Abstract:

We aimed to know more about the persons who, although performing a profession not connected with botany, enjoyed preparing plant collections from an Anatolian area. By depositing their collections to European herbaria, they have been helpful in the advancement of our knowledge on the Turkish flora.  Paul Émile Botta (1808-1870). French physician, archeologist, consul, traveller-naturalist in the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris. A pioneer in the excavation of the Assyrian ruins in Ottoman Iraq. Flora of Turkey cites 3 of his specimens. They are collected from Diyarbakır. Two are types. His collections are in P and G. Frank Calvert (1828-1908). British consul, archeologist. He lived in Çanakkale on the Dardanelles. He was the youngest son of the Calvert’s family. He detected the place of the ancient Troy some 20 years before H.Schliemann and made there a first excavation. He sent his plant specimens collected from Çanakkale to B, which counted more than 700 in number. Flora of Turkey cites about 30 of them. He also visited Bursa and Balıkesir and collected there. He has about 20 scientific papers published between 1859 and 1902, dealing with archeology, paleontology and anthropology. Henry Hunter Calvert (1816-1882). British consul in Erzurum from 1851 to 1857. He was the first child of the Calvert family. Alone or together with James Zohrab, a member of the British Consulate in Erzurum, he collected a great number of plant specimens in the vicinities of Erzurum. H.Calvert’s collection counts more than 1350 specimens. The collection Calvert + Zohrab has more than 1150. H.Calvert has added 19 types to the Turkish flora, one of them being collected jointly with Zohrab. The specimens of H.Calvert are distributed to CGE, E, G, K and OXF. Austen Henry Layard (1839-1894). British archeologist, politician, diplomat. One of the pioneers who excavated the Assyrian ruins in Ottoman Iraq. He was the British ambassador to The Porte between 1877 and 1884. Flora of Turkey cites 5 of his specimens. They are collected from Van and Hakkari. His collections are in BM, E and K. Ronald Charles Lindsay (1877-1945). British diplomat. Ambassador at Ankara in 1925-1926, he collected 87 plant specimens from Çankaya (Ankara). His collection is kept at K. Flora of Turkey cites 13 of his specimens. One is a type. Felix von Luschan (1854-1924). Austrian physician, archeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist. He excavated in 1881 and 1882 in SW Anatolia, and in 1883 in the vicinity of Nemrut da ğı (Adıyaman). He collected plant specimens from these areas. They are lodged in WU. Flora of Turkey cites a hundred of them. 29 are types. Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890). German, and from 1869 on American, tradesman, entrepreneur, archeologist. He is known for his excavations in Troia and Mykenai. One undated specimen of his cited in Flora of Turkey reveals that he has collected plant specimens from Troy. His 28 specimens are housed in B. Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902). German physician, anthropologist, ethnologist, archeologist, medical historian, politician. He devised the concept of cellular pathology. He visited in 1879 the antic ruins of Troy where he collected about 160 plant specimens lodged in B. Flora of Turkey cites 16 of them. A Papaver species collected by P. Sintenis in 1883 from Thymbra is dedicated to him: P. virchowii Asch.et Sint. ex Boiss. James Zohrab (1830-1891). He was an official translator during the Crimean war and subsequently a member of the British Consulate at Erzurum. From Erzurum and its vicinities, he collected ca. 900 specimens alone, and more than 1150 specimens jointly with H.H.Calvert, the British consul. He has also collected in 1853 together wth the Swiss collector A. Huet du Pavillon (1829- 1907) from the same area. 

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