Economic Botany Collection

Catalogue no.:

29535

Botanical classification:

MUSACEAE Ensete gilletii

Common name:

xxxx

Geographical description:

Hills of Nyassa, Mozambique

Item description:

Necklace of seeds

Length:

59cm

No. of beads:

83

Bead size:

0.7cm

Plant information:

Large herb which grows to 4m with a swollen base and fruits only once before it dies. Native to Africa, from Malawi to Sierra Leone.

Donor date:

02/10/1888

Donor:

Sir John Kirk (1832-1922) - Kirk was born in Forfarshire and trained as a doctor. After serving in a Turkish hospital during the Crimean War, he accompanied David Livingstone on his second Zambezi expedition (1858-1864). The party made the earliest investigations of Lake Nyasa and also travelled to and explored Victoria Falls. Kirk took many of the photographs which survive from this expedition. The expedition collected several botanical specimens and artefacts for Kew’s collections. Kirk was made medical officer to the Zanzibar Agency in 1866 and continued to collect for Kew. He became vice-president of the Linnaean Society in 1882 and became the vice-president of the Royal Society in 1894.