George Forrest (botanist)
George Forrest (1873–1932) was a Scottish botanist, who became one of the first explorers of China's then remote southwestern province of Yunnan, generally regarded as the most biodiverse province in the country.
Early life
Forrest was born in Falkirk, Scotland on 13 March 1873. On leaving school, he was apprenticed with a local chemist until 1891 when, on the inheritance of a small legacy, he decided to travel to Australia, where he searched for gold and also worked on a sheep station before returning to Scotland in 1902. Forrest's life then took a most unexpected turn; caught in a shower while fishing the Gladhouse Loch in Tweedsdale, he sought shelter beneath an overhanging bank where he chanced upon an ancient stone coffin. The discovery led to his introduction to Professor Bayley Balfour, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, who offered him a job in the Herbarium. Whilst Forrest doubtless found the indoor work dull, it was to provide an excellent preparation for his explorations. A year later, Balfour recommended Forrest, now aged 30, to Liverpool horticulturist and cotton broker 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.[1]
Plant collecting
Forrest made his first to Yunnan in 1904, 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.[2] He witnessed atrocities committed by the Lamas during the rebellion.[3] He eventually became perhaps the foremost collector of Yunnan flora, ammassing hundreds of species of rhododendron, and other shrubs and perennials.
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 collections. In total, he brought back perhaps 31,000 plant specimens. He discovered numerous species; the specific epithet forrestii now adorns more than thirty genera.
Personal life
Forrest married Clementina Traill in 1907; they had three sons.
Death
On 5 January 1932, while hunting game in the hills near Tengchong, the town wherein Forrest traditionally set up his base, he suffered a massive heart attack and died instantly. He was buried at Tengchong next to his friend George Litton, who had been Acting British Consul there until his death 26 years earlier.[1]
References
- ^ a b Lyte, C. (1983). The Plant Hunters. Orbis Publishing, London. ISBN 9780856134180
- ^ National Geographic Society (U.S.) (1927). The National geographic magazine, Volume 50. National Geographic Society. p. 167. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^ Philip S. Short (2004). In pursuit of plants: experiences of nineteenth & early twentieth century plant collectors (illustrated ed.). Timber Press. p. 108. ISBN 0-88192-635-3. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Forrest.
- McLean, B. (2004). George Forrest, Plant Hunter. Antique Collectors' Club. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
External links
- George Forrest (1873 - 1932), PlantExplorers.com
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