Orchid species unidentified no.3

Horticultural & Botanical History

No data.

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [O.52/1850].  Collected at Nangus in southern NSW, a Macarthur family grazing property.

Notes

Orchids numbered O.52-O.63 in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues are Australian.  The 1850 Catalogue contains the note: ‘The Orchids numbered from 52 to 63 are indigenous to New South Wales, and of which the Genera have not been ascertained’.  The 1857 Catalogue contains a similar note, but stating Australia rather than NSW.  In both Catalogues they are numbered ‘Orchid no.3, 7, 11, 12, 16, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29’.  They are orchids collected by William Macarthur in NSW, primarily on Macarthur properties, between October and December 1848.  Dried herbarium specimens are still held at Camden Park but it is likely that William also collected fresh material for propagation.  These orchids were identified by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.  They are listed in the order in which they occur in the Database Register for William Macarthur’s Botanical Collection, 1838-1848, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.  These orchids probably include species that Macarthur regularly sent to England, placed in the material at the bottom of his Wardian cases.  Few of these orchids were of more than botanical interest to Europeans.