Moss

This moss specimen was collected by Mr I H Burkill an Economic Botanist to the Botanical Survey of India and later Director of the Botanical Gardens in the Straits Settlements in Singapore.

It was collected 8 January 1912 on a hill south of the Rebang Stream at an altitude of 2800 ft.

In 1911 the British Crown launched an expedition to punish Indian people in the Abor region near the Assam border for killing a British government official and his party (India was under British rule at this time). Several of the government’s scientific staff, including Burkill, accompanied the military to survey the land and its resources. It was called the Abor Expedition.

Burkill sent the specimens to HN Dixon for identification who published his findings in 1914 in the Records of the Botanical Survey of India Volume VI, 3. Dixon sent specimens to the Natural History Museum in London and the Botanic Gardens in Calcutta.

This new species was named after Burkill and it is likely that this specimen is a syntype. In the report Dixon describes its anatomy at great length.

The 40 specimens at RAMM are in George Brook Savery’s (1874-1937) collection. He was a member of the Devonshire Association and had a particular interest in mosses, brambles and roses. A letter dated 27 August 1912 from Burkill to Savery gives details of where the specimens were collected. We can assume that the moss specimens were sent to Savery from Burkill.