Letter from Robert Fortune to the secretary of the Horticultural Society [Alexander Henderson], 21 Regent St, London

Title

Letter from Robert Fortune to the secretary of the Horticultural Society [Alexander Henderson], 21 Regent St, London

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/8/2/15

Date

31 Dec 1844

Scope & content

Written from Hong Kong

Written on onion-skin paper. Annotated on the reverse: 'Via Southampton'

Letter No 15

He has sent 'letters of advice' and bills of lading [shipment receipt] for two large collections of plants and seeds he sent to England on the Duke of Bedford and the Dumfries; he encloses a bill of lading and a list of the contents of a further five glazed cases sent on board the Forfarshire bound for London [enclosures not present]: 'she takes home a few invalids [soldiers removed from active service] for government, but is also loaded with tea by private individuals, and therefore I suppose not liable the same objections which you had to the Cornwall last year'; the ship is large, and the captain is likely to take good care of the cases; the roses from the island of Koo-lung-soo [Gulangyu, Fujian, China] and from Shanghai [China] are 'probably worthy of great attention', although he has not seen them in flower, but he was assured by 'several persons' that three kinds of roses on the island produced 'double flowers of great beauty', and he sends other kinds of roses as well, including some of which seeds he sent with his last letters from Ningpo [Ningbo, Zhejiang, China]; as he has not seen the flowers, he cannot be sure whether a white variety is included, but he saw a large tree in the garden of a 'Mandarin [Chinese bureaucrat]' in Ningpo and hopes to be able to procure it when he returns there; he encloses a list of the contents of the cases [enclosure not present], which includes several plants he has sent previously; he will send no more duplicates until he has an update of the success of those already sent; he went to Macao [Macau] and Canton [Guangzhou, Guangdong, China] to visit the local gardens; he sent more kum-quats [kumquat], which he had been told had died previously; he will sail to the north shortly and attempt to visit Foo-chow-foo [Fuzhou, Fujian, China] on the way; he wants to be in Shanghai in April and May for collecting moutans [Paeonia suffruticosa] and azaleas; he repeats his request for a 'full garden report' for the plants he has sent to enable him to plan his collections

Fortune's expenses for 20-31 Dec 1844 include 'packing of plants at the Fatee gardens' $5.50, 'passage to Macao from Canton' $10, 'passage from Macao to Hong Kong' $5, 'repair of an old case' $2.50 and 'sundry small items, washing &c' $6.50 [here the list includes 8 more items]

Extent

4 page letter (1 sheet)

Is part of

RHS archive: plant collector papers

Repository

Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library

Copyright

Royal Horticultural Society

Credit Line

RHS Lindley Collections

Usage terms

Non-commercial use with attribution permitted (CC BY-NC 4.0)