at this time. In South India Robert Wight recorded it on the rosy periwinkle and
an Amaranthus, and J.S. Gamble on Ipomoea pes-caprae (a member of the same
family, so verging on the cannibalistic); in China it is a major parasite of soybean.
The seeds of the plant have been used medicinally for skin complaints (including acne
and dandruff).
Annotations: Cuscuta. Parasitic on an Acanthaceous Hedge. St Thomé, 12 Septr 1854.
219 x 278 mm.
CNS 102
28. Calophyllum polyanthum Choisy (GUTTIFERAE)
Poon spar tree; koove, ponne, siriponne hoo (Kan); pinnai, pongu (Tam)
The preservation of the poon spar tree of the Western Ghats of Canara (Karnataka),
was one of the major concerns of Alexander Gibson in Bombay and Cleghorn in
Madras, as its timber was in great demand for making ships’ masts. Despite this, there
was uncertainty over the correct botanical name of the tree that supplied this valuable
commodity, and this drawing was made in order to throw light on the problem. The
influential Robert Wight (followed by E.G. Balfour) considered the source of the
valuable ‘poon spars’ to be Dillenia pentagyna; but Cleghorn (and Gibson) at this
point knew that it was a Calophyllum, though there remained confusion over the
species concerned – Cleghorn initially knew it under the name C. angustifolium of
Roxburgh (a species from Penang), but it is now known to be C. polyanthum.
This drawing, looking like a copy of an engraving, is likely to have been made with
publication in mind. However, the annotation shows it to have been made from a
dried specimen (which still exists in the RBGE herbarium – see Display Case II) sent
to Cleghorn by Mr S. Müller his assistant Conservator in North Canara. Müller
(unlike Cleghorn) had received a professional training in forestry, in the Black Forest
of Germany.
Annotations: Calophyllum. True Poon Spar from Mr S. Muller. From a dried
specimen. N[orth] Canara, Feb /58.
219 x 281 mm.
CNS 16
29. Hopea ponga (Dennstedt) Mabberley (DIPTEROCARPACEAE)
Ilappongu (Mal); haiga (Kan).
Like many ‘dipterocarps’, this is an important timber tree; it can reach 20 metres in
height and occurs in evergreen forest of the Western Ghats from southern
Maharashtra to southern Tamil Nadu. This drawing was made (and a specimen
collected, still in the RBGE herbarium – see Display Case II) in 1857 on Cleghorn’s
route from Bangalore to Mangalore, at the start of his first forest tour. The drawing
shows the wings that develop from two of the calyx lobes (which help to disperse the
fruit), but does not show the most characteristic feature of this species, the spiny galls,
caused by the scale insect Mangalorea hopeae, that commonly occur in leaf axils and
on the inflorescence. These figured prominently in Rheede’s illustration of ‘Ponga’ in
the fourth volume of his Hortus Malabaricus of 1683, where they were mistaken for
fruits (see Display Case III). This misled taxonomists and the German botanist A.W.
Dennstedt took it to be an Artocarpus (related to breadfruit and jak fruit). The genus
was named by William Roxburgh after his teacher John Hope, Regius Keeper of
RBGE 1761–86. Francis Buchanan, another Hope pupil, had (like Dennstedt) tried to
identify the plants depicted in Hortus Malabaricus, but identified it as a Broussonetia
(paper mulberry). Only in 1960 was it finally realised to be a dipterocarp, previously
known as Hopea wightiana.
Annotations: Hopea. Boon Ghaut, April /57.
Signed P. Govindoo.
231 x 301 mm.
CNS 17
30. Vateria indica L. (DIPTEROCARPACEAE)
White dammar tree, piney varnish, Indian copal; dhoopada mara (Kan);
vellaikoondricam (Tam)
This species was named by Linnaeus, based on a description and illustration under the
name ‘Paenoe’ in Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus (1683). At this time very large trees
must have existed, as Rheede described trunks being hollowed out to make boats that
could hold 60 or more men! The timber is not greatly valued, but has been used for
making coffins and packing cases, and is now in demand in Kerala for plywood.
However, this large evergreen tree, which occurs in the forests of the Western Ghats
of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu (up to an altitude of 1220 metres), has other
economic uses, as shown by the common names. The resin from the bark, as also
noted by Rheede (boiled with oil), is used as a pitch or varnish. Up to 50 % of the
seed is made up of a fat, known as Malabar tallow, which has traditionally been used
to make soap and candles. This drawing, which shows the fruit, with its characteristic
persistent and reflexed calyx, was made at Mangalore on the Malabar Coast, the day
after Cleghorn finished writing the first of his Forest Reports for the Madras
Government. Cleghorn admired the beauty of this species as an avenue tree in
Malabar and Canara, but in December 1855 lamented the waste of the fruits that were
allowed to rot, and recommended that experiments be made on the tallow for use as a
lubricant for the wheels of railway rolling stock: he thought this a possiblity as the fat
remained solid at 95˚F.
Annotations: Vateria Indica. Mangalore, 2 May /58.
230 x 272 mm.
CNS 18
31. Garcinia morella (Gaertner) Desrousseaux (GUTTIFERAE)
Gamboge; aradaala, arisina gurgi (Kan).
One of the chief motives of the EIC was to find economically useful plants in India to
reduce the need for expensive imports, and here is an example. In 1852 Cleghorn
srote: ‘Finding my colour-box becoming exhausted, I have been enabled to supply ...
all its deficiencies without difficulty from the natural products of the surrounding
forests of the Malabar Ghauts, including yellow from the Garcinia’.
The pigment gamboge then came from Ceylon and Siam, so Cleghorn, while
accompanying a party making a road survey in the Nuggur district, was delighted to
find it growing wild in Western India (see Display Case II). The gum is used not only
as a pigment but has medicinal uses and Cleghorn sent specimens back to Edinburgh
where they were analysed by Robert Christison, his old teacher and Professor of
Materia Medica. This drawing was copied and sent to Christison who published it as a
woodcut in the Pharmaceutical Journal (see Display Case IV). The genus (to which
the mangosteen also belongs) is difficult taxonomically and there was much
discussion in which Robert Graham, Regius Keeper of RBGE 1820–45, was involved.
He placed this species in a new genus, based on the circumscissile dehiscence of the
anthers, from which he derived a generic name Hebradendron (literally Jew-tree),
which, perhaps fortunately, has been subsumed back into Garcinia.
Annotations: 118. ‘Arashanagorag’ [in Kannada script]. Garciniaceae. Hebradendron
Cambogioides (Grah[am]). Garcinia pictoria (Rox[burgh]). ordinary [i.e. life-] size
[against a leaf outline]. A tree 30 to 50 feet high. Nuggur, 27 Feb 1846.
178 x 228 mm.
CN 118
32. Santalum album L. (SANTALACEAE)
Sandalwood; gandhada mara, shreegandha (Kan); sandhanam (Tam); chandana
(Sans).
In the Jury Report of the 1855 Madras Exhibition the wood of this small tree was
described as ‘chiefly remarkable for its agreeable fragrance, which is a preservative
against insects. It is much used in making work-boxes, walking sticks, penholders,
and other small articles of fine ornament, but cannot be procured of a large size’.
Alexander Hunter at the Madras School of Art made ‘many hundred of engravings’
upon the wood, and found it almost the equal of boxwood. In Karnataka it is still
highly valued for carving, for the extraction of oil, making incense and the powder, as
a paste, for making tilak marks on the forehead. In Cleghorn’s time sandalwood was
still ‘found in abundance in Coorg and Mysore, and sparingly in Canara’, occurring in
‘a belt between the Mulnàd (rain country), and Maidan (open plain)’. One of
Cleghorn’s jobs as Conservator was to preserve this valuable timber, and to prevent
smuggling – Mapillas (Kerala Muslims) were in the habit of entering Mysore territory
and taking it back to the coast where they exchanged it with Kurumbas for salt-fish
and coconuts. The plants regenerate freely from seed and in Mysore Colkars managed
wild stocks by preventing their being over-run with creepers; after about 20 years the
stems could be ‘cut into billets, which are classed according to size, and disposed of
[i.e., sold by Government] by weight’.
Annotations: 35. ‘gandhadha mara’ [in Kannada script]. Santalaceae. Santalum album
L. Shemoga, 15–10–’45.
195 x 314 mm.
CN 35
33. Tectona grandis L. f. (LABIATAE)
Teak; saaguvaani mara, thaegada mara (Kan); thaekku maram (Tam); saaka (Sans).
One of the most important timber trees of India, in Cleghorn’s time much prized for
ship building. This drawing (and a related herbarium specimen – see Display Case II)
is of great significance for the history of forest conservation in India. During a survey
of Mysore in 1800/1 Francis Buchanan (who studied at RBGE under John Hope in
1780) noted teak in abundance to the west of Shimoga. When Cleghorn revisited this
area 45 years later he was shocked by the decline in teak, which he attributed to the
burning of forests for shifting cultivation (‘kumri’). It was this that ignited his own
interest in forest conservation; to his writing a seminal report on the effects of tropical
deforestation for the British Association in 1851/2; and, in 1856, the setting up of the
Madras Forest Department. In 1862 Cleghorn wrote: ‘This well-known and far-famed
tree grows straight and lofty, with cross-armed panicles of showy white flowers. It
seems to require eighty years to attain perfection. The wood is very hard but easily
worked; it is soon seasoned, and, being oily, does not injure iron [tools], and shrinks
little. It is probably the most durable timber known; hence its value in ship-building ...
It is a matter of regret, considering the vast importance of teak timber to England as a
maritime nation, that the preservation of the teak forests was so long disregarded’.
Annotations: 18. ‘thyaga’ [in Kannada script]. Verbenaceae. Tectona Grandis
Thun[berg]. Shemoga, 15–9–’45
194 x 313 mm
CN 18
34. Murdannia spirata (L.) G. Brückner (COMMELINACEAE)
Though this exquisite plant was drawn in a Madras garden, it is, technically speaking,
an arable weed – showing the subjective nature of such definitions. It would not,
however, make a good garden plant as the flowers are extremely short-lived. It is a
widespread annual, occurring from India and Sri Lanka, through SE Asia to the
Philippines and Java. This genus was described in 1840 by John Forbes Royle, whom
Cleghorn assisted arranging Indian plant products for the Great Exhibition. The name
was given by Royle ‘in compliment to Murdan Aly, a plant collector and keeper of the
Herbarium at Saharunpore ... who had acquired a remarkable tact and quickness in
detecting new plants, as well as in remembering the characters by which genera and
families are distinguished, so as to be able at once to arrange a new discovery in its
appropriate place’. Murdan was only the second Indian to be commemorated in a
generic name. The plant is related to the tradescantia, and the distinguishing
characters of the genus are well shown in the ‘exploded’ flower at bottom left –
opposite the three sepals are three fertile stamens with bearded filaments; between
which are three sterile staminodes, each with a three-lobed antherode.
Annotations: Commelina sp. [Agri-]Horticultural Gardens, 1856.
231 x 267 mm.
CAH 139
35. Hygroryza aristata (Retzius) Nees (GRAMINEAE)
Valli pullu (Tam)
This floating, aquatic, feathery-rooted grass can form large masses on lakes, tanks and
slow-moving streams. It is the only member of a genus described by the German
botanist Christian Nees von Esenbeck in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal in
1833. The generic name, literally ‘water rice’, is appropriate as it belongs to the same
Tribe of the grass family as the cultivated rice, Oryza sativa. This relationship is seen
in the structure of the spikelet shown on this drawing mid-left – the single flower
consists of an ovary with two feathery stigmas, six stamens (most grasses have three),
two white, basal lodicules, an awned, pink-tinged lemma (to right), a greenish palea
(to left), with no subtending glumes. The species, widespread in India and Sri Lanka
also occurring in SE Asia and into southern China, was first described by the Swedish
botanist Anders Retzius from material sent to him from India, possibly by J.G. König
from the Coromandel Coast. The grass is palatable to cattle and the seeds are said to
be eaten by people, though probably only as a famine food. When Rheede described
and illustrated it in his Hortus Malabaricus in 1690, he recorded an arcane medicinal
use: that ‘tickling of ears, contracted slowly from blocking by phlegm, is removed by
this plant boiled in the oil of Sergelim’.
Annotations: Floating in shallow tanks – Common. H.C[leghorn]. A[gri-]
H[orticultural] Gardens, [Madras], Oct 1855.
207 x 244 mm.
CAH 144
36. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Persoon (GRAMINEAE)
Bermuda grass; hurryallee grass (Cleghorn); arugam pul (Tam); durva (Sans); garika
gaddi, ghericha (Tel); doob (Hind).
This species occurs throughout tropical and warm temperate parts of the world, and
was described (in the genus Panicum) by Linnaeus based on specimens from
Portugal. It was known to earlier authors including Caspar Bauhin, from whom
Linnaeus took the epithet, meaning ‘finger’, from the narrow, radiating spikes of the
inflorescence. Due to its leafy stolons it is a popular tropical lawn grass, and makes
good fodder, especially for horses. Cleghorn had this drawing lithographed for his
1855 ‘Memorandum on Indian grasses’ for the Madras Military Department (see
Display Case IV). The plant is used medicinally, and is of significance to Hindus as
one of the plants on which the nectar of immortality (amrita) fell during the churning
of the primeval ocean. It was one of the 78 Indian plants on which Sir William Jones
published in 1795, quoting the A’t’harvana Veda: ‘May Dúrvà, which rose from the
water of life, which has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, efface a hundred of my
sins, and prolong my existence on earth for a hundred years’. It is sacred to the
elephant-headed god Ganesh, used in funeral rites, and given to newly wed daughters
when departing for their husbands’ homes. The artist who has taken such pains with
this drawing doubtless agreed with Jones, who thought ‘its flowers, in their perfect
state, are among the loveliest objects in the vegetable world, and appear, thro’ a lens,
like minute rubies and emeralds in constant motion from the least breath of air’.
Annotations: Cynodon dactylon. Doob. Hind., Gerickay. Tel. ... Tam. St Thome, Novr
1855.
220 x 270 mm.
CNS 158
37. Rubia cordifolia L. (RUBIACEAE)
Indian madder; manjitti, poovatthu, shevelli (Tam); manjishta (Sans)
The root and woody stems of various species of the genus Rubia (including the
European R. tinctoria) yield the red dye madder. There is, however, confusion over
the correct name for what is probably a complex of similar, untidily sprawling,
species occurring in hilly parts of Asia and Africa. The dye-yielding species of the
Himalaya is now known as R. manjith, but the South Indian form shown here is still
known under the name R. cordifolia. In Cleghorn’s second Forest Report (1859) he
wrote, under the name ‘munjit’, of the plant depicted here that ‘Samples of this dyeroot have been sent to Calcutta and England for experimental trial and report. The
product is abundant upon the slopes of the Nilgiris; and if it could be prepared for
export so as to be packed in small compass, a trade would probably spring up. There
appears to be very little difference between the Nilgiri and Punjab article’. This
exquisite drawing resembles the copies that Cleghorn’s artists made for him from
engravings, but as no model can be found it must represent a carefully composed
plate, perhaps prepared for publication in connection with Cleghorn’s commercial
interest in the plant.
Annotations: Rubia cordifolia. Nilgiri.
225 x 279 mm.
CNS 77
38. Impatiens parasitica Beddome (BALSAMINACEAE)
The genus Impatiens is richly represented in the Western Ghats, and species still
remain to be described. This one was described only in the year of this drawing – by
Lieut. Richard Henry Beddome in a paper in the Madras Journal of Literature and
Science (of which Cleghorn was an editor). Beddome was Cleghorn’s assistant
Conservator, responsible for the rich forests of the Anamallai (‘elephant hill’) range,
and this species may have been collected on the expedition to the area with Cleghorn
the previous year. This species is restricted to the Anamallai and adjacent hills,
growing on tree trunks between 1500 and 2100 metres. When Beddome published a
plate of this species in 1874, he noted that it was by then cultivated in the Nilgiris: ‘a
most profuse bloomer, a small mass in a pot being often covered with 60 or 80
flowers and remaining in full bloom from May till November; it is quite hardy in the
open air in Ootacamund, never being injured by the slight frosts we experience, it
grows admirably in lumps of brick and charcoal’. This drawing is unusual among the
collection in showing the plant in a habitat setting; the 1874 lithograph, though based
on a different drawing, signed ‘Alwis’, shows a similar habitat, and it is therefore just
possible that this drawing may also be the work of one of the de Alwis family of
botanical artists who were based at the Peradenyia garden in Ceylon.
Annotations: Impatiens nov. sp. I. parasitica. Anamallai, Sept. 59.
227 x 276 mm.
CNS 24
39. Rudbeckia amplexicaulis Vahl (COMPOSITAE)
Clasping coneflower
An annual herb to 70 cm, which occurs in moist, disturbed habitats in the southeastern states of the USA and Mexico, but is widely cultivated and sometimes
escapes. It was grown in botanic gardens in Madrid, and probably also Vienna, in the
1790s, but was introduced into cultivation to Britain forty years later, by Thomas
Drummond from New Orleans and Texas. Drummond, who for a period took over the
running of George Don’s botanic garden in Forfar, was a significant North American
plant collector, who, after 1831, collected for the Glasgow Botanic Garden before
coming to a sticky end in Havana in 1835. From the annotation on the drawing the
plant may have been sent to the Lalbagh garden in Bangalore from the Cape of Good
Hope. This North American genus was named by Linnaeus for his teacher Olof
Rudbeck, professor of medicine at Uppsala, and is characterised by its prominent
conical receptacle to which the disc florets (shown here in details top and bottom
right) are attached. The disc florets are often dark in colour, giving rise to another
common name for the genus: black-eyed Susan. (This species is sometimes still
placed in a segregate genus as Dracopis amplexicaulis, the name on this drawing).
Annotations: Senecionidae. Dracopis amplexicaulis, Cass[ini]. (D.C. prod[romus]. V.
558.). [C(ape of) G(ood) H(ope) – deleted]. Mexico. Lalbagh Garden, 25 Nov 1859.
248 x 319 mm.
CMG 37
40. Oenothera tetraptera Cavanilles (ONAGRACEAE)
This evening primrose was described by Antonio Cavanilles from plants growing in
the Madrid botanic garden, which had been sent from Sotoluca in Mexico and
flowered in 1795. According to William Curtis, who described and illustrated it in the
Botanical Magazine in 1800, it was introduced to Britain by way of seeds given by
Casimiro Gomez Ortega, director of the Madrid garden, to the Marchioness of Bute.
This was Charlotte (née Windsor), whose husband, the first Marquess of Bute, was
British Ambassador to Spain from 1795 to 1798 (his father, the third Earl, was the
botanical Prime Minister whose patronage allowed John Hope to move the RBGE to
its Leith Walk site in 1763). According to Curtis when the flowers of this species
open they are pure white, ‘but in the morning they change to a purple colour, fade,
and their place is supplied by a fresh succession’. Clearly those shown here are in the
latter stage; also shown in the drawing is a fruit with the four wings from which the
epithet is derived. It is not known when this species, which is native from Texas,
through Mexico to Colombia and western Venezuela, was introduced to India, but by
the 1880s it had escaped and become naturalised both in the Nilgiri Hills and on the
grassy slopes below Simla in the Himalaya.
Annotations: Onagraceae. Œnothera. Richardson’s Garden, Yercaud – Salem.
217 x 273 mm.
CMG 28
41. Combretum coccineum (Sonnerat) Lamarck (COMBRETACEAE)
Scarlet Poivrea (Brown cat.), Madagascar or scarlet combretum; L’aigrette
(Sonnerat); chigonier de Madagascar (Lamarck)
This spectacular climbing shrub was a favourite in British hothouses in the nineteenth
century and was in cultivation at RBGE by 1827. It is native to Madagascar, and one
of several spectacular plants introduced from there to Mauritius, and thence to the rest
of the world. It was first described by Pierre Sonnerat while naturalist on an
expedition to India and China (1774–81) sponsored by Louis XVI. Sonnerat later
worked as a naturalist based in Pondicherry, where he commissioned botanical
drawings from Indian artists, but William Roxburgh was dismissive of his botanical
abilities. According to the nurseryman George Loddiges the flowering panicles of this
plant could be ‘above a foot in each direction ... composed of an innumerable mass of
blossoms, which are of the most brilliant red that can be conceived’. In his 1866
Handbook of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Garden, R.N. Brown noted that it was ‘a
very elegant climbing shrub, well adapted for covering trellis work’. The generic
name on the drawing is one given by A.P. de Candolle to include this and several
other species and commemorates Pierre Poivre, Sonnerat’s uncle, and founder of the
Mauritius botanic garden, but the genus is no longer regarded as distinct from
Combretum. (See Display Case I).
Annotations: Poivrea. Horticultural Gardens [Madras], May 1855.
234 x 294 mm.
CAH 39
42. Furcraea cf. foetida (L.) Haworth (AGAVACEAE)
Mauritius hemp; seemai katthaalai (Tam)
A genus of about 20 species of large, succulent, rosette plants from tropical America;
the flowers have characteristically swollen filaments (top right) and styles. Most are
‘hapaxanthic’, that is, die after flowering, and several, including this one, are
cultivated for fibre extracted from the leaves. This species propagates itself by bulbils
that develop into plants, which arise on the inflorescence where flowers have fallen.
The genus was named, by E.P. Ventenat, after Antoine François Fourcroy, a
distinguished chemist and naturalist with a somewhat clouded reputation for the role
he played (or didn’t) as a member of the Convention during the French Revolution in
which the great chemist Antoine Lavoisier lost his head. In 1855, under the name F.
gigantea, fibre from this species (5–6 feet in length) was exhibited by A.T. Jaffrey
from the Agri-Horticultural Garden, which was said to be ‘a little finer than the Agave
fibre, but possessed of similar properties’. In South India the plant is widely
naturalised: in Karnataka, at least, growing in slightly wetter areas than the various
naturalised species of Agave. In common with many groups of which it is hard to
make herbarium specimens, the taxonomy and definition of species within the genus
is uncertain, and J.R. Drummond and D. Prain in 1906 doubted the identity of the
‘Mauritius Hemp plant of S. India’ with true F. foetida.
Annotations: Amaryllidaceae. Fourcroya gigantia Vent[enat]. [Agri-]Hort[icultural]
Gardens, 2nd August /53.
254 x 364 mm.
CAH 138
43. Pelargonium cf. inquinans (L.) L’Héritier (GERANIACEAE)
Scarlet geranium (Cleghorn cat.)
In the wild this species is a softly woody shrub up to two metres in height, restricted
to the area between the Eastern Cape and Transkei of South Africa. It is used there
medicinally (for headaches and colds) and to assist with (or at least disguise) personal
hygiene problems. It was one of the first pelargoniums to be cultivated in Europe and
has been widely used in hybridization (the drawing may not be the ‘pure’ species). It
was described in the genus Geranium by Linnaeus, who cited earlier descriptions and
illustrations including one made in James Sherard’s garden at Eltham published by
J.J. Dillenius in 1732, but it was first grown in England by Henry Compton, Bishop of
London, in his garden at Fulham Palace. The species was transferred to the genus
Pelargonium by the French botanist Charles-Louis L’Héritier de Brutelle during his
stay in London in 1786/7. The circumstances were strange: L’Héritier had fled France
with the South American herbarium of Joseph Dombey, which became the subject of
a diplomatic incident between France and Spain. He took the opportunity to study the
plants in London herbaria and gardens, and left a manuscript on Geraniaceae with
Joseph Banks, some of which (including this species) were published in Hortus
Kewensis. The full manuscript was never published as L’Héritier’s life was cut short
in 1800, the victim of an unknown assassin. The epithet, which means ‘stained’, refers
to the leaves which Linnaeus believed turned brownish when handled.
Annotations: Geranium. Garden, Bangalore.
185 x 275 mm.
CMG 8
44. Ochroma pyramidale (Lamarck) Urban (BOMBACACEAE)
Balsa wood tree, down tree, downy-leaved ochroma (Cleghorn cat.)
This tree, which grows to 20 metres, is native to tropical America (from Mexico to
Brazil) and the West Indies. It is renowned for its extremely light wood, which (at
least until the advent of computer games) was much favoured by small boys for
making model aeroplanes. Given its properties and handsome, bat-pollinated, flowers
it was noted by early travellers to the Antilles and formally described in the Linnaean
system under various names at the end of the eighteenth century. Although Antonio
Cavanilles coined the name Bombax pyramidale and made an excellent description
and plate of the plant, it was J.B. Lamarck who first published Cavanilles’ name. The
Swede Olof Swartz first described the genus in which it is now placed, and called it
Ochromus lagopus, one of the names on this drawing. Humboldt and Bonpland found
the tree in Mexico in 1787, and the latter described it in his account of the botanical
finds of their travels under the other name appearing on this drawing – Cheirostemon
platanodies. This generic name, literally ‘hand-stamen’, refers to the five fused
stamens, which wrap like a hand around the spirally-twisted stigma. The inside walls
of the long, five-angled fruit are covered in long brown hairs, called by Lamarck a
‘duvet’. This was one of the ‘silk cottons’ exhibited at the 1855 Madras Exhibition,
then used only for stuffing pillows, but of potential use in paper making. Alexander
Tulloch (1788–1878) was a senior officer with the 33rd Madras Regiment of Native
Infantry, and in 1855 was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Agri-Horticultural
Society.
Annotations: Bombacaceae. Ochroma lagopus. Cheirostemon platanoides
H[umboldt]. & B[onpland]. Genl. Tulloch’s Garden, Madras. Fl. Feb ’57.
482 x 305 mm.
CMG 1
45. Fuchsia cultivar ‘Princeps’ (ONAGRACEAE)
Prince’s fuchsia
The genus has about 105 species mainly in Central and South America (with one in
Tahiti and four in New Zealand); its name commemorates the sixteenth century
herbalist Leonhart Fuchs. Many of the species have red flowers and are pollinated by
hummingbirds. One of the first to be cultivated was F. magellanica, discovered on the
Straits of Magellan by the French naturalist and explorer Philibert Commerson in
1768; this is widespread in Chile and Argentina and was described by Lamarck in
1788. The following year (under the name F. coccinea) it was illustrated in the
Botanical Magazine, when it was said to be obtainable from the firm of Lee of
Hammersmith. Fuchsias became extremely popular in the first half of the 19th century
and F. magellanica (which has contributed largely to the makeup of this cultivar) was
used extensively in selection and hybridization. Of these F. magellanica ‘Riccartonii’
is one of the best known, raised c. 1835 by James Young, gardener on the GibsonCraig estate of Riccarton, now the campus of Heriot-Watt University on the outskirts
of Edinburgh. ‘Princeps’ was raised by Robert Prince in 1852 in the Exeter nursery of
Lucombe and Prince. The epithet, meaning ‘chief’ or ‘head’, though apt for an
exceptionally handsome plant, was doubtless also a pun on the breeder’s surname.
Annotations: Onagrarieae. Fuchsia princeps. Ut[akamun]d, 30 Sept [?1859].
243 x 288 mm.
CMG 27
46. Stigmaphyllon aristatum Lindley (MALPIGHIACEAE)
Awned stigmaphyllon (Lindley); awn-leafed stigmaphyllum (Cleghorn cat.)
Stigmaphyllon is a genus of woody vines, with around 100 species in tropical
America, named for the three expanded, green, ‘leaf-like’ stigmas that curve over the
three largest of the stamens. This species was described in 1834 in the Botanical
Register by John Lindley, based on cultivated material from ‘South America’ growing
in the hothouse of a Mrs Marryatt of Wimbledon. Nothing else is known of this
species, or its origin, though clearly it was in cultivation long enough to have reached
Madras by the 1850s. Much more commonly cultivated as an ornamental in the
tropics (including India) is S. ciliatum and it is not certain that S. aristatum is really
distinct from that species, which appears to differ in only superficial characters
including having unlobed, ovate leaves and petals that are not densely fringed.
Annotations: Malpighiaceae. Stigmaphyllon aristatum Lind[ley]. Bot. Reg. t. 1659. S.
America. Hortl Gardens, 10 March 1855.
230 x 284 mm.
CAH 19
47. Passiflora caerulea L. (PASSIFLORACEAE)
Blue passion-flower (Cleghorn cat.)
Passiflora is a large genus of about 430 species of climbers, occurring throughout the
tropics except Africa. This is perhaps the best known species, hardy outdoors even in
Britain where it was introduced in 1699, and native from Brazil to Argentina. It
occurs in many varieties and has been widely used in hybridization. It can climb to a
length of 15 metres and has edible orange fruits. The genus was clearly a great
favourite in Madras – no fewer than 14 species or varieties are listed in Cleghorn’s
1853 catalogue of the Madras Agri-Horticultural garden, and there are drawings of
eight of these in his collection. The generic and English names refer to the bizarre
floral structure, which is said to have been used by early Spanish/Portuguese
missionaries as a teaching aid to illustrate the instruments of Christ’s passion – the
five yellow anthers representing the wounds, the purple stigmas (here four, but
usually three) the nails, the corona of filaments (outgrowths from the top of the calyx
tube) the crown of thorns, the awned sepals the lance, and the tendrils the whips. In an
interesting recent cross-cultural adaptation, this symbolism has been translated into an
Indian version relating to Krishna. The original Krishna-kamal was the blue waterlily,
but this has been (at least partly) transferred to the blue passion-flower, the five
stamens representing the Pandhava brothers
Annotations: Passiflora. Horticultural Gardens, 17th May 1855.
231 x 293 mm.
CAH 48
48. Spathodea campanulata P. Beauvois (BIGNONIACEAE)
African tulip tree; paatadi (Tam)
A large, usually evergreen, tree to 21 metres tall, widespread in tropical Africa, but
now popular as a street tree throughout the tropics for its brilliantly coloured flowers.
It was first described from West Africa by the French botanist Palisot de Beauvois in
1805, and introduced to British hothouses where Joseph Paxton flowered it for the
Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth in 1852. It is not known when the tree was
introduced to India, but when this spectacular drawing was made in 1855 Cleghorn
had difficulty identifying it, suggesting that it was probably then a recent introduction.
Cleghorn sought help with identification from his friend the Madras Civil Servant
Walter Elliot of Wolfelee, lending Elliot his own copy of the volume of De
Candolle’s Prodromus with the account of Bignoniaceae; Elliot’s reply of 5 March
1856, with its correct identification, was pinned by Cleghorn to the drawing and
survives. The flower buds, with their spathe-like calyx (from which the generic name
is derived), are filled with fluid, and can be used as water pistols by mischievous
children – accounting for the common names of ‘fountain tree’ and ‘squirt tree’. (See
Display Case I).
Annotations: Bignon[iaceae]. Spathodea campanulata vide Bot. Mag. [plate 5091,
1859]. AH Gardens. 17 March 1855. (Extensive description and drawing of leaf on
verso).
321 x 498 mm.
CAH 79
49. Clerodendrum calamitosum L. (LABIATAE)
Hurtful clerodendron (Hooker)
A shrub to two metres in height, first described from Java. It is probably native only
in Indonesia, but is widespread in SE Asia. Widely cultivated pantropically, it has
escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in habitats such as sugar plantations,
and is a weed in Kerala. Sir William Hooker illustrated it in the Botanical Magazine
in 1862, when it had ‘only recently been known in our gardens’, describing it as ‘a
modest, unobtrusive plant, with .... pure white blossoms’. Hooker also gave the
etymology of the strange epithet: ‘the earlier known species [of Clerodendrum] were
supposed to have medicinal properties ... two suspected of being injurious or
poisonous were called infortunatum and calamitosum’. As noted on the drawing this
plant reached Madras from Calcutta – the note is in the hand of A.T. Jaffrey,
supervisor of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society’s Garden from 1853 to 1857.
Jaffrey had previously worked for the Caledonian Horticultural Society in Edinburgh
and had been selected for the Madras job by J.H. Balfour, Regius Keeper of RBGE.
Cleghorn, reporting back to Balfour, considered Jaffrey ‘a capital Gardener but like
Scotchmen, of that class, is marvellously free and easy – and speaks to Lord Harris
[Governor of Madras] in a manner which I would not venture to do’. (See Display
Case I).
Annotations: Clerodendron fragrans vera A.T. J[affrey]. ?H.C. Intd. from Calcutta.
1855. A.T.J.
225 x 272 mm.
CAH 105
50. Nicandra physalodes (L.) Gaertner (SOLANACEAE)
Physalis-like Nicandra (Cleghorn cat.); sudakka thakkali (Tam)
This annual herb is native to Peru, but is widely cultivated as an ornamental in
Europe, Asia and North America. It was first described in the deadly nightshade
genus, Atropa, by Linnaeus, based on a plant grown in his garden at Uppsala, from
seed sent him by Bernard de Jussieu collected on the 1735 French Expedition to South
America by Bernard’s brother Joseph. Linnaeus considered this species to be
intermediate between the genera Atropa and Physalis. It resembles the latter (to which
belongs the Cape gooseberry, Physalis peruviana), in the sepals, which grow greatly
after flowering to enclose the fruit. It was later placed in its own genus. The plant, like
many members of the nightshade family, contains alkaloids, and it is said to ward off
flies, hence the common name ‘shoo fly’. Cleghorn’s identification on the drawing is
incorrect, referring to another species with an ‘accrescent’ calyx now known as
Withania somnifera.
Annotations: Physalis somnifera. Domesticated. Ootac[amun]d, 16 Augt 1859.
256 x 319 mm.
CMG 55
51. Tacca leontopetaloides (L.) Kuntze (DIOSCOREACEAE)
Kaattu karunai (Tam)
The tuber of this species (shown faintly at top right) was formerly an important source
of starch; though the tubers are bitter and poisonous in the raw state, the starch can be
extracted by maceration and careful washing. The plant is probably native in SE Asia,
where it is a coastal species, dispersed by its floating, corky fruits, but widely
cultivated in the Pacific Islands and Africa. Under the name on this drawing it was
described from Tahiti by Johann Reinhold & Georg Forster from Captain Cook’s
second voyage, and it has been known (and exported) as Polynesian or Tahitian
arrowroot. It had, however, been previously (1741) described and illustrated by the
Swiss-born, St Petersburg-based, botanist Johann Amman from ‘India’ under the
name ‘Leontopetaloides’, on which Linnaeus based his Leontice leontopetaloides.
Though it had been grown in India earlier (it was imported from Malaya to Madras by
a Dr Harris, who sent it to Roxburgh in Calcutta in 1800), an associated drawing of a
tuber records that the plant illustrated here was a recent introduction to the Madras
Garden (from Mergui, Burma, in 1853). Tubers, which Roxburgh reported could be
the size of a child’s head, were exhibited at the 1855 Madras Exhibition.
Annotations. Fig. 8. Tacca pinnatifida. Hort[icultural] G[ardens] Madras.
221 x 278 mm.
CAH 134
52. Dioscorea bulbifera L. (DIOSCOREACEAE)
Bulbous-rooted yam (Cleghorn cat.), air potateo, Otaheite yam; pannukkizhangu
(Tam); varaahikanda (Sans)
Yams form a large genus of c. 630 species that occur throughout tropical and warm
temperate parts of the world – the name Dioscorea commemorates Pedanius
Dioscorides the first-century Greek physician, whose De Materia Medica was the
most important herbal for more than a thousand years. The plants are climbers
growing from underground tubers and some, including this species, also have bulbils
in the leaf axils – the tubers and bulbils are starch-rich and an important food source.
Some have medicinal uses, and several species provide diosgenin, a precursor of
progesterone used in the manufacture of contraceptives. The species shown here is
probably native in India, but is widely cultivated pantropically. The plants are
dioecious and that shown here is female, having flowers with inferior, three-angled
ovaries (the hermaphrodite flower, centre right, and the stamen at top are
unconvincing and redundant). In the Cleghorn collection is a series of drawings of
yam tubers made for his friend, the ethnobotanically- and antiquarian-minded Walter
Elliot. Elliot was stationed in the Northern Circars in what is now Andhra Pradesh and
wrote a dictionary of Telugu plant names. Associated with the tuber drawings are
ones of the vegetative parts of the various species and varieties made in the AgriHorticultural Garden in Madras, of which this is one – the Telugu name shows it to
have been introduced from the Straits of Malacca. (See Display Case I).
Annotations (verso): D[ioscorea] bulbifera, Malacka kaya, Tel[ugu].
279 x 440 mm.
CY 12
53. Eucalyptus cinerea F. Mueller ex Bentham (MYRTACEAE)
‘Blue gum’; Argyle apple
There was great interest in planting Australian trees in the Nilgiris, largely for use as
firewood, and Cleghorn wrote a report on the subject in 1859. The favoured genera,
for their fast growth, were Acacia and Eucalyptus, choices later to be regretted. The
first Eucalyptus was planted by the engineer Captain Frederick Cotton in 1843, and
the main species grown was the Tasmanian blue gum, E. globulus. It is recorded that
in 1856 Captain Morgan imported seed of ‘blue gum’ from Australia, but the
following year it was still considered so rare that a plant from the Government
Gardens cost 12 annas. It is not known if Morgan’s introduction involved more than
one species, but the plant shown here (and related herbarium specimens labelled
‘Eucalyptus perfoliata’ – see Display Case II) could be part of this introduction, as
large scale planting did not take place until 1863. This was drawn from a plant in the
garden of Kempstow, a house next to the famous Ooty Club (where the rules of
snooker are said to have been drawn up), which belonged to Mrs Brooke Cunliffe,
wife of a Madras Civil Servant. The juvenile and mature foliage of many eucalypts
differ greatly in shape, and the clasping (‘perfoliate’) form shown here is typical of
the immature foliage of several species. However, the fact that this bears flowers (in
groups of three) at the juvenile stage shows it to be E. cinerea, a native of New South
Wales and Victoria.
Annotations: Eucalyptus pendula. Kempstow [Ootacamund], 10 Augt /59.
242 x 331 mm.
CMG 30
54. Pinus wallichiana A.B. Jackson (PINACEAE)
Bhutan pine, blue pine
This tree was known to Cleghorn as Pinus excelsa D. Don, a name suggested to Don
by Nathaniel Wallich, based on specimens collected in Nepal by Francis Buchanan in
1802. The name had previously been used for a different species, so A.B. Jackson
renamed it after Wallich. Wallich, a Danish surgeon and botanist, was superintendent
of the Calcutta Botanic Garden 1817–46, and saw this species when he visited Nepal
in 1820/1. The tree can reach 30 metres in height and 2 metres in girth; its needles are
in bundles of five and it occurs from Afghanistan and Pakistan through the Himalayas
as far east as Bhutan. Cleghorn would come to know it well in the NW Himalaya in
the 1860s, but this specimen was drawn from a specimen in the garden of Cluny, one
of the oldest houses in Ooty, built by a Captain Macpherson (and named for his
ancestral Inverness-shire seat), but in Cleghorn’s day belonging to Captain J. Gunning
of the 17th Madras Native Infantry. The seed was doubtless supplied by W.G. Mc Ivor
from the Ooty Government Garden, which became part of Cleghorn’s responsibilities
in 1857. McIvor had come from Kew as superintendent of the garden and as early as
1852 was trying potential timber species from as far afield as Europe, the Cape of
Good Hope, and Australia. He had obtained seeds of Pinus excelsa and other
Himalayan species from the NW Provinces in 1849, but found that they would only
succeed if seed was sown after the SW monsoon.
Annotations: Cluny – Utakamund, May 1860.
245 x 304 mm.
CMG 71
55. Jacaranda mimosifolia D. Don (BIGNONIACEAE)
Jacaranda; neeli paadari (Kan); swarna sundari (Tel)
One of the most widely cultivated tropical ornamentals in the world, on account of the
beauty of its flowers, which turn whole trees into hazes of mauve-blue. A deciduous
tree to 15 metres in height, native to NW Argentina and Bolivia, it was introduced to
Britain around 1818 and described from the hot-house of the Comtesse des Vandes at
Bayswater, London. Curiously two botanists, both born in Forfarshire, both working
in the (recently late) Sir Joseph Banks’s house in Soho Square – David Don in the
front part, Robert Brown in the back – described the same material under two
different names both published on 1 June 1822. Don’s, with its appropriate epithet
(‘mimosa-leaved’) has fortunately prevailed over Brown’s J. ovalifolia. The following
year Don sent a paper on the family Bignoniaceae to Edinburgh University’s
Wernerian Society, in which he drew attention to the curious asymmetric anthers of
Jacaranda – one is shown in the detail at the bottom left of this drawing, where the
upper locule is seen releasing its pollen, the lower reduced to a small bump.
It is not known when the jacaranda was first introduced to India, but this drawing
probably represents an early introduction and it is listed neither in the 1853 nor the
1866 catalogues of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society Garden. This was drawn
from a specimen in the Nungumbaukam garden of the merchant John Vans Agnew,
who worked for Arbuthnot & Co. and was Danish Consul.
Annotations: Jacaranda mimosifolia. Mr Agnew’s Gardens, April 1855.
246 x 299 mm.
CMG 51