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Robert Fortune : a plant hunter in the Orient / Alistair Watt ; foreword by Professor David Mabberley AM.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Kew, Richmond, Surrey : Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2017Copyright date: ©2017Description: xxi, 410 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps, portraits ; 26 cmISBN:
  • 9781842466193
  • 1842466194
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • QK31.F63 W38 2017
Contents:
Foreward by Professor David Mabberley -- Acknowledgements -- Maps -- Prologue -- Introduction: In the footsteps of Robert Fortune -- Chapter 1: Awakenings -- Chapter 2: Wanderings in China: the first expedition, 1843-5 -- Chapter 3: Interlude: promotion and praise -- Chapter 4: A journey to the tea countries: the second expedition, 1848-51 -- Chapter 5: A residence among the Chinese: the third expedition, 1853-6 -- Chapter 6: The fourth expedition: collecting for the USA, 1858-9 -- Chapter 7: Yedo and Peking: the fifth expedition, Japan, 1860-1 -- Chapter 8: Yedo and Peking: the fifth expedition continues to Beijing, 1861 -- Chapter 9: Robert Fortune and the Indian tea industry -- Chapter 10: A quiet retirement? -- Chapter 11: Fortune's legacy -- Chapter 12: With Fortune in China -- Appendix 1: Instructions given to Robert Fortune by the Horticultural Society, 1843 -- Appendix 2: Report of the Council of the Horticultural Society, May 1846 -- Appendix 3: List of insect species known to be named for Robert Fortune; List of Mollusc species known to be named for Robert Fortune -- Appendix 4: List of plant species sent to the USA by Robert Fortune, 1858/1859 -- Appendix 5: Plants sent to India by Robert Fortune -- Appendix 6: Plants introduced by Robert Fortune to cultivation in the UK, India and Australia, 1843-1861 -- Appendix 7: Fortune's herbarium specimens -- Notes and citations -- Bibliography -- Index.
Summary: This is the first full biography of the great Scottish plant collector Robert Fortune, famous for working in China and Japan from 1843 until 1861. This detailed presentation of his life includes an extensive analysis of his travels, plant collections and introductions, including the first maps ever produced of his collecting itineraries in China. Watt reveals that in order for Fortune to travel into the interior of China in search of new garden plants for the (later, Royal) Horticultural Society of London he had to adopt Chinese disguise, as it had been forbidden for Europeans to leave the confines of a few coastal Treaty ports. After the successful first expedition, Fortune made four more journeys to the Far East, including China, Taiwan and Japan in search of horticultural novelties. He succeeded admirably and very many of his discoveries are garden plants today. Two of his major expeditions were made in the employ of the British East India Company to aid the introduction of the tea industry into India and another expedition was carried out to investigate a possible tea industry in the USA. It has been a commonly accepted theme that Fortune was in some way 'a tea thief' and a 'spy'; the research in this book shows a completely different story. Using much new material Watt sets out to give a full account of the man, his explorations in 19th century China and the plants that he introduced into our gardens.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Lending Books Elisabeth C. Miller Library Tall Shelves QK31.F67 W28 2017 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 39352800172322
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages 286-405) and index.

Foreward by Professor David Mabberley -- Acknowledgements -- Maps -- Prologue -- Introduction: In the footsteps of Robert Fortune -- Chapter 1: Awakenings -- Chapter 2: Wanderings in China: the first expedition, 1843-5 -- Chapter 3: Interlude: promotion and praise -- Chapter 4: A journey to the tea countries: the second expedition, 1848-51 -- Chapter 5: A residence among the Chinese: the third expedition, 1853-6 -- Chapter 6: The fourth expedition: collecting for the USA, 1858-9 -- Chapter 7: Yedo and Peking: the fifth expedition, Japan, 1860-1 -- Chapter 8: Yedo and Peking: the fifth expedition continues to Beijing, 1861 -- Chapter 9: Robert Fortune and the Indian tea industry -- Chapter 10: A quiet retirement? -- Chapter 11: Fortune's legacy -- Chapter 12: With Fortune in China -- Appendix 1: Instructions given to Robert Fortune by the Horticultural Society, 1843 -- Appendix 2: Report of the Council of the Horticultural Society, May 1846 -- Appendix 3: List of insect species known to be named for Robert Fortune; List of Mollusc species known to be named for Robert Fortune -- Appendix 4: List of plant species sent to the USA by Robert Fortune, 1858/1859 -- Appendix 5: Plants sent to India by Robert Fortune -- Appendix 6: Plants introduced by Robert Fortune to cultivation in the UK, India and Australia, 1843-1861 -- Appendix 7: Fortune's herbarium specimens -- Notes and citations -- Bibliography -- Index.

This is the first full biography of the great Scottish plant collector Robert Fortune, famous for working in China and Japan from 1843 until 1861. This detailed presentation of his life includes an extensive analysis of his travels, plant collections and introductions, including the first maps ever produced of his collecting itineraries in China. Watt reveals that in order for Fortune to travel into the interior of China in search of new garden plants for the (later, Royal) Horticultural Society of London he had to adopt Chinese disguise, as it had been forbidden for Europeans to leave the confines of a few coastal Treaty ports. After the successful first expedition, Fortune made four more journeys to the Far East, including China, Taiwan and Japan in search of horticultural novelties. He succeeded admirably and very many of his discoveries are garden plants today. Two of his major expeditions were made in the employ of the British East India Company to aid the introduction of the tea industry into India and another expedition was carried out to investigate a possible tea industry in the USA. It has been a commonly accepted theme that Fortune was in some way 'a tea thief' and a 'spy'; the research in this book shows a completely different story. Using much new material Watt sets out to give a full account of the man, his explorations in 19th century China and the plants that he introduced into our gardens.

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