shores (1801, 1802a), such as Ulva furcellata Phycological Trailblazer [Scinaia], U. mul fida [Cutleria], Fucus ruscifolius No. 19 [Apoglossum], F. crenulatus [Gymnogongrus], F. clavellosus [Lomentaria], and F. wiggii Dawson Turner [Naccaria]. In 1806 he described F. tenax [Gloiopel s] on a collec on sent to him from China. He had a broad apprecia on of botany (originally printed in the Phycological newsle er. 2003. and with his friend James Sowerby published a Vol. 39 No. 2) list of the plants, ferns, fungi, lichens, and algae they encountered while touring the western Dawson Turner (1775-1858) was a wealthy coun es of England (Turner & Sowerby, 1800). banker in Yarmouth, England, but a botanist and He spent the summer of 1803 in Ireland with his inveterate collector by avoca on. Sir James E. focus at this me en rely on mosses. He carried Smith called him “that exquisite cryptogamist”. out much field work and studied collec ons in Turner’s early interests were with plants in the herbaria in Dublin and elsewhere. The general and mosses, following year (1804b) he lichens, and marine algae published a small book in La n in par cular. His earliest and with 16 colored plates papers reveal that he was a done by Sowerby. This book field-oriented person. was the first that was devoted Living close to the Norfolk to the mosses of Ireland. coast, he was able to carry Turner lived in a me of out observa ons on the explora on. Owing to his status algae of the local shore as one of the most year-round, and thus in knowledgable cryptogamists of 1800 he contributed one of the me, he was the fortunate the first-ever phenological recipient of algal collec ons studies on benthic marine being made from around the algae. He produced a list of world. He received collec ons the species of Fucus, made by Archibald Menzies, Conferva, and Ulva (at that the surgeon ini ally on a me almost all the commercial expedi on under seaweeds fell into those the command of Capt. James three genera), and the Colne , in the period seasons at which these 1786-1789. Later, Menzies algae produced their Dawson Turner (engraving by Mrs. Turner served as surgeon/ naturalist “fruc fica ons”. Clearly, he on Capt. George Vancouver’s was an astute observer in from a drawing by Thomas Phillips in 1816; from Munby, 1962). expedi on (1791- 1795) (Scagel that he no ced that Fucus et al. 1989). This la er subfuscus [Rhodomela expedi on visited the confervoides], one of the northwest coast of America and most common species upon the Norfolk shore, the west coast of South America: F. floccosus “fruc fied only in the earliest months of the [Odonthalia], F. lividus [Sarcothalia], F. menziesii spring.” However, it was generally collected in [Egregia] (fig. 2). Sir Joseph Banks sent to Turner Sept. and o en in the winter months, at which collec ons from Australia: F. banksii [Hormosira], me its stems and branches were swollen and New Zealand: F. abscissus [Melanthalia], and the gave the false impression of being reproduc ve. Cape of Good Hope: F. erinaceus [Nothogenia]. He described several new species from local Many specimens collected in Asian waters by 1 Fig. 1. Fucus Menziesii [= Egregia menziesii], pl. 27, Turner (1808)
Horner on his voyage around the world were transmi ed on to Turner by Prof. Mertens: e.g., Fig. 2. Fucus langsdorfii Turner. Pl. F. horneri, F. hemiphyllus, F. microcera us [all 165, fig. a, in Turner (1811). [= now in Sargassum]. Lord Valen a sent him Coccophora langsdorfii (Turner) Grev.] specimens of new species of Sargassum and Hypnea from the Red Sea. Specimens were sent from Jamaica by Dr. Wright, from St. Croix by William Jackson Hooker. Over a thirteen-year Mar n Vahl, and from the Straits of Sunda, period, star ng in 1806, Hooker became Indonesia, by Mr. George Wa s. A major prac cally a member of the Turner family, contributor to Turner’s Fuci was Robert Brown, staying in “Bank House” and eventually the botanist on board the HMS Inves gator comple ng 234 plates of the total of 258 plates (1801-1805) under the command of Capt. in the Fuci. Turner’s behavior toward Hooker was Ma hew Flinders. Thanks to Brown, Turner said to be unforgivable in that he barely received about 50 specimens collected from acknowledged Hooker’s monumental southern Australia and the eastern coast to contribu on to the four volumes (Allan, 1967). Arnhem Land (Ducker, 1981b) and from New The only acknowledgement came from the ny Zealand: F. quercifolius [Platythalia]. Turner also inscrip on W.J.H.Esqr. del.t on most plates. received material from Governor King in Because the publica on of this series of Australia: F. lamber i [Callophyllis]. These algae his Fuci became more and more sporadic, Turner were handsomely depicted in the four volumes received cri cism from his contemporaries of Turner’s Fuci (1807-1819). It should be (Price, 1984). At the me “a fair amount of pointed out that these beau ful plates were acrimony...was generated...by Turner’s executed almost en rely by his future son-in-law, inconsistency and dri .” (Price, 1982). In the 2 adver sement (dated 16 Jan. 1819) William, the renowned botanist at Kew. In the accompanying the final fascicle of his Fuci, summer of 1814 Turner traveled with his wife Turner signed off and profusely apologized “for and two of his six daughters (Maria and the frequent irregulari es in the appearance of Elizabeth) along with Hooker to Paris. This was the later the first me numbers”. He English ci zens realized that the were allowed to knowledge of the set foot on French Fuci was “in its soil because of the infancy”. He also preceding years of acknowledged the the Napoleonic major new wars. The party arrangement of was able to visit “this interes ng the Muséum tribe of plants” d’Histoire that had been Naturelle and to contributed by a end mee ngs of Monsieur the “Academie des Lamouroux of sciences” (Ducker, Caen (1813). 1981). Also at Turner regarded those mee ngs Lamouroux’ were such classifica on as Fig. 3. Fucus alatus Huds. Pl. 160, fig. a in Turner (1811). [= celebrated “ingenious and Membranoptera alata (Huds.) Stackh.] scien sts of the embracing a me as Lamarck, comprehensive de Jussieu, view of the subject”. Turner expressed a degree Alexander von Humboldt, and Labillardière. of sa sfac on that he had “laid before his Turner had a branch of his bank in readers a set of figures, upon the accuracy of Halesworth, managed by his brother James. The which they may rely”. That was an two Turner brothers and Samuel Paget bought understatement because taken as a whole the an ale-producing brewery in Halesworth, along quality of the 258 plates in his Fuci has never with some public houses and an associated been surpassed. Even today Turner’s work can home called the “Brewery House”. Turner later prove to be the source of new recogni ons invited Hooker to buy into the brewery venture (Wynne, 2002). as a quarter shareholder for £8000, which came Turner married Mary Palgrave in 1796, from Hooker’s inheritance. Hooker took on the and they eventually had a total of eleven job of superintending the brewery, and this children. In 1812 the Turners persuaded the allowed him to reside in Brewery House, which ar st John Sell Cotman to se le in Yarmouth, had a large garden and a heated greenhouse, and they arranged for him to tutor their where William could raise exo c orchids. daughters in dra smanship and watercoloring. Turner was thus the maternal Turner had the means to serve as the lifelong grandfather of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, the patron to Cotman and essen ally had a “co age junior surgeon and botanist on the Bri sh industry” under his roof with his several ar s c Antarc c Expedi on of 1839-1843 under the daughters adding watercolors to the plates. command of Sir James Clark Ross (H.M.S. Erebus Turner’s eldest daughter, Maria, married Hooker, and H.M.S. Terror), which made significant algal the dra sman of most of the plates in Turner’s collec ons from New Zealand, Tasmania, and Fuci. Hooker would eventually become Sir Antarc ca. J. D. Hooker, who o en collaborated 3 with William H. Harvey of Dublin, was said to be “the most important botanist of the nineteenth I have myself but a single le er of Peter century and one of the key scien sts of his Collinson’s, a short one, addressed to Boolase, age” (Musgrave et al. 1999). and introducing a Dane, a friend of Solander’s, What became the major obsession in who wish to visit the Cornish mines. Of this, as of Dawson’s later life was the collec ng of Calder’s and Muhlenberg’s, Dr. Cambridge is autographed le ers. He was methodical in saving quite welcome to a copy; but would you object to all, or nearly all, the le ers that came to him and ask him to write to me & express his wish for then binding them into volumes in chronological them? You will probably wonder at such a sequence such that he eventually had more request on my part; but the truth is, that I shall more than 150 volumes of bound be glad of his handwri ng. One of the great correspondence (Munby 1962). Trinity College, amusements of my declining years has been the Cambridge, has 82 volumes of his collec ng of le ers wri en by men of eminence. I correspondence (Desmond, 1994). He wrote so could easily tell you what pleasure I feel in the many le ers that maybe it is not surprising that a pursuit; & I look with no li le pride upon my le er wri en by Turner to a friend of his son-in- collec on, the largest, I apprehend, in the world, law Sir William and dated “20 Feby 1850” was containing li le less than 25,000 le ers, all found tucked in my copy of Turner’s Fuci. The carefully arranged and handsomely bound, and two main topics in the le er treat Turner’s copiously illustrated with portraits & health (he was in his mid-70’s) and his ongoing biographical anecdotes. To show them to you in pursuit of autographed le ers. Parts of that the course of the coming summer would be a le er follow: very great pleasure to me: indeed it could not be otherwise than a high gra fica on, to receive My dear Sir: You may naturally have felt under my roof one of the oldest and most valued surprized at having been thus long without any friends of a son I have such infinite reason to love acknowledgement of the le er you wrote me on & esteem as Sir Wm. Hooker. the 24th of last month; and your surprize will I am hardly be diminished upon receiving the inclosed my dear Sir abstract from a le er from Mr. Fitch, which I Very Faithfully yours hope I have not sent you previously. If I have, Dawson Turner pray pardon me, & ascribe it to the same cause which has prevented my wri ng & has le me Munby (1962) characterized Turner as very much in ignorance of which I have done or going beyond being a collector: “Moreover when not done, a long confinement to my bed & we examine Dawson Turner’s own publica ons chamber, in consequence of a fall headlong down we can at once recognize the symptoms of a flight of six stairs. The effect, I am thankful, has bibliomania in an advanced form...” Despite this been far from serious; having been confined to unfavorable regard for Turner’s life-long drive to severe bruises of my le shoulder & right ankle, collect and despite the cri cism he received without fracture & without disloca on. when the rate of publica on of the fascicles of Nevertheless, a man of 74 does not escape from his Fuci lagged, Turner should be remembered as such a shock without feeling enfeebled; & I one who made significant contribu ons to con nue to a certain degree, tho’ not materially, cryptogamic botany in a period of explora on crippled. You will pardon me that I trouble you and discovery. with these details, which I felt necessary to plead my excuse. [He goes on to discuss a Mr. Fitch, P. Allan, M. 1967. The Hookers of Kew, 1785-1811. Michael Collinson, the Ipswich Public Library, Geo. Joseph, London. 273 pp. Ransome, Mr. Garrod (an auc oneer), and “the late Mr. Rodd”. The le er then con nues:] 4 Dawson, W. R. 1936. Original Papers of the Norfolk and _____. 1802c. A synopsis of the Bri sh Fuci. Vol. 2. [188] - Norwich Archaeological Soc. 26: 59-72. [Not 400 pp. F. Bush, Yarmouth. seen.] _____. 1804a. Remarks upon the Dillenian herbarium. _____. 1958. Dawson Turner, F.R.S. (1775-1858). J. Soc. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 7: 101-115. Bibliography Nat. Hist. 3: 303-310, 4 pls. _____. 1804b. Muscologiae Hibernicae Spicilegium. J. _____. 1961. A bibliography of the printed works of Black, London. Dawson Turner. Trans. Cambridge Bibliographical _____. 1806. Account of a new interes ng species of Soc. 3: 232- 256. Fucus. Ann. Bot. 2: 376-378. Desmond, R. 1994. Botanists and hor cultorists, including _____. 1807-1819. Fuci, or coloured figures and plants collectors, flower painters and garden descrip ons of the plants referred by botanists to designers. Taylor & Francis and The Natural the genus Fucus. 258 coloured plants, 4 vols. Vol. History Museum, London. xl + 825 pp. I, pls. 1-71(1807-1808); vol. II, pls. 72-134 Ducker, S. C. 1981a. Australian phycology: the German (1808-1809); vol. III, pls. 135-196 (1809- 1811); influence. In: People and Plants in Australia (Carr, vol. IV, pls. 197-258 (1811-1819). John and Arthur D. J., & S. G. M. Carr, eds.) Pp. 116-138. Academic Arch, London. [See Price (1984) for the dates of Press, Sydney. publica on.] _____. 1981b. A history of Australian marine phycology. Turner, D., & J. Sowerby. 1800. Catalogue of some of the In: Marine Botany: an Australasian perspec ve. more rare plants observed in a tour through the (Clayton, M. N. & R. J. King, eds.) Pp. 1-14. western coun es, made in June 1799. Trans. Linn. Longman Cheshire, Sydney. Soc. Lond. 5: 234-241. Lamouroux, J. V. F. 1813. Essai sur les genres de la famille Wynne, M. J. 2002. Plocamium cirrhosum comb. nov. des thalassiophytes non ar culées. Annales Mus. (Plocamiales, Rhodophyta) to replace P. costatum. Hist. Nat., Paris 20: 21-47, 115-139, 267- 293, pls. New Zealand J. Bot. 22: 137-142. 7-13. Munby, A. N. L. 1962. The cult of the autograph le er in Michael J. Wynne England. The Athlone Press, University of University of Michigan London. viii + 117 pp. Musgrave, T., C. Gardner, & W. Musgrave. 1999 [reprinted, 2000]. The plant hunters. Two hundred years of adventure and discovery around the world. Orion Publ. Group, London. 224 pp. Price, J. H. 1982. Publica on in parts: a background to the concept, efficacy and taxonomic complexity. Arch. Nat. Hist. 10: 443-459. _____. 1984. Bibliographic notes on works concerning the algae V. A note on aspects of the Fuci... (Dawson Turner, 1807-1819). Arch. Nat. Hist. 11: 440-442. Scagel, R. F., P. W. Gabrielson, D. J. Garbary, L. Golden, M. W. Hawkes, S. C. Lindstrom, J. C. Oliveira, & T. B. Widdowson. 1989. A synopsis of the benthic marine algae of Bri sh Columbia, southeast Alaska, Washington and Oregon. Phycol. Contr. No. 3. Dept. of Botany, Univ. Bri sh Columbia, Vancouver. Turner, D. 1800. Calendarium plantarum marinarum. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 5: 126-131. _____. 1801. Ulva furcellata et mul fida. Journal für die Botanik (Schrad.) 1800: 300-302, 1 pl. _____. 1802a. Descrip ons of four new species of Fucus. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 6: 125-136, pls. VIII-X. _____. 1802b. A synopsis of the Bri sh Fuci. Vol. 1. [i] - xlvi + [1]- 189 pp. F. Bush, Yarmouth. 5