Author: Welwitsch, Friedrich
Title: Sertum Angolense sive stirpium quarundam novarum vel minus cognitarum in itinere per Angolam et Benguellam observatarum descriptio iconibus illustrata
Description: Linnean Society 1869 94, 26 plain plates. . HB. 4to, recent buckram. Small water stain to corner of plates, not affecting the printed images; two plates with some further browning to edges. Vg.. Text Latin. Extracted from Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. XXVII. Scarce. Lithographic plates by W.H. Fitch (numbered 1-25, 11A). Includes descriptions of 12 new genera and 48 new species of plants from Angola. Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (1806-1872) was an Austrian botanist and noted plant collector. From 1839-1853 he was director of the Botanical Garden of Lisbon. Due to Portuguese colonial interests in West Africa, Welwitsch travelled to Angola and Benguela collecting vast numbers of plants and other natural history specimens. Asa Gray wrote in an obituary (1873, American Journal of Science and Arts) that Welwitsch’s exploration of this region ‘was rewarded by the discovery of more curious plants, probably, than any other that has been undertaken since Australia was opened to botanists….In his ‘Sertum Anglolense’, a splendid memoir published by the Linnaean Society, with twenty-five plates, some of his most interesting discoveries are described’..

Keywords: Angola; Southern Africa; Africa; Flora; Botany


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