Robert Fortune

Robert Fortune

Robert Fortune (born September 16, 1812 in Blackadder Town , Berwickshire , † April 13, 1880 in Brompton , London ) was a Scottish gardener and explorer. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Fortune ".

Live and act

Fortune was head gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1846 to 1848 .

He collected plants on a total of four trips to East Asia . The first trip was on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society ; the second and third trips he made on behalf of the British East India Company . He made his fourth trip on behalf of the American Department of Agriculture, which was also interested in tea plants from China .

Fortune introduced the tea plant to India after having illegally exported it from China, i.e. smuggled it. The plant genera Fortunearia and Fortunella are named after him. In addition to the tea plants, Robert Fortune spread the Chinese hemp palm ( Trachycarpus fortunei ) not only in England , but also in the Himalayas , wherever tea is grown today (Kumaon, Darjeeling, Assam).

Dedication names

The plant species were named in his honor

• Fortunearia Rehd. & Wils. the witch hazel family(Hamamelidaceae)
• Fortunella Swingle of the diamond family(Rutaceae)
• Fortunaea Lindl. of the walnut family(Juglandaceae)

named.

Works

• Three years wanderings in the northern provinces of China. 1847, German: Three-year migrations in the northern provinces of China . Translated from English from the 2nd edition by Ernst August Wilhelm Himly , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1853.
• A Journey to the Tea Countries of China; Sung-lo and the Bohea Hills; with a Short Notice of the East India Company's Tea Plantations in the Himalaya Mountains . John Murray, London 1852.
• A Residence Among the Chinese; Inland, On the Coast and at Sea; being a Narrative of Scenes and Adventures During a Third Visit to China from 1853 to 1856, including Notices of Many Natural Productions and Works of Art, the Culture of Silk, & c. John Murray, London 1857.
• Yedo and Beijing; A Narrative of a Journey to the Capitals of Japan and China, with Notices of the Natural Productions, Agriculture, Horticulture and Trade of those Countries and Other Things Met with By the Way. John Murray, London 1863.

literature

• Sarah Rose: For All the Tea in China. Hutchinson, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-09-179706-5 .
• Nicole C. Vosseler : The English botanist . HarperCollins Germany, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-95-967103-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Robert Fortune in the catalog of the German National Library
• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Robert Fortune at the IPNI
• Three-year hikes in the northern provinces of China (online version)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]