Mushroom art in South Africa and Zimbabwe – Emil Holub : 1847 – 1902

Emil Holub was a nineteenth century, Austro-Hungarian Czech, medical doctor with wide-ranging interests in ethnography and the natural sciences. During visits to southern Africa in the 1870s, he meticulously recorded everything that he encountered. Amongst his vast collection of artifacts, natural history specimens and notes were several sketches of fungi. These illustrations are reproduced here to document this valuable historical knowledge, tentatively identifying them in the context of the habitats through which Holub travelled.


Introduction
The late 19th century era saw many adventurers visiting Africa in search of ethnological or natural history curiosities. Emil Holub was one. He was born on 7 October 1847 in Holice (Holitz), eastern Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. As a youngster he exhibited a remarkable passion for natural history, geography and archaeology, and was an avid reader of many of the leading travelogues of that period. As a result of the writings of David Livingstone, Holub became obsessed with the African continent, and it was his avowed ambition to follow in Livingstone's footsteps. To this end, he explored southern Africa twice: most extensively in 1872-1879 and again from 1883 to 1887 (Burrett & Olša jr 2006;Burrett 2006).
Holub studied medicine at Charles University, Prague, and left for South Africa in May 1872. Arriving at Cape Town on 1 July, he spent a short time in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) before making his way to the Diamond Fields where he set himself up at Dutoitspan. Holub worked hard and lived frugally, saving his money to fund his proposed travels into the interior. These journeys are well documented, and it is the English translations of his books that are referred to in this paper (Holub 1881;Holy 1975).
In early February 1873, Holub undertook his first excursion into the west of the old Transvaal Republic. This lasted two months, during which he collected about 1 500 dried plants and an enormous quantity of other natural history specimens, including over 3 000 insects. A short while later, November 1873 to April 1874, Holub was again on the move, this time travelling to Shoshong in what is today Botswana (Kandert 1998). Holub's third expedition began on 2 March 1875. This time he set out for the Zambezi River by way of the 'Salt Pan Road'. During this 21-month long journey, Holub passed through the arid wilderness between Botswana's Makgadikgadi Salt Pans and the Zambezi River. At the end of July 1875, he reached Pandamatenga, a key pre-colonial trading centre. With the support of trader George Westbeech, Holub received permission to cross the Zambezi to spend time in the Lozi (Barotse) Kingdom of Western Zambia. In December 1875, Holub had a disastrous mishap when his canoe overturned in the Zambezi, losing provisions, medicines and many of his notes and specimens (Holub 1881 -Vol.2;Burrett 2006). This forced him to turn back, and he finally returned to Kimberly in November 1876.
On 5 August 1879, Holub left Cape Town and returned to Prague via London, spending the next four years writing up his travels, giving lectures and presenting displays of his collections in many European cities. In 1883 he returned to Africa accompanied by his wife Rosa, and in June 1884 they embarked on an ambitious attempt to travel far beyond the Zambezi River. This journey, funded by the Austro-Hungarian State, was a disaster, and by April 1886 the expedition was aborted after the death of several of his companions and the loss of all his equipment and accumulated field-notes. Holub finally returned to Europe in 1887 and died in February 1902 as a result of the accumulated long-term effects of malaria. Today Emil Holub is considered one of the national folk-heroes of the Czech Republic and one of the greatest scientific travellers of the 19th century.
Clearly Holub had an uncommon passion for natural history as well as an eye for detail, and his fascinating mushroom drawings are uncommon since fungi were rarely noticed by most likeminded travellers. We hope that this publication, a historical review of these early southern African fungi sketches, will give recognition to the valuable pioneer contribution of Emil Holub to mycological knowledge in southern Africa and encourage further research.

Materials & Methods
Most of Holub's observations have remained unpublished, so it was a privilege for one of us in 2007 to be granted permission to see Holub's drawings in the Náprstek Museum in Prague, as part of a general heritage project funded by the Czech Embassy, Harare. This was facilitated by the then Czech Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jaroslav Olša Jnr. Subsequently, Bohumil Hamrsmid of the Czech Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, was approached for assistance with translation of the annotations alongside the sketches. Contrary to our expectations, he found that most of the text was not written in Czech, but in archaic German, with only a smattering of Czech here and there. Hamrsmid found the German very difficult to read, let alone translate and we approached Helga Landsmann who is familiar with the old Sütterlin script and old style of hand writing. On many pages there are several styles of writing and pen quality/size. We believe that additions were made later by the curatorial staff in the Museum, but they add little to the nature of the illustrations and original annotations and are therefore not discussed further.
Holub's two 1881 volumes were read to provide some insight into the background of the various mushroom sketches, so enabling us to understand general habitat and timing of the journey when these fruiting bodies were illustrated. Unfortunately, it was not always possible to match the sketches with the published texts, and the exact localities of the illustrations are often obscure, using old geographical names no longer in use, or they are a distorted version of what he thought was said in Cape Dutch or various African languages. In addition, we have found that the official English translation, done by Ellen E. Frewer, has many variations to the original text. A fair amount of the natural history detail was dropped as Frewer believed that they would have little appeal to the general English reader. This has made it difficult to correlate the published text with some of the annotations in Holub's original field-notes. Nonetheless it appears that the mushroom drawings come from three general areas, and it is on this basis that we discuss his sketches ( Figure 1).
The original sketches, scanned by the staff of the Náprstek Museum in Prague, are in sepia, but they are reproduced here in black-and-white to enhance their finer details. The drawings were done on whatever paper Holub had on hand as paper was a rare commodity at that time. His original numbering is retained. Measurements of size on the sketches were given in the old imperial style and Holub, in his characteristically precise manner, used the 'triple primes', i.e., three apostrophe signs (''') to denote a twelfth of an inch.
It is appreciated that the exact determination of a species cannot always be achieved by illustration alone. It is not known whether Holub's fungi collections survived the journeys, and it would be interesting to confirm the tentative identifications below with relevant voucher specimens in the Náprstek Museum. Nonetheless, Holub's attention to detail is such that the genus, and sometimes a species name, can be allocated to his sketches. Obviously, some of our interpretations may be open to dispute, because by its very personal nature, any work of art is very individualistic and influenced by the knowledge and experience of the artist. Equally, interpretation is influenced by the knowledge and experience of the reviewing eye. The nomenclature used in this paper is according to Index Fungorum (2020).
In late December 2018, a field trip was undertaken by the first author and Judy Ross to explore the sites along the Pandamatenga-Leshumo Valley trail as described by Holub in his publications. Our intention was to verify the vegetation present, which would assist in naming the illustrated fungi. Unfortunately, the rains were very late that season, and no mushrooms were seen during our week-long excursion.
At the end of this paper, we include two written records of fungal collections from southern Africa attributed to Holub that have come to light in more recent literature. These may be only part of his forgotten legacy. It is possible that there are additional mushroom illustrations archived in the Náprstek Museum.

Results and Discussion
Holub's first published mention of 'funguses' is on 26 July 1875 in Volume 2 of his travelogues (Holub 1881), together with a note about explosive seed pods. This latter phenomenon applies to Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Baikiaea trees, which Holub encountered at that time of year while travelling north 'through very monotonous sandy forest' towards the settlement of Pandamatenga. These trees are in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of legumes, and the first two genera are dominant in miombo woodland and have ectomycorrhizal associations with many fungi. They often co-exist with Baikiaea plurijuga Harms, the Zambezi teak tree, which is dominant in many of the Kalahari Sand areas. It is unlikely that there were fungi fruiting at that time of year, except for bracket fungi, which Holub apparently did not illustrate, but he collected 'a good many plants, and some varieties of seeds, fruits and funguses'.
The next mention of fungi is made during Holub's stay in the Upper Leshumo Valley where he was recovering from a particularly bad bout of 'fever'. On 19 January 1876 he was well enough to take a short walk and botanised in the immediate vicinity of the wagons -'Of such funguses as I could neither press nor dry, I took sketches…'. The annotations to his sketches, unlike the published text, mentions 'mushroom' using the old German term 'Schwamme' ('sponge mushrooms'), a name with which he would have been familiar back home, although in using this word he meant more than 'bolete' fungi to which this common name is now applied in Zimbabwe. It is interesting that he also mentions lichens in his books, for example in rocky areas north of Moshaneng. This suggests that he knew that they, and probably also fungi, were separate from plants. Unfortunately, his descriptions of the lichens are not detailed enough to identify those he encountered.
The drawings and translations of the annotations to Holub's field sketches are documented and our identifications follow below. These are summarised in Table 1.
Holub collected various natural history specimens in the western and central areas of the former Transvaal, including the modern provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo and North West as well as in the immediate vicinity of Kimberly. These collections date to 1873 and January 1874. The general habitat of these river valleys where he did considerable work is described as 'desert scrub' (Pole-Evans 1936) (Dios et al. 2002) and previously collected in Hwange, Zimbabwe (Doidge 1950).  fungi were formerly in their own family called Lycoperdaceae but are now in Agaricaceae. Holub shows the 'side-view' (no. 39) and 'under-view' (no. 40). 'As all sponge mushroom…on the third…Found on 26th of March….' If the translation is correct, it is not clear which measurements Holub took of the fruiting bodies: 'circumference of the width 7'' 2''' cross-section of width 2'' 1''' circumference of the height 4'' 7''' diameter 1'' 11'''.' The Agaricus (Figure 4: Holub no. 45) was 'found in Molapo Valley on 28th October.' The Molapo River forms the southern border of Botswana. The mushroom noted by Holub measured as follows: 'cross-section of the closed cap is 4'', cross-section of the open cap is 6'', cross-section height of the cap is 4'' 2''' circumference of cap is 11'''. It is not clear whether there is more to the last measurement as the page is damaged. Of interest is the date when this mushroom was found and illustrated. October is usually very hot and dry, and one would not expect fruiting at this time, although thunderstorms do occur, and temporary moisture and humidity may well encourage growth of these mushrooms. Figure 5 shows another Agaricus. Holub no. 44 has a rather obscure caption written in a different language, possibly Czech or Slovak -'page 25 in diary.' We assume that this refers to one of Holub's personal diaries, which we have not seen. The half-fraction shown alongside appears to refer to this same specimen, suggesting that it is a very large species.
Illustration no. 46 looks to be Coprinus comatus (O.F.Müll.) Pers. 1797. It is shown as a third of life-size and was 'found in the Molapo Valley.' However, there are some species of Agaricus that look like this in the young stage, and it may represent the same fungus in the adjacent illustrations. However, because Holub allocated a different number to this drawing, we assume it to be a different mushroom.
In Figure 6, Holub numbers 41 and 42 look like young Agaricus fruiting bodies. They are annotated 'Found in  The picture at the bottom of Figure 6 has a duplicated 'no. 47' and looks like a cross-section of the C. comatus, which appeared in Figure 5. There are no notes pertaining to this sketch, but the annotation on the lefthand side may be a brief cross-reference to Holub's notes e.g., 'Hol. 21/83.' Perhaps it alludes to a page in his diary or a collection item no. 21. Similar annotations are to be found on many of Holub's sketches. The last sentence cannot be deciphered, but the size of the feature (6''') may refer either to the ring on the stipe or to the basal structure. The latter is very interesting and must have been remarkable enough for Holub to make a point of illustrating it. First impression suggests a small volva or volval remains typical of an Amanita, but mycelia tufts may also be present at the base of Macrolepiota species (pers. observation Cathy Sharp), a feature not often noticed unless the substrate litter is carefully brushed off.
The historical site of Pandamatenga occupied the crest of a low hill overlooking riverine vegetation and open grassland at the headwaters of the Matetsi River, a tributary of the Zambezi (G. Macdonald pers. comm.). The vegetation further north along the trail is predominantly Kalahari sand teak woodland with scattered Brachystegia boehmii Taub. and Julbernardia globiflora (Benth.) Troupin. It is in this woodland that ectomycorrhizal fungi were encountered by Holub and some of his drawings depict these genera (Figures 8 & 9). Additional patches of mopane (Colophospermum mopane (Benth.) J.Léonard) grow on black clay and cut across the sand in an east-west direction, often forming pans and vlei areas, which are water-logged in the rainy season. Some of Holub's fungi collections appear to have been sent to Germany, because discovered amongst them was a new species that was named Broomeia ellipsospora Höhn. 1905(von Höhnel 1905Doidge 1950). It is unknown when or where Holub collected this particular specimen, but the species has since been found in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Conclusion
Emil Holub's mushroom drawings constitute a valuable collection of natural history records. They give us insight into the finer details of the ecosystems through which he passed in the nineteenth century. Unlike most travellers of that time, he was more than a hunter and trader, and brought with him a sound knowledge and genuine interest in a variety of natural and social sciences.
This paper exposes some of the fascinating fungi illustrations that can be found in Holub's hitherto unanalysed papers in Prague. Undoubtedly some of these illustrations are of his specimens that are possibly now housed in one of the many museums across Europe in which he deposited collections. With these illustrations alone we have a valuable contribution to science, but it would be ideal to link them with their voucher specimens.
This alerts us to the probable existence of many inadequately documented collections housed in herbaria and museums throughout the world that hold valuable information, which needs to be studied and published. Revealing these mushroom drawings done by Emil Holub in the 1870s, and exploring their content, is a start to bringing this information to light.