PLANT HUNTING

Southland Times, Issue 22046, 20 June 1933, Page 10

PLANT HUNTING

HISTORICAL SURVEY.

LECTURE BY MR MANSFIELD. A lecture entitled *‘Plant Hunting was given by Mr Brendon P. Mansfield, A.R.H.S., N.D.H. (N.Z,), superintendent of reserves, at the annual meeting of the Southland District Council of the Institute of Horticulture last evening. . “In selecting a subject, and title, for this lecture I was guided by the fact that we . know, and care, far too little of the sources from which our , plants are obtained. It would add much to the interest of our work and aid with details of culture if we knew the country of origin, the associations j in which our plants grow in native habitats, altitude and other details. A stage further would be to find out the name of the collector and date of introduction. £>uch details may not interest many, but I assume that my friends here to-night are plant lovers in the true sense of the word, said Mr Mansfield. “Eyen in such a brief review of plant introduction it is necessary to go back to the Roman era for they are attributed with the introduction to Britain of many common trees and shrubs. Seeds of Pinus pinea, the Stone Pine of Italy, have been found in the refuse heaps of Roman encampments in Britain which fact leads to the belief that edible seeds, possibly fruits, were imported from Italy for the soldiers’ use. In this way, it is assumed, the Sweet Chestnut, the Walnut, the Mulberry and other trees with edible fruits or seeds may have been introduced. Possibly some of the most common exotic trees and shrubs, such as the Lime, or Linden, were brought over at. that time. The Elm and the Box, it appears, were natives of Southern England. “Consequent to the withdrawal of the Roman legions in the fourth and fifth centuries, England relapsed into a state of comparative barbarism but, subsequent to tFj) establishment ot Christianity, the introduction of plants from the Continent was carried on by religious houses. When in 1492 Columbus discovered America a new era opened for gardening. It is recorded that even buccaneers and adventurers vied one with another in an endeavour to introduce some plant which arrested their attentions. In this way the Potato, Tobacco and, in comparatively recent times, the Rubber were introduced and distributed. First Authentic Record. “Apparently the first authentic record of trees and shrubs cultivated in British gardens is embodied in William Turner’s ‘Names, of Herbes’ published in 1548. He records but 30 trees and shrubs but others were possibly in cultivation unknown to him. The famous herbal of John Gerrard was published in 1597 from which source it is recorded that by the end of the 16th century 100 foreign trees and shrubs were in cultivation in England. The next famous herbalist, John Parkinson, apothecary in the service of James I, was a cultivator and intro- | ducer of new plants. He is credited by Aiton with the introduction of about 40 trees and shrubs from North America or Europe. Though the introduction of North American trees and shrubs was slow during the 17th century the two Tradescants have attributed to them alone, between 1640 and 1656,, about 20 woody species. In the latter years of the 17th century and early years of the 18th, Henry Compton, Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713 assembled in his garden at Tulham the most comprehensive collection of trees and shrubs hardy to date. At the time of his death in 1713, possibly 400 species of foreign trees and shrubs were in cultivation in Britain. The foundation of the Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621, the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1674 and the Edinburgh Botanic Garden in 1680 had a stimulating influence on the cultivation of other plants. “Amongst botanical cultivators of the ■ 18th century two names are outstanding, Philip Miller and William Aiton. Miller was curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, an institution he is reputed to have raised to the highest position amongst botanic gardens of the period, and Aiton was his pupil. In 1759 Aiton was recommended by Miller to the Dowager Princess of Wales to take charge of the botanic garden founded at Kew that year, an event which has had such a tremendous influence on horticulture and botany throughout the .British Empire. Aiton died in 1793, but his memory lives principally as author of ‘Hortus Kewensis,’ a work which enumerates and describes 5500 species together with the date of their introduction. This work is the chief source of information with regard to plant introduction, that is exotics, to the time of its publication. The introduction of North American trees and shrubs in the latter half of the 18th century owes much to the two Bartrams, John and his son William. The foundation, in 1787, of the botanical magazine by William Curtis merits passing notice. It has appeared monthly from that time to the present day giving five or six coloured plates, accompanied by descriptions in Latin and English, of plants in each number. Well over 9000 plates have appeared, a large number of which depict trees and shrubs ■ hardy. Kew’s Activity. | "And so we pass to 1772 when Fran- ‘ cis Masson, the first professional plant collector, was sent from Kew to the Cape of Good Hope. From thence till | 1862 a succession of plant collectors went out from Kew to many parts of the world, but their work was largely confined to tropical and subtropical countries. At the same time about 500 new trees and shrubs were introduced during the 18th century, three-fifths of which came from North America. The early years of the 19th century reveal John Frazer as the outstanding figure connected with plant introduction. From 17§0 to 1800 he crossed. the Atlantic twelve times and • to his credit and endeavour we ' have many Magnolias and" Rhododendron Catawbiense, the chief parent of the present day race of garden Rhododendrons. Royal Horticultural Society.

“There is no single event up to . the time of its occurrence which can be claimed to have exerted so stimulating an influende unon the cultivation of plants in England, and the Empire as the foundation of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1804. In 1824 the society initiated one of the most famous plant collecting expeditions when it commissioned David Douglas to explore Western North America. He reached British Columbia in 1825 and sent home the seeds of many species during that and the following two years. Again in 1829 he left England reaching the mouth of the Columbia River in 1830, in June. For two or three years he worked in this region and in California. On July 12, 1834, Douglas met a tragic death, whilst collecting alone in the Sandwich Islands, by falling into one of the pit traps constructed by natives to catch wild bulls. Unfortunately an animal was already entrapped and some hours later he was found quite dead having been terribly gored and mangled. “Let us now briefly notice a man who devoted his life to the introduction of Japanese plants. This is Philipp F. von Siebold, who was bom in Bavaria and went to Japan in 1823. In 1830 he returned to Europe and in collaboration with Zuccarini published his fine illustrated work, the Flora Japonica. Later, in 1850, he founded a nursery at Leydon to which he successfully intro-

duccd many fine plants of China and Japan. After his death Messrs SimonLouis, of Metz, secured many of his original trees and these may be seen to this day in their Arboretum. During the second and third decades of the 19th century a few Himalayan trees and shrubs had been sent to England chiefly by Buchanan-Hamilton and Wallich, successive directors of the Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, but the first genuine revelation of the riches of that region were reserved for Joseph Dalton Hooker. This famous botanist and collector was sent from Kew to collect in India between 1847 and 1851. Among his many introductions are those splendid Sikkim Rhododendrons, 1 the Glory of many Gardens. I An Honoured Name. “There is no name in the annals of I horticulture which holds a more honoured place than that of Veitch, the head of what probably was the greatest nursery England ever had. Through the enterprise of this famous firm more ornamental exotic plants were introduced to England than by any other single agency. They were the first to systematically exploit the riches of the Chilean flora in the interests of parks and gardens by sending William Lobb on an expedition there. “Another great plant collector was Robert Fortune who, after early training at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, entered the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Chiswick in 1841. Two years later he was selected to collect on behalf of the society in China. In 1844 he visited the tea-growing district of Ningpo and, after introducing many beautiful and useful hardy and tender plants—a large proportion of which had long been cultivated by the Chinese—he returned to England in 1846. He was appointed curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, but resigned in 1848 to go again to China. This time his mission was to transmit the tea plant to the hill countries of India by means of seeds and plants. He succeeded and thus laid the foundation of tne great Indian tea industry. In 1852 and again in 1858 he visited China collecting and studying Chinese horticulture, on the latter occasion in the interests of the United States Government, and in 1860 he worked in Japan. “The foundation of the Arnold Arboretum in 1872 at Jamaica Plain; near Boston, under the auspices of the Havard University, in conjunction with Charles Sprague Sargent was one of the most pregnant events with regard to discovery, introduction, cultivation and research of hardy trees and shrubs during the past sixty years. This institution which is conducted with admirable skill and energy has, through the generous and unselfish policy of its Directors, exerted an influence on the gardens of Europe and the Empire, scarcely less beneficent than on those of its own country. Plants from China. “The introduction of plants from Central and Western China had its beginning so far as Great Britain is concerned, in the explorations of the I late Augustine Henry. It was at Ichang in the mountains that Henry commenced plant collecting in 1885. The newly-discovered flora proved to be of I extraordinary richness and during the next four years he sent enormous numbers of dried plants to Kew. Henry remained at various posts in China untill 1900 spending most of his leave in exploration and botanical collecting, travelling greatly over the provinces of Hupeh, Szechuen and Yunnan. Alter his return home he studied forestry in France and soon after commenced the compilation of his splendid work, in association with John Elwes The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland. The amazing richness of the vegetation in the far provinces of China, as revealed by Henry’s dried plants, and the graceful beauty many were seen to possess, induced Messrs Veitch to send out a collector to obtain, in a living state, such as were likely to be of horticultural value. On the recommendation of Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, the then Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, Ernest Henry Wilson was despatched, at the age of 23, to China in 1899. He visited China m all four times, twice on behalf of Veitch’s and twice on behalf of the Havard Umversity, and a number of subscribers. It is yet too early to compute the full value of his services to botany and horticulture, but it is safe to say that to the two combined they have probably never been equalled by any one collector. To give some small idea of the magnitude of his labours it is worthy of notice that he introduced some 1200 species of trees and shrubs alone of which about 400 were entirely new and contained four new genera; further he collected around 65,000 sheets of hebarium specimens. . “Since this period work m China, Formosa, the Himalayas and Asia has been carried on by Reginald Farrer and Robert Forrest, who died a few months back. Last year Captain King-dom-Ward returned from Asia and at a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Council a few weeks ago was awarded the Victorian Medal of Honour. This collector has worked largely on Rhododendron species, those who read ‘Gardiners’ Chronicle’ will be conconversant with his notes on recent travels. In New Zealand. ' “And so, in conclusion, we must touch on botanical discovery in New Zealand ■ which commenced with Captain Cook’s j first visit in 1769 and is yet incomplete. There are, I understand, many I regions yet to be systematic- ! ally exploited as, for example, ■ ranges in the Taupo and East Coast I districts. In connection with the work | to date special tribute must be paid to the discoveries and activities of Banks, Solander, Bidwill, Menzies, Raoul, the two Cunninghams, Colenso, Sinclair. Haast, Kirk, Hooker, Cheeseman and Cockayne. It is superfluous for me to elaborate on their part in plant discovery which is so well-known; but ‘to those who may seek further information on the activities of the men whose names are commemorated and perpetuated by the native plants we grow I recommend Cheeseman’s ‘Manual of i the New Zealand Flora.’ “If this brief and patchy review aids I in adding fresh interest to common garden plants it will have fully justified its purpose. To grow plants reveals a successful garden enthusiast but to. know them also reveals the gardener in the widest sense of the term,” concluded Mr Mansfield. The lecturer was accorded a very heajrty vote of appreciation.