THE RACE

During the early 1800’s gardening mostly consisted of collecting and acquiring rare and spectacular plants, mainly for the mere pleasure of possessing them. In England alone there were no fewer that ten illustrated botanical journals to cater for the interest in new plants brought into Britain from all parts of the world. Fierce competition existed amongst them to be the first to publish and name new plants.

Two of the most prominent were Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (CBM) and Edward’s Botanical Register (EBR). Edwards was trained by Curtis, and was the chief artist at CBM when he left to start his own publication. This contributed to the great rivalry that existed between the two publications to be the first to post new discoveries first.

William Hooker became the editor of CBM in 1826. He was later knighted for his services as Director of Kew Gardens. John Lindley, who was the Assistant Secretary of the Horticulture Society, wrote for EBR and later became the editor thereof. In 1828 both these gentlemen were alerted regarding a new plant that flowered at Syon House across the Thames from Kew. In an unusual dead-heat, they published their work on the very same day.

“By curious coincidence two English botanists, Lindley and Hooker, separately published on the same day in October 1828 a new genus based on the same plant. Lindley named the genus Clivia and Hooker called it Imantophyllum. The plant in question was an introduction from the southern Cape by Bowie and it grew in the hothouses at Kew and at Syon House, the residence of the Duchess of Northumberland. Lindley named the plant Clivia nobilis … It is said that the plant described by Lindley had been ‘surreptitiously obtained from Kew’.” In Clivia 5, the yearbook of the Clivia Society, John van der Linde produced a well-researched article on the matter whether the plant at Syon House was indeed obtained under suspicious circumstances. From this it seems that an anonymous article in The Gardeners Chronicle, which was published on October 29th, 1881, started the rumor. Two points in the quoted part of the article creates doubt about the writer’s knowledge, and/or research into the matter. The writer claims that Bowie discovered the plant “in the country of the Orange River State”, and that it was figured and named in 1826. At worst John’s findings could be described as inconclusive, although it is my understanding that one should, at least for the time being, hold the view that the plant at Syon House was obtained in a legitimate manner.

Lindley wrote in his original description of the plant: - “We have named this genus in compliment to her grace the Duchess of Northumberland, to whom we are greatly indebted for an opportunity of publishing it. Such a compliment has long been due to the noble family of Clive, and we are proud in having the honor of being first to pay it.”

Hooker’s description of Imantophyllum aitonii (Imantophyllum means “strap or thong-like leaves) was faithful to the wishes of Bowie. Bowie desired that the plant bear the name of his patron, William T Aiton (1766-1849), who employed him and trained him to collect plants for Kew.

The names Imantophyllum and Clivia ranked equally as it were published on the same day. In 1864 the well-known Swiss botanist, Eduard von Regel, gave precedence to Clivia, as Lindley had indeed wrote his description several months before Hooker, and Hooker’s Imantophyllum fell away. It seems however that Clivia became the chosen name for the genus long before this. Amelia Obermeyer, a botanist at the National Botanical Institute in Pretoria, wrote in the August 1972 issue of Flowering Plants of Africa: - “In 1830 Roemer and Schultes (Syst. Veg. 7:892) chose the name Clivia and reduced Imantophyllum to synonymy.”

©2003 American Clivia Society