Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Burbidge, Frederick William

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

 

Born: 1847, Wymeswold, Leicestershire, England. Died: 1905, Dublin, Ireland.

 

career:

At first Gardener at Kew Gardens and from 1877-78 explorer for ornamental plants in the employ of Messrs Veitch. From 1879 onwards he was Curator of the Botanic Gardens of Trinity College at Dublin; in 1894 he was appointed Keeper of the College Park. In 1889 he was awarded the honorary degree of M.A. of Dublin University and in 1897 granted the Victorian Medal of Honour by the Roy. Hort. Society. He was the introducer of Nepenthes rajah.

He is commemorated in the genus Burbidgea Hook.f., Globba burbidgei Ridl., etc.

 

Collecting localities:1

1877-78. MalayPeninsula: Singapore, southern Johore (Aug. 1877; e.g. G. Pulai with Murton and at Kanka Ah Tang, from the Straits of Malacca to the China Sea); Labuan; NW. Borneo: to the Kadyan and Murut countries (Sept.), near the head of the Lawas and Meropok rivers; Labuan (Nov.   29), starting on a journey to Br. N. Borneo: Mt Kinabalu with Mr Peter Veitch (see there), by way of the Tawaran River, Kalawat Peak, ascent up to 9000 feet; return to Labuan; NW. Borneo, Brunei; boat journey up the Limbang and Pandarowan rivers as far as Bukit Sagan; NW. coast of Borneo in the interior of the Murut and Dusan countries; Apr. 5, 1878, sailing for Sandakan and the Sulu Archipelago (Jolo), reaching Meimbong (l0), from where making trips, e.g. on the Bu’at Timantangis, the highest mountain of the island, and Bu’at Dahau; via Sandakan returning to Labuan; Br. N. Borneo: July 31 starting via Lumbedan (Aug. 1), Pulo Tiga, Gaya Bay, Qualla Tampassuk, Kiau, to Mt Kinabalu (reaching 10700 feet), Aug. 18 descent; Labuan (Aug. 30). According to Burkill2 he visited Singapore once more in 1878.

 

collections:

Herb. Kew [K]: 963 nos from Borneo, Sulu, etc. (pres. 1878-97); Herb. Brit. Mus. [BM]: 230 Br. N. Borneo plants (pres. 1879 by Messrs Veitch); Herb. Oxford Univers. [OXF] (with Herb. Fielding); Herb. Bot. Gard. Petersburg (= Leningrad [LE]) 130 Borneo plants; Herb. Berl. [B]: cryptogams from N. Borneo and Sulu Arch.; Herb. Vienna [W]: Borneo orchids (with Herb. Reichenbach); some dupl. in Herb. Bog. [BO]. In 1878 he sent Borneo plants to Hort. Sing. [SING]. Dupl. from N. Borneo and the Philippines in Herb. Edinb. [E] also.

40 Plates and 115 original sketches of Borneo in the Brit. Mus. (1886).3 The labels of Borneo plants in many cases do not indicate the locality beyond the general printed heading ‘North Borneo’. J.G. Baker dealt with his fern collections,4 Stapf with his Kinabalu plants.5

 

literature:

(1) F.W. Burbidge: ‘The Gardens of the Sun: or a naturalist’s journal on the mountains and in the forests and swamps of Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago’ (London 1880) (Itineraries of the Kinabalu trips also in Sarawak Mus. Journ. 2, 1915, p. 145-149); ‘A trip to the Sooloo Archipelago’ (1884). (The Little Journal, London, May 1884, p. 191-202)

(2) In Gard. Bull. Str. Settlem. 4, 1927, p. 118.

(3) cf. Journ. Bot. 25, 1887, p. 217.

(4) cf. Journ. Bot. 1879, p. 37-44; cf. also abridged account in Burbidge, The Gardens of the Sun, l.c. App. p. 345-350 (Borneo ferns) and p. 350-351 (ferns of the Sulu Archip.).

(5) cf. Transact. Linn. Soc. Bot. 2nd ser. vol. 4, 1894, p. 69-263, pl. 11-20.

cf. also Appendix to Burbidge, The Gardens of the Sun, p. 339-344.

 

biographical data:

Gard. Chron, 38, 1905, p. 460 w. portr. and l.c. 39, 1906, p. 10; Hortus Veitchii 1906, p. 75-78; Journ. Kew Guild 1906, p. 326-327 + portr.; Journ. Bot. 44, 1906, p. 80 and Biogr. Index Britten & Boulger in l.c. 46, 1908, Supplem. p. 3, and in 2nd ed. by Rendle, 1931; Kew Bull. 1906, p. 392-393; Orch. Review 14, 1906, p. 8, Dict. Nat. Biogr. 2nd Suppl. vol. 1, 1912; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936.