Letter from Robert Fortune to the secretary of the Horticultural Society [Alexander Henderson], 21 Regent St, London and 'List of plants in cases No 17 & 18 & box 18a sent to England in the Bombay'

Title

Letter from Robert Fortune to the secretary of the Horticultural Society [Alexander Henderson], 21 Regent St, London and 'List of plants in cases No 17 & 18 & box 18a sent to England in the Bombay'

Record type

Archive

Original Reference

RHS/Col/8/2/6

Date

22 Mar 1844

Scope & content

Written from Hong Kong

Postmarked ('India', 'Ship letter 11MAY11 1844'). The letter includes an opened seal. Written on onion-skin paper. Annotated on the reverse: 'Via Southampton', 'Per Hindostan', 'Per Ariel to Calcutta [Kolkata, West Bengal, India]'

Letter No 6

As he said in his previous letters, he came to Hong Kong primarily to ship plants to England, and to see the plants in full flower during the winter months in the south, when 'nothing can be done in the northern provinces'; he has visited Hong Kong, Macao [Macau] and Canton [Guangzhou, Guangdong, China] twice each since his arrival, and collected plants including 'the beautiful and curious Camellia hexangularis [unidentified], of which the Society have drawings in their library made in China under the direction of Mr Reeves [John Reeves, naturalist, former East India Company tea inspector in China]', and other camellias; he found, 'after many enquiries', the Chinese drawings, which had belonged to the late Mr Beal [Thomas Beale, naturalist, merchant and opium speculator in China, who died in 1841], in the possession of Mr Sturges [?Jasper Sturgis, American merchant in Macao; there were several American residents called Sturgis] ('an American gentleman [...] who has a good garden'), who has 'placed them at my disposal for the present'; they contain several hundred species and varieties of plants in Beale's garden at Macao and plants brought from the interior, giving him a good idea of the variety of plants in the country, which he can enquire after from the Chinese gardeners; Sturgis and Messrs Dent & Co [merchants in China] have been very kind and helpful; he has completed his tasks here, and will travel back to the north in a schooner to Chusan [Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China] the following morning, as he was unable to obtain passage on a government steamer; the moutans [Paeonia suffruticosa] mentioned in a previous letter have not flowered, so he planted them all in two cases and directed his friends in Hong Kong to send them with a box of dried plants on the Bombay, which will sail in a few days for London; there will be no more dispatches for a while due to the monsoon season; he encloses a list of the plants shipped on the Bombay; he asked Mr Pitcher of Dent & Co [merchants in China] to take a bill of lading [shipment receipt] and send it in duplicate

Fortune's expenses for 1 Mar-22 Mar 1844 include 'paid for drawings of various plants' $6, 'packing and shipping of 4 cases of plants sent per Emerald Isle' $2.50, 'passage to Canton from Hong Kong' $14, 'passage to Hong Kong in passage boat with servant' $4 and 'sundries for coolies [indentured workers], servant &c' $2 [here the list includes 10 more items]

Enclosed is a list of the contents of three boxes (17-18a) sent to the Horticultural Society from Hong Kong on the Bombay. The list is numbered (specimens 1-13, boxes 17-18a) and includes several varieties of Paeonia moutan [Paeonia suffruticosa] ('purplish coloured variety, Canton [Guangzhou, Guangdong, China]', 'flesh-coloured variety', 'fine, large purplish or plum-coloured variety, Soochow [Suzhou, Jiangsu, China]', 'white') and '25 packets of dried plants and 1 small tin can of birds addressed to the earl of Derby [Edward Smith-Stanley, British secretary of state for war and the colonies]' [here the list includes 10 more items]; he includes a note at the foot of the page relating to the different varieties of Azalea in boxes 13 and 14

Extent

5 page letter (2 sheets)

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)