Specimens

All of the digitised specimens from Digitising Philippine Flora are now accessible and can be found on the Global Registry of Scientific Collections.

Specimen Features

A deeper dive into specimens collected by Hugh Cuming

Nepenthes alata

In the Island of Samar I found a Rafflesia of which I have dried specimens and in spirits on the Roots of Trees, on which they grew, several species of Nepenthes but few flowers. Mosses, Lichens and fungi are scarce.

Letter from H.[Hugh] Cuming to Sir William Jackson Hooker; from Manila, [Philippines]; 18 Nov 1838

In a letter to William Jackson Hooker, the Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, Cuming evoked the “luxurious” vegetation he encountered while travelling through the Philippine Islands (DC 67/52). He reported the extraordinary number of specimens he extracted from the landscape—200 different species of plants, just from the borders of a great lake in Luzon Island. Describing his experiences in Island of Samar, Cuming noted that he found “a Rafflesia of which I have dried specimens” as well as some species of Nepenthes. Since the fleshy Raflessia was so difficult to preserve, these specimens received plenty of attention from contemporaries such as Hooker, as well as the American based botanist J. E. Teschemacher. However, while the Cambridge Herbarium does not contain any of the preserved Rafflesia specimens, two Nepenthes specimens do exist in the collection, one purchased by John Stevens Henslow and the other by John Lindley.

These Nepenthes specimens are visually striking while alive and as pressed onto herbarium sheets. As Elaine Ayers has explored in her writings on “Carnivorous Pitcher Plants and Colonial Consumption,” the curious, carnivorous nature of Nepenthes had sparked a nineteenth-century craze for pitcher plants. She notes, “whether desiccated and flattened on a sheet of paper, preserved three dimensionally in a jar of alcohol, or transported alive, the pitcher plant seemed to cross all boundaries of “normalcy” in the nineteenth century British imagination.” (Ayers, 2019). Nepenthes alata is a relatively small species of Nepenthes compared to those such as Nepenthes rafflesia which measure over a foot in length, making it that much more manageable to confine to a sheet of paper. The once gaping pitchers are flattened, no longer able to engulph and drown the insects in its sweet nectar. Thin textured veins offer a certain delicacy and with the tendrils elegantly arranged, sweeping across the page, it is easy to briefly forget the plant’s carnivorous nature. But the curled lips on the pitcher resists flattening, the mouth of the pitcher still gapes, hinting at its cavernous structure. Artfully pressed and arranged, the sheets identify certain tensions: Nepenthes alata’s dangerous, carnivorous vivacity versus the fragile delicate features that allowed it to be plucked out of its environment; the bulbous pitchers, with their snarling lips versus the elegant tendrils and flowers.

In her study of the Victorian fascination with Nepenthes, Ayers notes the plant’s ability to “thrive in inhospitable environments” (Ayers, 2019). A sheet of paper is certainly not the most hospitable environment for the plant. The struggles of pressing the three-dimensional structures are disclosed in the occasionally awkward folds of the thin flesh. And yet, from a visual perspective, these specimens do “thrive” on a sheet of paper. Twisting tendrils, splayed leaves and extraordinary shapes retain the plant’s alluring, striking qualities.

Matonia pectinata

The fern Matonia pectinata is an example of a specimen referenced by Cuming in the letters to other botanists and natural historians he sent throughout his voyage. But why was Cuming so interested in this plant, and what lengths did he have to go through to find it? By reading Cuming’s letters we can trace his journey to find this specific plant and theorise about why he was so captivated by this fern in the first place.

Matonia pectinata is a stunning, unique fern, endemic to one region of Malaysia. It was first referenced by Cuming in a letter to Sir William Hooker, sent on the 19th July 1835.

‘At Malacca or near it is a most particular Fern of which there is but a small imperfect specimen in England. I will visit that place for that Fern alone.’

Despite the duration of his voyage, and the extent of his collecting, Cuming mentions very few individual plants in his correspondences. For M. pectinata to be specifically referenced it must have been of some importance to either Cuming or Hooker. Although we cannot say for certain, it’s likely that the ‘small imperfect specimen’ Cuming was referencing is one of the type specimens (representative specimens of the species) for M. pectinata, identified by the botanist Robert Brown. Cuming himself visited Malacca (a state in southern Malaysia) towards the end of his voyage in 1839-40. He spent much less time here than he did in the Philippines, and as a result collected far fewer specimens.

The fern is next mentioned by Cuming in a letter to Hooker sent from Malacca, 5 years after the initial correspondence (13th October, 1840).

‘Since I did myself the pleasure of writing you last, I have been at Mount Ophir in the Malayan Peninsula and have had the great pleasure of Collecting the splendid Fern [Matonia pectinata R. Br.] which I promised you to do before I left and many others from that Locality.’

In the same letter Cuming goes on to describe the habitat in which he found the fern, and how it was growing.

‘It is not found at the Foot of the Mountain but 4600 feet high in great abundance, of which I have taken the liberty of collecting a number of the finest specimens. Its roots creep along the Ground and each Frond stands from 5 to 7 Feet high.’

Mount Ophir (more commonly known by its Malay name of Gunung Ledang) is located in the Tangkak District, Johor, Malaysia. It is the tallest mountain in the region and is surrounded by Gunung Ledang National Park. Historically, it became a well-known location for finding Matonia pectinata plants, and they continue to thrive there today, with the humid, tropical, upland habitat providing an ideal environment for the ferns to grow. Whilst these mountainous areas are great for the fern, it would have made it difficult for Cuming to access the area, and it is likely he would’ve been dependent on local guides to help him explore the area.

Cuming’s final mention of Matonia pectinata is in a letter sent several months later, where he emphasises how fine the collected specimens are.

‘The Matonia is superb and I have specimens of all different [developmental] stages for you.’

Here Cuming explains that he collected a variety of specimens, at different stages of growth. We have located two of these within the Cambridge University Herbarium, one of which is particularly spectacular, displaying a complete leaf frond.

Matonia pectinata is an interesting fern as it is one of only two extant species in its genus, and the genus Matonia is one of only two genera in its family (Matoniaceae). This makes it incredibly unique from an evolutionary point of view. The species was first described by R. Brown (Wallich, 1829), and is distributed across the Malaysian peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra and Thailand. Its habitat is varied, encompassing exposed areas, scrub, mountain ridges and summit, and the fern can grow anywhere between 750 to 2000 metres (Kato, 1993).

Despite the very restricted modern-day range of this fern, fossil records show that the family it belongs to (Matoniaceae) used to be widely distributed (Rushford, 1969). It is thought that they probably originated during either the early Mesozoic (around 250 MYA) or the late Palaeozoic (around 252 MYA), and the ferns had a likely global distribution during the Mesozoic Era. However, at some point between then and the modern day, this range has been restricted to just a few locations across a few countries. The reason for this dramatic change is unknown.

Despite their limited geographic range, the ability of these beautiful ferns to capture people's imagination has persisted. Even once Cuming had left Malaysia, this fern continued to intrigue natural historians, with Alfred Russel Wallace mentioning his encounters with it on Mount Ophir, both in his own personal letters to Hooker, and in his book ‘The Malay Peninsula’. He describes it as ‘the tallest and most elegant [fern]’, which is high praise coming from a man who would have seen many of the ferns in the surrounding area.

References

Kato, M. 1993. A taxonomic study of the genus Matonia (Matoniaceae)

Rushford, S. 1969. Notes on the Fern Family Matoniaceae from the Western United States

Wallich, N. 1829. Plantae Asiaticae rariorcs. 1: t. 16.

Scroll through images of some specimens below

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