Collections of flowering plants by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton from Nepal, 1802-1803

The herbarium of Francis Hamilton (formerly Buchanan) is one of the most important historical collections relating to the flora of Nepal. Containing the earliest plant collections from that country, and made by one of the most accomplished botanists in the Indian Subcontinent at that time, it has considerable intrinsic interest and value. Moreover, along with Wallich material, Hamilton's collections formed the basis for Don's Prodromus florae nepalensis (1825) in which many new species were described: thus they include numerous types. Only two extensive sets exist, the top set at the Linnean Society of London and the second set, the basis of Don's work, at The Natural History Museum. Small numbers of Hamilton's Nepalese sheets also occur elsewhere, e.g. at Kew, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. This paper enumerates Hamilton's flowering plant collections from Central Nepal, as well as providing some background to, and an explanation of, the name changes undergone by the man himself.