George Forrest (botanist)
George Forrest (1873–1932) was a Scottish botanist, who was one of the first explorers of China's then remote southwestern province of Yunnan, generally regarded as the most biodiverse province in the country.
Forrest was born in Falkirk, Scotland. He apprenticed with a local chemist, but then traveled in 1891 to Australia in search of gold. He remained in Australia until 1902. When he returned to Britain he found employment as a clerk in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. His employer, Sir Isaac Balfour, recommended him to Liverpool cotton merchant Arthur Kilpin Bulley, who was sponsoring an expedition to southwestern China in search of exotic plants, particularly species of rhododendron, of which Yunnan has many.
Forrest made his first to Yunnan in 1904, and he was accompanied by seventeen other plant collectors. As one source puts it "This first trip was both exciting and horrifying."[citation needed] Foreigners had been targeted for death by the local Tibetan Buddhist lamas, during the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion. Forrest had a narrow escape, but this did not discourage him from returning to Yunnan. The Lamas pursued him until a Naxi "King" named Lee rescued him.[1] He witnessed atrocities committed by the Lamas during the rebellion.[2] He eventually became perhaps the foremost collector of Yunnan flora.
Forrest married Clementina Traill in 1907. The couple had three sons, with Forrest frequently gone to Burma and Yunnan.
Altogether Forrest made seven trips to Yunnan, collecting samples and seeds for the Herbarium and for avid collectors willing to pay for new species to add to their collection. In total, he brought back perhaps 31,000 plant specimens. He discovered numerous species, and the specific epithet forrestii adorns more than thirty genera.
In 1932, near Tengchong, the town famous for its hot springs in which he traditionally set up shop after journeying through British-held Burma, Forrest died unexpectedly. The collections he had made during this his seventh and last trip were sent back to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, but he was buried in Yunnan.
References
- ^ National Geographic Society (U.S.) (1927). The National geographic magazine, Volume 50. National Geographic Society. p. 167. Retrieved 2011-6-28.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Philip S. Short (2004). In pursuit of plants: experiences of nineteenth & early twentieth century plant collectors (illustrated ed.). Timber Press. p. 108. ISBN 0881926353. Retrieved 2011-6-28.
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- McLean, B. (2004). George Forrest, Plant Hunter. Antique Collectors' Club. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
External links
- George Forrest (1873 - 1932), PlantExplorers.com