HIC SVNT LEONES. Wildeleeubekkie, Nemesia floribunda, and 'D.Witte Leeu', Hortus Botanicus, and Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 3, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
One of the very few plants still flourishing this Winter in the outdoor beds of the Hortus is this Nemesia floribunda. In Afrikaans it's called Wild Lionsmouth. It was first collected and described by Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795-1868), who explored in South Africa 1823-1828, returned home to Germany with a large collection, and then set off again to the Cape in 1838, where he died thirty years later. He's one of those intrepid exploring naturalists described in Mary Gunn and L.E. Codd's fabulous Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa. In their lemma on Ecklon, they even include - fortuitously for me today - a facsimile page of his corrections to a scribe's version of his plant list in which he crosses out a word and writes in his own hand: 'Leeuwenkop' (=Lion's Head; but the reference is to a Pelargonium not to our Nemesia...). One has to admire the energy with which Ecklon and fellow botanists traversed enormous areas hitherto unknown to Europeans.
Often when I return from the Hortus I wander off towards the IJ to look at the ships. In the Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat I always admire this stone (see inset) in the facade of what was once a warehouse rebuilt around 1900. It pictures a rampant lion - appropriate for today's flower -, and is said to date from the beginning of the eighteenth century (1718). A drawing of it in the city archives was made by Hermanus M.J. Misset (1875-1958). But I'm at a loss what the lion is doing: it seems to be juggling with body parts... Anyone out there have an inkling?
Hic sunt leones: here be lions. That's what medieval mapmakers liked to write on areas unknown...
HIC SVNT LEONES. Wildeleeubekkie, Nemesia floribunda, and 'D.Witte Leeu', Hortus Botanicus, and Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 3, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
One of the very few plants still flourishing this Winter in the outdoor beds of the Hortus is this Nemesia floribunda. In Afrikaans it's called Wild Lionsmouth. It was first collected and described by Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1795-1868), who explored in South Africa 1823-1828, returned home to Germany with a large collection, and then set off again to the Cape in 1838, where he died thirty years later. He's one of those intrepid exploring naturalists described in Mary Gunn and L.E. Codd's fabulous Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa. In their lemma on Ecklon, they even include - fortuitously for me today - a facsimile page of his corrections to a scribe's version of his plant list in which he crosses out a word and writes in his own hand: 'Leeuwenkop' (=Lion's Head; but the reference is to a Pelargonium not to our Nemesia...). One has to admire the energy with which Ecklon and fellow botanists traversed enormous areas hitherto unknown to Europeans.
Often when I return from the Hortus I wander off towards the IJ to look at the ships. In the Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat I always admire this stone (see inset) in the facade of what was once a warehouse rebuilt around 1900. It pictures a rampant lion - appropriate for today's flower -, and is said to date from the beginning of the eighteenth century (1718). A drawing of it in the city archives was made by Hermanus M.J. Misset (1875-1958). But I'm at a loss what the lion is doing: it seems to be juggling with body parts... Anyone out there have an inkling?
Hic sunt leones: here be lions. That's what medieval mapmakers liked to write on areas unknown...