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.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
KEW Publishing
ISBN-10
1842466194
ISBN-13
9781842466193
eBay Product ID (ePID)
220548088
Product Key Features
Author
Alistair Watt
Publication Name
Robert Fortune : a Plant Hunter in the Orient
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Publication Year
2017
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
420 Pages
Dimensions
Item Length
10in
Item Height
1.3in
Item Width
8in
Additional Product Features
Lc Classification Number
Qk31
Copyright Date
2016
Target Audience
Scholarly & Professional
Topic
General, Environmentalists & Naturalists
Dewey Decimal
580.92
Dewey Edition
23
Illustrated
Yes
Genre
Biography & Autobiography
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