Biography

British forester. John McClounie came to colonial Malawi in 1893 to work as a government forester and was promoted to Director of the Scientific Department in 1897. He made a survey of the forests on Mlanje Mountain in 1895, which was published in Kew Bulletin, and reported on the timber potential of the Mlanje cedar (Widdringtonia nodiflora (L.) Powrie). His Journey Across the Nyika Plateau (Geographical Journal Vol. 22, No. 4) describes his route and the materials collected during his survey of the area in September 1903. So impressed was he with its beauty, and with the total absence of tsetse flies and malaria-carrying insects, that he called for the area to be placed under protection and developed as a sanatorium for European settlers.

Sources:
1903, Geographical Journal, 22(4)
H. Wild, 1960, Biographical Notes on Botanical Collections in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Comptes Rendu de la Réunion Pléniere de l'Aetfat, 4: 161-173.