Ernest Saltmarshe, civil engineer, was the son of Philip Saltmarche and his wife Blance Denison. He was a member of the large Alexander Syndicate, headed by Theophilus Shepstone Jnr. He attended the first meeting of Europeans at Mbekelweni (the capital of the Swazi King Mbandzeni) on 16 May 1887 (Jones, 1993). In about 1890 he collected plants in the neighbourhood of Bulembu, in the north-western part of Swaziland, a region then known as the Havelock Concession. His specimens were incorporated in the herbarium of Ernest E. Galpin*, now in the National Herbarium in Pretoria, and in the Compton Herbarium in Cape Town. With a letter from Galpin to Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, dated 28 November 1890, Galpin sends "a second batch of monocotylidons from Mr Saltmarshe". Saltmarshe was only the second person (after Galpin) known to have collected plants in Swaziland. The species Ornithogalum saltmarshei was named after him.

List of sources:

FamilySearch: Ernest Saltmarshe. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J9QP-37X?lang=en AND https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/MPSM-1P1 AND https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WCJS-7MM?lang=en

Gunn, M. and Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Jones, H.M. A biographical register of Swaziland to 1902. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1993.

JSTOR Global Plants. Letter from Ernest Edward Galpin to Sir William Thiselton Dyer; from South Africa; 28 Nov. 1890. Retrieved from https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.visual.kadc3625 on 7 July 2020.

Roux, J.P. Swaziland ferns and fern allies. Pretoria: Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report, No. 19, 2003.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-11-01 12:07:18