Notes on Guiana Ferns

The collection of Des Marets in the Sloane Herbarium consits of two volumes. The first, vol. 261, contains plants, gathered for Des Marets at the Cape of Good Hope; the second, vol. 291, contains the plants from Surinam. It is a collection, mostly of leaves, with a few good specimens, without labels. Often the state of preservation is very good. They were gathered for Des Marets, at whose auction they were bought. In the collections of the British Museum are letters from Des Marets to Sloane, asking him to obtain various plants from Jamaica, for which Sloane was then starting (1686); the other thanking him for seeds, send through Charleton. Moreover Des Marets seems to have carried on a correspondence with George London (d. 1715), who was gardener to Bishop Counton and to King William and Queen Mary. I possess no further data about Des Marets, who lived at the Hague.