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Francis Masson
PLAQUE025
PLAQUE025

Francis Masson

PLAQUE025
Dedicatee (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1741 - 1805)
DescriptionFRANCIS MASSON 1741 - 1805 BOTANIST AND EXPLORER LIVED IN OLD ABERDEEN

HistoryMasson, Francis (1741-1805), botanist, was born in August 1741 at Aberdeen. He made his way to London, where he obtained a gardening appointment at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 1771 or 1772 he was selected by Aiton, the superintendent, on the advice of Sir John Pringle, as the fittest person to undertake a journey to the Cape for the purpose of collecting plants and bulbs—the first collector thus sent out by the authorities at Kew.

Masson made Cape Town his headquarters and undertook at least three separate journeys into the interior, the first of which was from 10 December 1772 to 18 January 1773, with F. P. Oldenburg; the second, in company with C. P. Thunberg, the Swedish naturalist, lasted from 11 September 1773 to 29 January 1774; and the third, also in 1774, was begun on 26 September and brought to an end on 29 December. Having for the time thoroughly supplied the wants of Kew from that locality, Masson was sent on a like errand in 1776 to the Canaries, Azores, Madeira, and the West Indies, more especially to St Kitts. He returned to England in 1781, and remained at home until 1783, when he was dispatched to Portugal and Madeira. In 1786, when once more sent out to the Cape, he confined his botanical excursions, by the advice of Sir Joseph Banks, to a circuit of 40 miles round Cape Town. He remained there until 1795.

Masson spent some two years in England with his friends, and prepared and published in 1796–7 his well-known book, Stapeliae novae, or, … new species of that genus discovered in the interior parts of Africa. The work was issued in four instalments and contains forty-one charming coloured plates by Masson, only one of which was copied from another drawing. In 1798 he set out for North America, where he died at Montreal, on 23 December 1805.

Many plants common in conservatories were first sent to Britain by Masson. Massonia, a genus of eight southern African bulbous species, was named after him, as were the southern African shrubs Thamnea massoniana and Protea massonii.

Sources:
F. R. Bradlow, Francis Masson's account of three journeys at the Cape of Good Hope, 1772–1775 (1994) · M. Gunn and L. E. Codd, Botanical exploration of southern Africa (1981) ·Desmond, Botanists, rev. edn · M. C. Karsten, ‘Francis Masson: a gardener–botanist who collected at the Cape’, Journal of South African Botany, 24 (1858), 203–18; 25 (1859), 167–88, 283–310; 26 (1860), 9–15; 27 (1861), 15–45 · H. C. Andrews, Botanical repository, 1 (1799), pl. 46 · A. Rees and others, The cyclopaedia, or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, 45 vols. (1819–20), vol. 22 · J. Britten, ‘Francis Masson’, Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 22 (1884), 114–23; 42 (1904), 2–3; 55 (1917), 70–71 · The Banks letters, ed. W. R. Dawson (1958) · K. Lemmon, The golden age of plant hunters (1968) · A. M. Coates, The quest for plants (1969) · L. C. Rookmaker, The zoological exploration of southern Africa (1989)
Location InfoCruickshank Botanic Gardens, Old Aberdeen. Front