William Henry Harvey 1811-1866 and the tradition of systematic botany

The Turkish government appears to be somewhat obsessed with the dangers of espionage, and until very recently large tracts of the country were forbidden to foreigners unless they had been granted special permits. Such permits were at times given rather grudgingly to journalists, mountaineers, archaeologists and even physical anthro pologists; men such as these were a nuisance, but their activities were at least comprehensible to the official Turkish mind. But a botanist or zoologist who applied for permission to visit a restricted zone was invariably refused with some asperity. The government felt that its dignity was compromised by the mere request. That the man was an arrant spy was obvious, but even spies should play the game; and to attempt to carry out the espionage under such a flimsy and fantastic disguise could be nothing else than a calculated insult to the Turkish state. Grown men do not collect mosses or butterflies on Mount