Guyana's flora
Editorial
Stabroek News
May 28, 2004
A week tomorrow Guyana, along with Germany, will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Robert Schomburgk, who played such a significant role in Guyana's history in the first half of the nineteenth century. Among his other accomplishments, he is remembered together with his brother Richard, for the most professional botanical work undertaken in this country prior to the 1830s and '40s. Much of their collection of plant specimens is preserved at Kew in London, and according to D B Fanshawe, who himself did some remarkable botanical work last century, Richard's specimens were not re-collected until nearly one hundred years later.
It was Robert, and not Richard, however, who found what became Guyana's national flower - the Victoria Regia lily. He encountered it on the Berbice River on January 1, 1837, and if Guyanese schoolchildren have heard of him at all, it is in connection with this plant. The Schomburgk brothers were German by birth, although some of Richard's botanical observations on Guyanese plants - Botanical Reminiscences in British Guiana - were published in English in Australia in 1876, while Robert's were translated from a German work published in 1841, by W E Roth last century.
While the Schomburgks began a tradition of professional collecting and classifying locally, they had been preceded, of course, by those perhaps less scientific in their approach, who were often writing for a wider audience. Perhaps the first to note down a few observations on the plants he saw around him was Adriaan van Berkel, an official who lived in Berbice between 1670 and 1674. Then there was the notorious Edward Bancroft, a man of many parts whose work was published in 1769. Since one of his occupations was that of physician (another was double-agent), he noted some of the medical properties of the plants he listed. Perhaps his greatest claim to fame was the fact that his book provided possibly the first written recipe for the Amerindian poison, curare.
J J Hartsinck, who like Van Berkel was Dutch, but unlike Van Berkel never actually came to Guyana as far as we know, also provided a list of plants and some of their medicinal properties in his work published in 1770. Where he got the information from is not clear, although it possibly derived from a Suriname work.
Dr Rodschied, a German physician based on Tiger Island in Essequibo, collected about two hundred plant specimens at the end of the eighteenth century, although like Bancroft, he had a professional interest in medicinal plants. The man whose work reached the widest audience in the pre-Schomburgk era, however, was Charles Waterton. His Wanderings... while not about the flora of Guyana as such, nevertheless contained botanical references. First published in 1825, its popularity was such that it had run to five editions by 1852.
As the nineteenth century wore on, a number of botanists, naturalists and collectors made their way into Guyana's interior, including (among others) C F Appun, Burke, Siedel, McConnell, Quelch, McTurk and Jenman, the last-named of whom collected for the newly established Botanical Gardens. Botanical expeditions have continued into modern times, although the work emanating from this research has not always been easily accessible to the general public, as opposed to academia.
Perhaps in the more recent era the pioneer of popular botany, so to speak, was V E Graham, whose Tropical Wild Flowers was published in 1963. Ms Graham had come here first in 1946, and for many years was head of the Biology Department in Bishops' High School. For fifteen years she collected plants both here, and to a lesser extent in the West Indian islands, and says in her work that she made two thousand drawings from life during that period. It is some of these drawings which went to illustrate her book, which has undoubtedly been out of print for many years now.
Currently, where the popular tradition is concerned, of course, the baton is being carried by Mr John Warrington, who writes a well-received gardening column for the Sunday Stabroek, concentrating on flowering and decorative plants, not all of which were originally native to these climes. Like Ms Graham, he too will often give the classification of a plant for the benefit of those with a more specialised interest.
As a tropical country with a fairly intact forest, Guyana is remarkably fortunate in the diversity and richness of her natural inheritance. This variety has made it far more difficult for the amateur to acquire a wide-ranging grasp of the natural world around him/her, than would be the case in a continent like Europe. However, it seems there is a re-awakening of a sensitivity to our flora and fauna with the appearance of nature clubs like the Evergreen and the Amazon Tropical Birdwatchers.
Where the flora specifically are concerned, the Horticultural Society for its part is contributing to the private interest in garden plants with its annual exhibition and competition, and even in the case of our public gardens, the Promenade seems to be about to take on a new lease of life with the input from the National Bank of Industry and Commerce.
Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said for what was once one of the top tropical gardens in the world - the Botanical Gardens.
As we remember the pioneering contribution of the Schomburgks and others to the collection and classification of our flora next week, it perhaps should stimulate us to take a pride in the abundance and variety of our natural environment, and make an effort to become more acquainted with it.