Cedric Errol Carr (16 November 1892 – 3 June 1936)
was a New Zealand botanist, specialising in
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
. At the age of seven he went to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
with his family but from January 1913 until 1931, apart from military service from 1916 to 1918, he worked on
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
plantations in
Malaya
Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia:
Political entities
* British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...
.
From boyhood, Carr had been interested in orchids and from 1928 to 1932, he accompanied
Richard Holttum, sometimes also
Edred Corner on collecting expeditions to
Mount Tahan
Mount Tahan ( ms, Gunung Tahan), is the highest point in Peninsular Malaysia with an elevation of above sea level. It is located within the Taman Negara national forest, in the state of Pahang. The mountain is part of the Tahan Range in the Ten ...
,
Berastagi
Berastagi ( nl, Brastagi), is a town and district of Karo Regency situated on a crossroads on the main route linking the Karo highlands of Northern Sumatra to the coastal city of Medan. Berastagi town is located around south of Medan and abou ...
,
Lake Toba
Lake Toba ( id, Danau Toba) ( Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of a supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the ...
and other areas of
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
and spent several months on
Mount Kinabalu
Mount Kinabalu ( ms, Gunung Kinabalu, Dusun language, Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran or Nulu Nabalu'') is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of , it is List of islands by highest point, third-highest peak of an island on Eart ...
.
In 1933 and 1934 he worked at the
Kew Herbarium before travelling to
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
and spending several years collecting around
Port Moresby
(; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...
, including the
Kairuku-Hiri District
Kairuku-Hiri District is a district of Central Province in Papua New Guinea. It is one of the four administrative districts that make up the province, and surrounds the national capital, Port Moresby.
Over half of the population of the Kairuku-Hi ...
. He collected in the
New Guinea Highlands
The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya , the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home ...
including in the
Owen Stanley Range
Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. Its highest point is Mount Victoria at , while its most prominent peak is Mount Suckling.
History
Owen Stanley Range was seen in 1849 by Captain Owe ...
at altitudes up to .
In 1936 he died of
blackwater fever
Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria infection in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream (hemolysis), releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure. The disease ...
in Port Moresby. Following his death, more than 4,000 of his orchid collections and detailed descriptions of the specimens were given to the
Singapore Herbarium.
The palm, ''Hydriastele carrii''
Burret
Burret () is a commune in the Ariège department of southwestern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in t ...
(now known as ''
Hydriastele wendlandiana
''Hydriastele wendlandiana'', commonly known as Wendland's palm, cat o' nine tails, creek palm or kentia palm, is a tall, multi-stemmed tree in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to New Guinea and the Australian states of Queensland and t ...
''
(F.Muell.
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victo ...
) H.Wendl. & Drude
In German folklore, a drude (german: Drude, pl. ''Druden'') is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit (an elf ( Alp) or kobold or a hag) associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in the ...
), and the
mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.
...
genus, ''
Cecarria
''Cecarria'' is a monotypic genus in the family Loranthaceae. The sole species is ''Cecarria obtusifolia'', a hemiparasitic aerial shrub.
Description
''Cecarria obtusifolia'' is an aerial, stem-parasitic shrub, and like species in the genus '' ...
''
Barlow, are named after him.
Publications
(list incomplete)
*Carr, C. E. (1928). Orchid pollination notes. ''Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society'', 6(1 (102), 49-73
JSTOR*Carr, C. E. (1933). Some Malayan Orchids IV. ''Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society'', 11(1 (116), 66-iv
JSTOR*Carr, C. E. (1934). Coelogyne zurowetzii. ''Orchid Rev'', 42, 44.
*Holttum, R. E., & Carr, C. E. (1932). Notes on hybridisation of orchids. ''Malayan Orchid Rev'', 1, 13-17.
*Carr, C. E. (1934). On a collection of orchids from the Solomon Islands. ''Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information'' (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), 375-383
JSTOR
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Cedric
20th-century New Zealand botanists
1892 births
1936 deaths
People from Napier, New Zealand