Johann Franz Drège

The third great early 19C collector of South African plants were Johann Franz Drège (1794-1881). He is said to have collected some 9500 plants (with duplicates some 200 000 specimens!, representing c 8000 species). Many of these came to Ernst Meyer, professor of botany at Köningsberg, who wrote the number “2631″ on the label attached to this specimen (so far known, we don’t have any labels with Drège’s own handwriting). This number (Gladiolus 2631) is the basis for the clean written label stating the collecting locality with reference to Meyer’s Zwei pflanzengeographisceh Document von J. F. Drège, page 68.

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