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 31 January 1912 from trees at the summit of Bapu at an altitude of 6,240 feet.
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.
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.
In the journal article Dixon comments, ‘I only know this plant from descriptions, but I think there can be little doubt of the correctness of the determination. The single specimen
of this name in the Brit. Mus. in herb. Hampe does not look to me at all likely to be correctly determined.’
It was collected 31 January 1912 from trees at the summit of Bapu at an altitude of 6,240 feet.
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.
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.
In the journal article Dixon comments, ‘I only know this plant from descriptions, but I think there can be little doubt of the correctness of the determination. The single specimen
of this name in the Brit. Mus. in herb. Hampe does not look to me at all likely to be correctly determined.’
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 92/1938/1/5
- Collection Class
- Plants
- Collection Area Region
- South Asia
- Collector Excavator
- Savery, Mr George Brook (from the collection of): Burkill, Mr Isaac Henry
- Common Name
- moss
- Simple Name
- moss
- Period Classification
- Edwardian (1901-1914)
