Introduction

In the summer of 1773 Sir Joseph Banks (1743– 1820) and his friend the Revd John Lightfoot (1735– 1788) embarked on a botanical expedition through south and north Wales, originally designed to incorporate John Ray's seventeenth- century Welsh itineraries of 1658 and 1662, but in reverse order. They were joined at points along the way by botanists – Holcombe, Skinner, Williams and Davies – Davies being the Revd Hugh Davies, FLS (1739– 1821), who later published Welsh Botanology, a county flora of Anglesey, the first of its kind for Wales. The Revd John Holcombe (1710– 1775) of Pembrokeshire was a friend of Lightfoot who recorded plants in his tour journal which were originally identified by Holcombe.

As a botanical correspondent of Banks and the Revd Sir John Cullum, FRS, FSA (1733–17 85), Holcombe may have unwittingly instigated the Pembrokeshire stage of Banks's and Lightfoot's journey through his descriptions of local flora. John Cullum's brother, Sir Thomas Gery Cullum (1741– 1831), also a botanist and antiquary, undertook south and mid- Wales tours in 1775 and again in 1811. Thomas Cullum described in his journals the religious sects, local customs, estates, language and state of the poor. In 1775 he climbed Cader Idris and visited ‘Pistill Raidr’ (Pistyll Rhaeadr), near Llanrhaeadr- ym- Mochnant, and noted between Dinas Mawddwy and Dolgellau ‘neat little and well stocked [cottage gardens] […] Potatoes much cultivated in them.’ Stackpole Court's hothouse produce was praised in the later tour, while yew trees in Llanspyddidchurchyard were considered to be ‘of uncommon magnitude’. Cullum's empirical observations demonstrated a growing trend in the way that information, whether of an antiquarian, natural historical or topographical nature was recorded in travellers’ diaries and journals in the eighteenth century. This essay aims to view the way this trend impacted upon botanical exploration in the nineteenth century, leading to a greater emphasis on the geographical distribution of plants, which in turn led to a greater ecological awareness of environmental vulnerability.