Johann August Ludwig Preiss (1811-1883) in Western Australia

Abstract

The Royal T ables are given show ing the publication dates and a su m m ary of the contents of P lan tae P reissianae (ed. J.G .C . L eh m an n ) 1844-1848 (pp. 12-15). Som e fu rth e r d ata a bout his collections are provided in letters from Preiss to W illiam H o o k e r and to R o b e rt Brow n. T h e a u th o r w ould be pleased to lea rn fro m anyone w ho know s th e present locatio n fo r P reiss's p la n t specim ens N os. 2 6 21-2644, m any being types w hich h ave not been seen in recen t years.Johann August Ludwig Preiss was bom in Herzberg am H arz near Gottingen on 21 November 1811.In a paper on Lehm ann's Plantae Preissianae, Steam (1939) 204-205 provides the following information about Preiss's years in Germany:" T h a t he received a university education is show n by his degree of D r, phil. In A ugust 1843, w hen he w as a "P riv at-g eleh rter in H a m b u rg " , i.e. a scholar not on the staff of an institution, he becam e a m em ber of the A cadem ia C aesarea L eo poldino-C arolina N a tu rae C u rio so ru m at H alle under the cognom en of " C u n n in g h am " (cf. J.D . The most recent biographical note on Preiss [Calaby (1967)] provides no further information about these years.Preiss arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 4th December 1838, shortly after his 27th birthday, and during the following three years worked enthusiastically and carefully to amass a fine botanical collection which together with those made by James Drummond (1 7 8 4 -1 8 6 3 ), forms the basis for early taxonomic studies on the flora of that State.A general summary of his collecting itinerary is given by Diels (1906) [translation]:"Preiss dedicated the entire first year to collecting in the vicinity of the Swan R iver, as w ell as collecting the litto ral flora n e a r F re m a n tle and (in the com pany of D ru m m o n d ) on R o ttn est Island. In the P e rth d istrict he collected widely, going as far east as the foothills of the D arlin g Range. It was n o t until S eptem ber 1839 that he clim bed the p late au and explored the forests on either side of the highw ay, w hich he follow ed as fa r as Y ork. H e soon re tu rn e d , how ever, and in N ov em b er and D ecem ber o f the sam e year he visited the area around G eographe Bay, pen etratin g as fa r as the present-day tow n of B usselton. In M arch of the next year h e crossed the D a rlin g R ange again, travelling as far as the A von Valley. H ere he prep ared fo r an im p o rta n t journey into the

South‐western Australia, Cinderella of the world's temperate floristic regions, 2

“…The establishment of colonies at Frederickstown (later Albany) on King George Sound in 1826 and at the Swan River in 1829 paved the way for future botanical exploration of the south-western interior. Excellent accounts of the activities of important colonial collectors have been published, including those dealing with James Drummond (Erickson, 1969), Georgiana Molloy (Hasluck, 1955;Lines, 1994), Ludwig Preiss (McGillivray, 1975;Marchant, 1990), Baron von Hugel (Clark, 1994), John Septimus Roe (Burton Jackson, 1982) and W.H. Harvey (Ducker, 1988).…”

“…Many more were not, with Preiss specimens used instead of earlier collections by Drummond as types for new taxa. A useful guide to the contents of Plantae Preissianae is provided by McGillivray (1975). Preiss is commemorated by about 100 species of plants named for him, in genera as diverse as Callitris, Anigozanthos, Acacia, Eucalyptus, Grevillea, Hakea, Melaleuca and Santalum.…”

A Revision of Pogonolepis (Compositae: Inuleae: Gnaphaliinae)

“…Despite the different number this collection is probably an isolectotype of P. stricta. McGillivray (1975) has noted the existence of a differently numbered set of Preiss specimens in TCD which are undoubted duplicates of those cited in "Plantae Preissianae''.…”

A revision of the Hibbertia lineata (Dilleniaceae) species group

“…His protologues for these taxa make no mention of the androecium, and he may have overlooked this important feature (see also Thiele 2017). Several of Steudel's contributions to Plantae Preissianae were criticised as deficient by contemporaries and were revised in later parts of the same work (McGillivray 1975).…”