Draft 'Some Account of the American Oaks' by David Douglas

Title

Draft 'Some Account of the American Oaks' by David Douglas

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/5/1/3/2

Date

c.1823-1824

Scope & content

Draft manuscript descriptions of the genus Quercus

Overview of contents:
Page 1: Blank
Page 2: Copy of a letter to Joseph Sabine
Pages 3-19: 'Some account of the American oaks'
Page 20: Blank
Pages 21-30: List of the genus Quercus
Pages 31-35: Description of Quercus garryana
Page 36: Blank

Physical description: Unbound manuscript enclosed in a soft paper wrapper labelled 'Duplicate MS'. The manuscript comprises loose leaves of various sizes. The edges of some of the pages are torn. Fragile. Handle with care

The manuscript contains two sets of original pagination and foliation, and several unpaginated leaves: 1-7, followed by 6 unpaginated leaves, 8-11, followed by 1 unpaginated leaf, 1-5, followed by 3 unpaginated leaves. The manuscript was paginated in the upper right-hand corner of rectos and versos during cataloguing

The pages are written on both rectos and versos, in David Douglas's hand, and annotated in pencil in a later hand

For another version of this manuscript, c.1823-1824, see RHS/Col/5/1/3/1

Summary of contents:

Page 1: Annotated in a later hand [by the editors of the 1914 edition of Douglas's papers]: 'Duplicate, not to be set up'

Page 2 [original pagination 1]: Copy of letter from David Douglas to Joseph Sabine [secretary of the Horticultural Society of London], with the title of the work 'Some account of the American oaks, particularly of such species as were met with during a journey from [blank] to [blank] in the year 1823, by D. Douglas [David Douglas]'

He received instructions from the Horticultural Society during his late mission to the state of New York [United States of America] to obtain specimens for the herbarium, when not employed collecting living plants for the garden; he had only one opportunity to do this, 'but the hasty manner in which I was obliged to travel, and the lateness of the season, prevented my forming an extensive hortus siccus'; the oaks in particular attracted his attention, 'from their number and beauty and the acknowledged utility of their wood'; he saw 19 species of the 34 enumerated by Pursh [Frederick Traugott Pursh, botanist] as being native to North America; he has written up an account of these, including their specific characteristics, such information as he was able to collect in the country, observations from 'the beautiful work of Michaux'; he has followed Michaux's divisions in his arrangement, by arranging the descriptions first according to the annual or biennial fructifications, as explained in 'The North American Sylva' [Francois Andre Michaux, 'The North American Sylva, or, a description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia', 1817], and secondly according to the modes of divisions of the leaves

Pages 3-19 [original pagination 2-11, with six unnumbered pages inserted between pages 7 and 8, and a loose slip of paper following page 11]: 'Some account of the American oaks'. The trees are numbered, with a description of the characteristics of each, numbered, and divided into two categories according to their fructification. Comprises

'A: Annual fructification' (numbers 1-10). Includes Quercus alba or white oak, Quercus olivaeformis or mossy-cup oak [Quercus macrocarpa], Quercus macrocarpa or over-cup white oak, Quercus obtusiloba or upland white oak or post oak [Quercus stellata] and Quercus lyrata or over-cup oak [here the list includes 5 more oaks]

'B: Fructification biennial' (numbers 11-32). Numbers 12-23 inserted on two separate slips of paper between numbers 11 and 24, and number 32 is inserted on a loose slip of paper after number 31, with cross-references and notes on reorganization. Includes Quercus phellos or willow oak, Quercus nigra or black jack oak, Quercus maritima or marine oak [Quercus hemisphaerica], Quercus elongata or Spanish oak [Quercus falcata] and Quercus coccinea or scarlet oak [here the list includes 17 more oaks]

Pages 21-30 [Original foliation 1-5]: List of the genus Quercus, numbered (numbers 1-58), with Latin binomial name, English name, habitat, date [?of first description], classification and references to authorities. Includes Quercus phellos, Quercus ballota [Quercus rotundifolia], Quercus infectoria, Quercus cerris and Quercus coccinea [here the list includes 53 more oaks]

The list is written on rectos only. The blank pages have pencil annotations with references to 'Anales de Ciencias Naturales, Mad. [Madrid] 1801 [a botanical periodical published 1801-1804]', 'Natural history of Carol., Lond. [London] 1731 [Mark Catesby, 1731, 'The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands']' and 'Mich. Histoire des chenes, Mich. Paris 1801 [Andre Michaux, 1801, 'Histoire des chenes de l'Amerique']

Pages 31-35: Description of Quercus garryana

Extent

1 folder

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

Royal Horticultural Society

Credit Line

RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)