Species Tulbaghia hypoxidea

For Ryk Tulbagh (Rijk Tulbagh) (1699–1771), Dutch governor of the Cape Colony from 1751 to 1771. When only 16, he emigrated to the Cape as a Dutch East India Company employee on a five-year contract to be used as needed. The governor, Maurice Pasques Chavonnes, recognised the young man’s ability and gave him an administrative post as assistant clerk of the secretary of the political council, the start of a career that ended in his being made governor of the Cape. He was a responsible governor who, inter alia, codified the slave laws of the country with set rules for slave management. He corresponded with Linnaeus in 1763 and sent him seeds, and several birds. The town of Tulbagh is named after him.