179:. They followed the Crocodile further north to the Pienaars River confluence, reaching the most northerly point of their expedition. Burke recorded that the area was teeming with rhino and lion; they made camp here and stayed for several weeks, collecting numerous specimens and live young animals. On 26 October they broke camp and moved east, following the Pienaars River, almost to the salt pan they had visited previously. They thereupon returned to their camp in the Magaliesberg and on 17 November received a visit from the Swedish naturalist
70:, had not arrived. Chafing at the delay, Burke returned to Cape Town on 2 August with some animals that Zeyher had obtained for Lord Derby, and arrived back in Algoa Bay on 27 August. Here he awaited the arrival of his supplies which eventually landed on 9 November. At last on 17 November 1840, the expedition, which consisted of a train of three wagons, set out northwards from Uitenhage, arriving at
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on 3 May and the Hex River Pass on 22 May and were back at
Vygekraal on 7 June, almost two and a half years after landing at Table Bay. Burke sailed for Britain in July 1842, taking back an "immense collection of living and dead animals and dried plants, seeds, bulbs etc"; the plant specimens finding
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where he planned to meet up with Zeyher for their joint expedition to the hinterland to the north. A smallpox outbreak in Cape Town caused usually hospitable farmers along the way to bar their homes to visitors, creating accommodation problems for Burke. Exasperated by the slow progress of his wagon,
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in the inland plateau. Burke left the salt pan on 7 August and returned to their
Magaliesberg camp, and on 24 August headed west to Marikana and Sterkstroom. They followed this stream north as far as its junction with the Crocodile River, which they reached on 29 August, and at which place they shot
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Making good progress, they crossed the Vaal River on 1 January 1842 and the Orange River on 4 February. From here they deviated from their outward route and travelled west to
Colesberg, where they arrived on 18 February. Striking further west, they reached Klein Tafelberg on 4 March and
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and
California, settled 180 acres in Cass County, Missouri, successfully participated in the California Gold Rush on 1849, and served as a First Lieutenant in the Union Army during the United States Civil War (even as family members served in the Confederate Army).
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in 1846. Most of the expedition's botanising was by Zeyher, as Burke's interest lay primarily in mammals. Nevertheless, Burke did maintain a personal collection of plants, yielding many unrecorded species. Hooker named the monotypic
African genus
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Harv.) in full flower. This species is remarkable in that it is in effect an underground tree which only appears above ground during the flowering season, spending the winter months in a state of dormancy.
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on 15 February 1841 and continued north across the Vet River. Difficulties with the purchase of horses delayed their departure until mid-April. After crossing the Sand and Vals Rivers, they reached
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entering the
Magalies River catchment on 31 May. The Magalies River valley was teeming with game, and they spent 2 weeks shooting and skinning a large variety of mammals and birds, including
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Burke got married in
December 1842 after his return to Britain and later settled in the United States. He subsequently went on a joint expedition with collectors from Kew to
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Joseph was born May 13, 1812, in
Bristol, England, and died at age 60 in Cass County, Harrisonville, MO, US, on January 23, 1873. He was married to Elizabeth Walker, from
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region as grassland densely covered with Acacia and other tree species as far as the eye could see. They had arrived at the southernmost extension of the
African
187:. They made a few minor excursions before starting on the return journey on 14 December 1841. Following the course of the Magalies River upstream, they reached
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Burke left London on the vessel "Joanna" in
December 1839 and arrived in Cape Town in March 1840. From here he went on to "Vygekraal" (about 3 km SE of
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and went ahead on foot. Arriving in Uitenhage, he found that Zeyher had not prepared for the expedition, and that supplies that were to have been sent to
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162:. By now Burke felt that his collection was sufficiently representative and that his wagons were close to capacity. They set off on a trip to the
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by 9 April. Along the Gamka River, Burke captured several eland and noted that some of his other animals had died. They crossed the
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near Pretoria about two days away. Here they encountered giraffe and a number of birds not previously seen. Burke described this
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Burke was employed as a gardener for Lord Derby, an enthusiastic natural history collector with his own menagerie at
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to collect plants and animals in southern Africa, delegating Burke to organise the expedition.
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where they spent some days collecting and preserving birds. On 8 May they reached the
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Burke kept a journal detailing his travels, from which excerpts were published by
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after him, while he was also commemorated in the species' names
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in May 1841. Heading further north they made their way to the
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299:"S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science"
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30:, US) was a collector of plants and animals for
258:. His plant specimens are in the herbarium of
312:Death certificate. Missouri digital heritage
322:"Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa"
74:on 3 December. From here they crossed the
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324:Mary Gunn and LE Codd (Balkema 1981)
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365:English natural history collectors
191:on 26 December and came across an
62:he left it in the vicinity of the
46:. In 1839 Lord Derby commissioned
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26:, England – 23 January 1873 in
16:British explorer and naturalist
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183:, who had travelled up from
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7:
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227:London Journal of Botany
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243:Elephantorrhiza burkei
223:William Jackson Hooker
82:on 19 December. The
350:English naturalists
44:Prescot, Lancashire
360:English collectors
218:their way to Kew.
355:English explorers
345:English botanists
112:Andries Potgieter
22:(12 June 1812 in
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255:Drosera burkeana
78:and reached the
76:Great Fish River
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237:Acacia burkei
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94:They reached
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84:Caledon River
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28:Harrisonville
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175:their first
124:hippopotamus
120:Magaliesberg
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80:Orange River
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20:Joseph Burke
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375:1873 deaths
370:1812 births
260:Kew Gardens
215:Dwyka River
177:white rhino
128:black rhino
108:Voortrekker
48:Karl Zeyher
339:Categories
285:References
279:Lancashire
267:Hudson Bay
197:E. zeyheri
185:Port Natal
148:wildebeest
104:Vaal River
96:Thaba Nchu
32:Lord Derby
193:Erythrina
160:crocodile
144:waterbuck
100:Kroonstad
68:Algoa Bay
64:Swartberg
59:Uitenhage
55:Table Bay
38:1839–1840
275:Ormskirk
181:Wahlberg
168:bushveld
164:salt pan
156:tsessebe
110:leaders
225:in the
172:savanna
152:buffalo
72:Cradock
24:Bristol
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252:, and
232:Burkea
136:zebra
132:eland
326:ISBN
204:1842
158:and
146:and
140:kudu
90:1841
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