LANKESTERIANA8(2) 43-52 2008


 THE BOTANICAL CABINET


 RUDOLF JENNY

Moosweg 9, 3112 Allmendingen, B Bern, Switzerland
 RJOrchid@gmx.ch


 There are a few famous examples of seldom seen
botanical periodicals. The orchid plates published
in journals like Curtis's Botanical Magazine and
Edwards's Botanical Register have been reprinted,
but many others are known only from the originals
locked away in libraries. A good example is Loddiges'
Botanical Cabinet, published in 20 volumes with 2000
plates between 1817 and 1833. The history of this
journal and its content must be seen in relation to the
Loddiges & Sons Nursery, in Hackney.
 At the beginning of the 19th century, tropical
orchids were almost unknown in Europe, though
some illustrations and descriptions were known
from expeditions in tropical countries, along with
herbarium material collected on such expeditions.
Nobody had a clear idea of the richness of forms
and species in this family, and tropical orchids were
treated more or less as mere curiosities of the plant
kingdom. This situation would change dramatically
about 1840, when the orchid fever in England started
to spread, first through the island and then also -
beginning in Belgium through continental Europe.
It was a part of the life-style of rich people to build
up an orchid collection, and the names of nurseries
like Sander, Linden, Low and Veitch, all trying to
satisfy the growing market for plants from tropical
countries, became famous.
 Right at the beginning of this development, we find
the name of Joachim Conrad Loddiges (fig. 1) and his
establishment in Hackney, London. Joachim Conrad
Loddiges was born in 1738, the son of a gardener
working for a nobleman in Vristbergholzen near
Hannover in Germany. He was trained as a gardener
between 1758 and 1761 with Joseph Conrad Wefer
in Velzen, near Haarlem in the Netherlands. After
finishing his education he went to England to start
in the best tradition of his family as gardener with
J. B. Sylvester in Hackney, London. In 1771 Conrad


took over a small import-nursery from John Busch,
with its stock of customers and suppliers. Conrad
was a very keen and intelligent businessman, but his
starting capital was so low that that he couldn't pay
Busch for the nursery at one time, but by 1777 he had
paid everything and owned a small but flourishing
and profitable nursery with a small shop for seeds.
In the same year Loddiges published the first edition
of a whole series of catalogues as "A catalogue of
plants and seeds which are sold by Conrad Loddiges,
nursery and seedsman, at Hackney, near London."
We have a handwritten copy by Conrad Loddiges
(member of the fifth generation, great-great-grandson
of Joachim Conrad Loddiges, or great-grandson of
George Loddiges) of this first catalogue published in
the year 1914, copied from the original of Sir Joseph
Banks (which is now kept in the British Museum).
The editions 2 to 8 are very seldom seen, we know
only handwritten copies of those catalogues from
the Lindley library. In 1804 there were already 9
orchids mentioned, all of them as Epidendrum, in
1807 there were still 6 Epidendrum listed and in
1811 13 (some of them now known as Cymbidium or
Oncidium species). The orchid catalogues of 1839,
1841 and 1844 list a tremendous number of species,
in Stanhopea alone, Loddiges offered in 1839 23
species (some unnamed), in 1841 53 species, and
in 1844 65 species. Obviously Loddiges was both
fascinated by Stanhopea and able to cultivate them
rather well. Interestingly enough, some colored
illustrations of different Stanhopea species are known
that were not published in the Botanical Cabinet; one
of them is Stanhopea insignis var. major (Fig. 2). The
drawing has a label dated 4 October 1844, and the
handwritten remark: "drawn in Loddiges' garden."
It is quite unclear where these drawings are. Xerox
copies showed up in the collection of Herman Sweet,
but we have been unable to locate the originals.