Talk:Jameson s.n., Kumaon (1849)
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Discussion
Evidentiary scope
The two sheets are labelled Kemaon, Himalayas, August, 1849 and Kemaon province, Lower Himalayas. Aug. 1849 (Kumaon), each with From Mr. W. Jameson (sent by Jameson at Saharanpur). Neither label gives an altitude, a habitat, a day or a collection number. The page also reports a letter Jameson wrote to Dr Christison in August 1849, in which he said that in Kumaon and Garhwal the plant was grown in large quantities. That is a general statement about the region. It is not a note about the plants on these sheets, and the labels say nothing of how they grew. The accession is classified Unknown. It does not establish a continuing population, and no conservation priority is assigned.
Georeferencing
Kemaon is Kumaon. The labels name the region only, with no settlement, district, altitude or collection point. Kumaon lies in present-day Uttarakhand, which supplies the province field. The accession is not assigned to a present-day district or division. No coordinate is asserted.
Editorial treatment
The two sheets are recorded as one accession. Their labels agree on the month, the region and the source at Saharanpur. Both sheets were also mounted for James McNab's demonstration collection. They differ in wording, determination and material: E00248599 is labelled mas (male) and E00248826 var. Indica, with fruit. Neither label gives a number or a day, so the pairing rests on shared provenance only. Split into two accessions, both would take the title Jameson s.n., Kumaon (1849) and one would need another form.
The labels say the sheets came from Jameson and call him superintendent (Supt.) at Saharanpur. William Jameson was appointed superintendent of the Saharanpur garden in 1842 (Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 29). The labels do not say that he gathered the plants himself. The catalogue records him as collector. The collector field follows it in the initials form W. Jameson.
The pencilled 153 on E00248599 is not interpreted.
Source citations remain in the article. Éloise 21:15, 17 September 2026 (+07)
The collector's own account
Jameson's letter of 17 August 1849 is cited as Alexander Christison printed it in 1851 (journal pp. 31–32), with the rest of the paper. The paper cites the Monthly Journal pages; the Wellcome offprint of the same text is paginated 3–26.
The date on the labels. Both labels read August 1849 and both say the sheets came from Mr. W. Jameson at Saharanpur. The letter of that month was written from Saharanpur, in the plains, and it describes the hill crop from Jameson's crossings in October, not from a visit to Kumaon that August. The paper does not put him in Kumaon in August 1849, and it does not mention dried specimens from him. From Mr. W. Jameson is a sender's line, so August 1849 may be when the sheets were sent rather than when the plants were gathered. Neither reading can be shown from this source, and the article keeps the labels' wording.
Fruit in August. E00248826 carries fruiting stems. The letter has the hill crop sown in July with seed forming from early to mid October. A fruiting plant in August is early for the crop the letter describes. This is an observation on the two sources, not a finding about the sheet.
Male and female. The two sheets are a male (mas) and a fruiting plant, the pair of forms the letter describes and that Christison says the Edinburgh plants matched. The paper does not link the sheets, or the McNab stamp, to the letter.
Whose seed. The Edinburgh plants grew from Bombay bazaar seed sown on 17 March 1849, five months before the letter (journal p. 27). What became of Jameson's Garhwal seed is not said, and the article does not connect it with the Edinburgh plants.
The addressee. The letter is addressed to Dr Christison. The paper's author writes of that Dr Christison in the third person, so he is not the author; the article does not name him further. Éloise 22:23, 20 October 2026 (+07)