WCP5539

[1]¹

[No address]²

28. I. [18]96³

My dear Mr Dyer,

I received pp.[pages] 64 of the Flora Capensis⁴ vol[ume]. yesterday, and have gone over it as far as the limited time before this day’s mail allowed. The corrections & suggestions in black ink are partly typographical, partly Cape-Dutchy. To some a? is prefixed, for not all are worth taking up, and of some I am not quite sure what the M[anu]S[cript] intended[.]

Now as to our way of writing certain names. We I regret to say, write Simon’s Town, Simon’s Bay. With some concurrence of local scholars, I write Simonstown just as Kingstown is written. Now here is the crux. If one separates the Simon from the Town, then the apostrophic mark & the s must go in. If we drop the ’ then the words must be united. On the whole, I think the ’s will have to be retained before such words as Bay, Kloof⁵ &c. as in Cape practice. But wherever English custom of compounding applies one should write Capetown, Kingwilliamstown, Queenstown, Grahamstown. And Cape scholars & careful writers do so, although the Government officials write Graham’s Town &c. out of conservative’s cussedness & red-tapery. They have no excuse, because the name of Capetown was "Kaapstad" all in one word, yet they will write Cape Town. I have gibed at them much to no effect, & pointed out the awful character of such names as King William’s Town & Hermanus Petrus Fontein⁶.

Of course the suggestions are to take, or to leave if any intentional system has been arrived at previously.

Baur’s⁷ plants from Bazija or Bazeia, must be taken as from Tembuland^†8. That is the division now, and the word Kaffraria⁹ is altogether

^†not Kaffraria wh[ich].[?] please alter.

[2]¹⁰

out of use; there was once a crown-colony of British Kaffraria & an independent ([1 word illeg.]) Kafirland for which last the Rev[erend]. R. Baur¹¹ latinized on his labels Kaffraria Transkeiana. I begged him to drop it & he did: writing "Flora Trans-Keiana" right enough¹².

I have run through in red ink such additions as collation with Herb[arium]. [1 word illeg.]¹³ could give with certainty. If the time of the method followed precludes their use, it is easy to put them on one side. Bolus¹⁴ is not returned from his botanical trip with Flanagan¹⁵ hence he has not seen these sheets.

Let me congratulate you on thus much of the work. I do not intend, as you laughingly foreboded in your last, to criticize. Partly, I am not competent all round, still more it is not for us out here to receive a great work done at a distance under great difficulties with the critical spirit.

I hope you will commend me to the veteran author with whatever New Year good Wishes are available with February so near.

I am sending some Antholyza nervosa¹⁶. One other matter. Prof[essor] Wallace had from me¹⁷ [3] a M[anu]S[cript]. on the Cape as a future centre for export fruit growing[,] being expansion of a few pages published in the Kew Bulletin¹⁸. I think it has reached him too late to be incorporated in his book, for he has sent me for comment a full chapter of his own, I am sorry to say — a pretty bad one. May I ask you to receive the M[anu]Script]. if he should send it to your care & put it with a pigeonhole pro tem[pore].¹⁹ ? I have no correspondent at home whom I can ask this favour. Wallace was told he could take it bodily over without alteration & without acknowledgement, but as he has sent other copy, it has doubtless reached him too late. He can either cancel his own & take mine, or keep his own & send over mine to Kew²⁰ — if you allow.

Faithfully | P. MacOwan [signature]