A short survey of the bryological exploration of Rwanda and Zaire is provided. The first to collect bryophytes in the area was Stuhlmann in 1891 on Ruwenzori. The first bryological collections from Rwanda were made by Mildbraed in 1907. In 1929 Humbert made the first gatherings on Mt. Kahuzi and Mt. Biega. Since then a lot of botanist have collected mosses and liverworts so that Rwanda and eastern Zaire can be regarded as well known. From most parts of Zaire and from Burundi however only few data are hitherto available

Fischer, Eberhard

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5Tropical Bryology 8: 5-11, 1993Taxonomic Results of the BRYOTROP-Expedition to Zaire andRwanda2. History of Bryological Exploration of Zaire and RwandaEberhard FischerBotanisches Institut und Botanischer Garten der Universität,Meckenheimer Allee 170,  D 53115 Bonn,  Federal Republic of GermanyAbstract. A short survey of the bryological exploration of Rwanda and Zaire is provided. The firstto collect bryophytes in the area was Stuhlmann in 1891 on Ruwenzori. The first bryologicalcollections from Rwanda were made by Mildbraed in 1907. In 1929 Humbert made the first gatheringson Mt. Kahuzi and Mt. Biega. Since then a lot of botanist have collected mosses and liverworts sothat Rwanda and eastern Zaire can be regarded as well known. From most parts of Zaire and fromBurundi however only few data are hitherto available.It was only 100 years before the BRYOTROP-Expedition to Zaïre and Rwanda that bryophyteswere collected for the first time from CentralAfrica. The History of this first expedition, whichis connected to the names of Emin Pascha andFranz Stuhlmann is so remarkable, that it shouldbe shortly repeated here. The german surgeonDr. Eduard Schnitzer alias Emin Pascha (1840 -1892) became governor of the Equatoria Provin-ce in the Egyptian Southern Sudan in 1878.Because of the Mahdi-revolt, which lead to thefall of Khartoum in 1885, all traffic connectionsto Equatoria were interrupted and Egypt gave upthis province. Emin Pascha however stayed forseveral further years until Stanley met him du-ring a relief expedition in 1889 and they travelledtogether to the German Territories in East Africa.They reached Bagamoyo on the 4. December1889. At that time, the German ColonialGovernment tried to explore and secure thealmost unknown interior of their colony. Reichs-kommissar von Wissmann planned a researchexpedition with political and military aims underthe leadership of Emin Pascha. Emin emphasizedthe importance of an accompanying naturalistand choosed the young zoologist Dr. Franz Stuhl-mann (1863 - 1928) (Fig.1) (see Bindseil 1990).The expedition had order to save all territoriessouth of Lake Victoria-Nyanza as well as bet-ween Victoria-Nyanza and Tanganyika up toAlbert-Nyanza for Germany and to prevent Bri-tish influence in this area. The expedition startedthe 26th april 1890, accompanied by 150 Askariand 400 porters. They marched to Mpapua, thewesternmost military station at that time inGerman East Africa and to Tabora where the6Arabs accepted the German government. InNovember 1890 they reached the western shoreof Lake Victoria where they founded the stationBukoba. When they arrived in Karagwe in march1891 it would have been the most easy way to gosouth-westward to explore Rwanda as it wasplanned by von Wissmann. However Emin Paschadecided, ignoring von Wissmanns orders to marchnorthward to reach Lake Albert and the SouthernSudan.In spite of rain, hunger and several diseases,Franz Stuhlmann collected a large amount ofscientific material, including several bryophytesfrom the Ruwenzori Mountains, which he explo-red from the western side (e.g. Lepidoziastuhlmannii, Breutelia stuhlmannii). In Septem-ber 1891 the expedition decided to return to theEast African coast. Franz Stuhlmann continuedwith 27 Askari and 100 porters to Bukoba, whileEmin Pascha stayed with the sick in order tofollow Stuhlmann later. However he went west-ward to the river Congo where he was killed byarabs on the 20th October 1892. Stuhlmann, nowleader of the expedition, reached Bagamoyo onthe 12th July 1892 and arrived in Europe on the20th October 1892. He had collected valuablebotanical and zoological material, as well asethnographic and geographic data, which werepublished two years later (Stuhlmann 1894).These collections were the beginning of bryolo-gical exploration in Central Africa.From 1893 to 1908, several botanists collectedbryophytes in Zaïre, the former Belgian Congo.Scott-Elliot worked in the Ruwenzori-Moun-tains from 1893 to 1894 and the results werepublished in 1896. The collections of Dewevre(1895 - 1896) were determined by De Wildeman& Durand (1901). From 1903 to 1904 E. & M.Laurent collected in Western and Northern Zaire(Ubangi, Kasai) and their results were publishedby Cardot (1908, 1909). Meanwhile severalbryological papers, dealing mainly with mosseshad appeared (Renauld & Cardot 1896, 1899,1902). Another important contribution was madeby Vanderyst, who, among thousands of phane-rogams collected bryophytes as well.Until 1907, Rwanda was almost unknown con-cerning its flora and fauna. During the expedi-tion of Graf von Goetzen (1894) apparently nobryophytes were collected. Richard Kandt (1914,see Bindseil 1988) who lived in Rwanda asprivate naturalist and later as the Imperial resi-dent for Rwanda made some botanical collec-tions, unfortunately only phanerogams.In 1907 Adolf-Friedrich Herzog zu Mecklen-burg started an expedition, which mainly inten-ded to explore Rwanda and the eastern BelgianCongo. He was accompanied by Egon Kirsch-stein, geologist, Johannes Mildbraed, botanist(Fig. 2), Hermann Schubotz, zoologist, JanCzekanowski, anthropologist, Max Weiß, Lieu-tenant and cartograph, W. von Raven, physicianand bacteriologist as well as Lieutenant Waltervon Wiese und Kaiserwaldau, Friedrich Weide-mann, Sergeant Czeczatka and 25 Askari(Mecklenburg 1909). They went by train to LakeVictoria, marched to the northeast of Rwanda,where they collected at the Lake Mohasi (seeBamps 1975). After having visited the court ofKing Yuhi V. Musinga, Mildbraed and Schubotzleft the expedition for about two weeks in orderto collect plants and animals in the Nyungweforest (= Rugege Wald). Until March 1908,Mildbraed visited Lake Kivu and the VirungaVolcanoes, afterwards the eastern Congo (Ituri,Aruwimi) and the Ruwenzori. In May 1908 theexpedition went down the river Congo with asteam boat until they reached the western coast.They arrived at Hamburg on the 30th June 1908.The scientific results were published until 1925.The botanical volume, edited by Mildbraed (1914)covered 718 pages. The hepatics were studied byStephani (1914), who recognized 57 species,among them 45 new species of liverworts andone new hornwort. The genus Sphagnum wasstudied by Warnstorf (1914) covering 5 speciesof which 3 were described as new. The mossesfinally were identified by Brotherus (1914), whodescribed 57 new species from the 137 speciesrecognized. Their treatment should remain aclassic work and the only bryological account ofRwanda and Zaïre for more than 30 years. It alsowas the base for Demaret’s check-lists of CentralAfrica (see below).From 1908 to 1909 the Duke of the Abruzzesexplored the Ruwenzori Mountains and the bryo-logical results were published by Gola (1909,Hepaticae) and Negri (1909, Musci). Amongother species they discovered Chandonanthuscavallii Gola and Tortula cavallii Negri.9In 1914 J. Bequaert again collected on theRuwenzori and Naveau (1928) described a newSphagnum from his material. From 1926 to 1927D.H. Linder of the Harvard Institute of TropicalBiology collected on the Virunga Volcanoes.The bryophytes were published by Theriot (1930).The French botanist Humbert was the first tocollect on Mt. Kahuzi and Mt. Biega in 1929. Healso visited the Virunga Volcanoes. His name iscommemorated in the genus Bryohumbertia(Dicranaceae).Lucien Hauman worked on Ruwenzori in 1932and published some bryological results in 1942.Several new species from his collections weredescribed by Herzog (1936).From 1933 to 1935 the Belgian zoologist DeWitte collected in the Albert National Parc (todayParc National Virunga in Zaïre and Parc Natio-nal des Volcans in Rwanda) and so did thebotanist Lebrun from 1937 to 1938. Based onthese gatherings, a flora of the mosses fromAlbert National Parc was published by Demaret& Leroy (1944). Two years before, the firstcheck-list of Central African Mosses was publis-hed by Demaret (1940), followed by list of Hepa-tics (Demaret 1942). This first account of thebryophytes from Zaïre, Rwanda and Burundipresented a compilation of all data hitherto avai-lable.After the Second World War botanical explora-tion was intensified. Demaret worked in theRuwenzori from 1953 to 1957 and Jean-JacquesSymoens collected in Rwanda and Zaïre from1955 to 1958. He visited Nyungwe Forest as wellas Tshibati and Lwiro, today part of the KahuziNational Parc. His hepaticological results werepublished by Vanden Berghen (1960, 1961, 1965).After the independance of Rwanda and Zaïre,only a few bryologists continued to work in thisphytogeographically interesting region. In 1971and 1974, J.L. De Sloover collected in the Nyung-we Forest and on Mt. Karisimbi in Rwanda. Healso made extensive collections on Mt. Kahuzi,Mt. Biega and around the station Irangi. TheHepaticae were published by Vanden Berghen(1977) and the mosses by De Sloover (1973, 1975a-d, 1976 a&b, 1977 a&b, 1979, 1982, 1983,1986, 1987) in the course of some revisions forthe whole African continent. Some otherbotanists, who mainly collected phanerogams,made bryophyte gatherings as well (e.g. Bouxin,Lisowski, Malaisse, Petit etc.). During botanicalexploration for the “Flore du Rwanda,Spermatophytes”, Troupin collected also bryo-phytes. From 1984 to 1992 the author studied thebryophytes of Rwanda and Eastern Zaïre and wasthe first to collect in remote sites (CyamudongoForest, Busaga Forest, Kagitumba, Ibanda Makeraetc.) and bryologically undercollected regions.In 1991 the BRYOTROP-Expedition investiga-ted the bryophytes along an altitudinal gradientfrom 850 to 4500 m in the Kahuzi-Biega Natio-nal Park, the Nyungwe forest and Mt. Karisimbi.While the bryoflora of Rwanda is now fairly wellknown and a Flora of the Hepaticae and Antho-cerotae is in preparation (Fischer in prep.), mostparts of Zaïre and Burundi are still in need ofcollection. Except for Shaba (Vanden Berghen1972 b, 1978 b), the region west of Lake Kivu andthe Ruwenzori, only a few specimens are knownfrom such interesting and isolated areas likeItombwe Mountains, Masisi and Upemba. Thesituation of Burundi is comparable and onlyLewalle and Petit made extensive collections,most of the specimens not yet identified. Thusonly few recent studies are available (VandenBerghen 1972a, Petit & Symons 1974). Howe-ver, compared with our knowledge on otherAfrican countries, Burundi belongs to the fewwith more than 10 records of Hepatics per squarekilometer (Pócs 1982).Literature citedBamps, P. 1975: Itinéraire et lieux de récolte de Mildbraed lorsde sa première expédition en Afrique centrale (1907-1908).Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 45: 159-179.Bindseil, R. 1988: Ruanda und Deutschland seit den TagenRichard Kandts. 256 pp. Dietrich Reimer Verlag Berlin.Bindseil, R. 1990: Franz Stuhlmann. Ein biographisches Por-trät, gleichzeitig eine kolonialhistorische Personalstudie. Bonn(unpublished).Brotherus, V.F. 1914: Musci in Mildbraed, J. (Ed.): Wissen-schaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Zentral-Afrika Expedi-tion 1907-1908, II: 136 - 176.Cardot, J. 1908: Diagnoses prèliminaires de Mousses duCongo belge et de la Casamance. Revue Bryologique 35: 62.Demaret, F. 1940: Prodrome des Bryophytes du Congo Belge10et du Ruanda-Urundi. I. Musci. Bulletin du Jardin BotaniqueBruxelles 16: 21 - 104.Demaret, F. 1942: Prodrome des Bryophytes du Congo Belgeet du Ruanda-Urundi. II. Hepaticae. Bulletin du Jardin Botani-que Bruxelles 16: 287 - 310.Demaret, F. 1946: Prodrome des Bryophytes du Congo Belgeet du Ruanda-Urundi.  Musci, Supplement 1. Bulletin du JardinBotanique Bruxelles 18: 7 - 66.Demaret, F. & Leroy, V. 1944: Mousses. Exploration ParcNational Albert, Mission J. Lebrun 1937-38, Fasc. 6: 1 - 65.De Sloover, J.-L. 1973: Note de bryologie africaine I.Brachydontium, Atractylocarpus, Amphidium, Rhabdoweisia,Tayloria, Rhacocarpus, Trachypodopsis. Bulletin du JardinBotanique National de Belgique 43: 333 - 348.De Sloover, J.-L. 1975a: Note de bryologie africaine II.Oreoweisia,  Eriopus,  Cyclodictyon,  Hookeriopsis,Lepidopilidium, Lepidopilum. Bulletin du Jardin BotaniqueNational de Belgique 45: 103 - 124.De Sloover, J.-L. 1975b: Note de bryologie africaine III.Physcomitrella magdalenae sp. nov. Bulletin du Jardin Bota-nique National de Belgique 45: 131 - 135.De Sloover, J.-L. 1975c: Note de bryologie africaine IV.Breutelia. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique45: 237 - 271.De Sloover, J.-L. 1975d: Note de bryologie africaine V.Anacolia, Leiomela, Cyathophorella. Bulletin du Jardin Bota-nique National de Belgique 45: 313 - 321.De Sloover, J.-L. 1976a: Note de bryologie africaine VI.Hylocomiopsis. 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Taxonomic results of the Bryotrop expedition to Zaire and Rwanda : 2., history of bryological exploration of Zaire and Rwanda

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