a state of dormancy. 1842 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 Beaufort West by 9 April. Along the Gamka River, Burke captured several eland and noted that some of his other animals had died. They crossed the Dwyka River 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 England in July 1842, taking back an "immense collection of living and dead animals and dried plants, seeds, bulbs etc"; the plant specimens finding their way to Kew. Burke kept a journal detailing his travels, from which excerpts were published by William Jackson Hooker in the London Journal of Botany 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 Burkea after him, while he was also commemorated in the species' names Acacia burkei, Elephantorrhiza burkei, Hoodia burkei, and Drosera burkeana. His plant specimens are in the herbarium of Kew Gardens. Burke got married in England in December 1842 and later settled in the United States. He subsequently went on a joint expedition with collectors from Kew to Hudson Bay 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). Joseph was born May 13, 1812 in Bristol, England, and died at age 60 in Cass County, Harrisonville, MO, USA, on January 23, 1873. He was married to Elizabeth Walker, from Ormskirk, England, and had 3 children in England and 6 children in the USA. Elizabeth died at age 92 on March 15, 1913, in Harrisonville, MO. References "Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa" Mary Gunn and LE Codd (Balkema 1981) English botanists English naturalists English explorers English collectors English natural history collectors 1812 births 1873 deaths