Naming an Orchid

Frederick Moore's overriding passion was for orchid species which he sourced at auctions and nurseries. These included Prothero & Morris, Sanders of St. Albans and Veitch Nurseries in Chelsea. He had a keen eye for unusual orchids and often carried many unnamed species back to Glasnevin. Hybrids were very popular at the time and the small inconspicuous botanical rarities that Moore loved were often overlooked by others.

 

Moore relied on others to name his plants. He regularly posted plant specimens for identification to Professor Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1823-1889) or Robert Allen Rolfe. (1855-1921). The former was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century. Rolfe was an English botanist specialising in the study of orchids. He was the first curator of the orchid herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and founder of the magazine the Orchid Review in 1892.

PHO_ORC_1_7.jpg
Campanulorchis globifera

Black and white lantern slide. ca. 1900.

Previously known as Eria globifera. Frederick Moore states, 'Eria globifera a new species from Annam, described by Rolfe from the Glasnevin plant...It is very happily named, as the small pseudo-bulb are globose. It flowered last year for the first time.'

The Taxonomists

After his graduation, Reichenbach received an appointment to the post of Professor of Botany in Leipzig in 1855. He then became Director of the botanical gardens at the University of Hamburg (1863-1889). He was successor to the English botanist John Lindley (1799-1865) and became the world’s leading authority on orchids after Lindley's death. Reichenbach infamously bequeathed his immense herbarium and library to the 'Naturhistorisches Museum' in Vienna, Austria instead, as expected, to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with the pre-condition that his herbarium was to remain closed to any consultation for a period of 25 years.

Reichenbach probably acted this way out of resentment of the appointment of Robert Allen Rolfe, a self-taught orchid expert, as the senior taxonomist at Kew. Thus, many years of work hampered on the naming of orchids. Once the herbarium was open to consultation, many of the scientific names were found to be superfluous, as names that Reichenbach had published had priority. In Reichenbach’s obituary he is described as having an “impetuous temper” and being capable of the “occasional biting remark”.

 

After Moore became Curator, Reichenbach wrote, “I am quite ready to name you any orchid”. The majority of the Glasnevin  material was named by Rolfe. On learning of Reichenbach's death and the revelation of his instructions regarding his herbarium, Rolfe wrote to Moore saying “Reichenbach has given everyone an awful kick.” The implications of Reichenbach's actions were evident when Rolfe, on 30 May 1890, wrote an apology to Moore for his tardiness in publishing on Glasnevin material, “After all my greatest difficulty is the myriads of things described by Reichenbach which we have not yet got.”

RAR_FM_30_May_1890_b.jpg
Letter from Robert Allan Rolfe to Frederick Moore, 30 May 1890. 

'My greatest difficulty is the myriad of things described by Reichenbach which we have not got.'

The Hybrids

Although Moore favoured orchid species hybrids were becoming very popular and easier to cultivate. They were also becoming more complex in relation to parentage and the names of these new hybrids ever longer. A tri-generic of the time was Brassolaeliocattleya. John Dominy, considered the first orchid hybridiser worked for the Veitch Nurseries in Chelsea. Sir Harry Veitch later recalled John Lindley remarking to Dominy “you will drive the botanists mad” which some may now consider a realised prediction (Veitch, 1886). To this day naming and renaming plants has been a full time endeavour for taxonomist and botanist alike.

Naming an Orchid