John Gould Veitch (April 1839 – 13 August 1870) was a British

horticulturist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

and traveller, one of the first Victorian plant hunters to visit Japan. A great-grandson of John Veitch, the founder of the Veitch

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

dynasty, he also visited the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and other Polynesian islands. He brought back a number of the glasshouse plants in vogue at the time, such as ''

Acalypha ''Acalypha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole genus of the subtribe Acalyphinae. It is one of the largest euphorb genera, with approximately 450 to 462 species. The genus name ''Acalypha'' is from th ...

s'', ''

Cordyline ''Cordyline'' is a genus of about 15 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandraceae. Other authors ...

s'', ''

Codiaeum ''Codiaeum'' is a genus of plants under the family Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. ...

s'' (Crotons) and '' Dracaenas'', and, from Fiji, a palm of a new genus later named after him, ''

Veitchia joannis ''Veitchia joannis'', the Joannis palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae. It is native to Fiji and reportedly naturalised in Tonga. References External links joannis Joannis is a given name. Notable people with the n ...

''. The Veitch family name is honoured by hundreds of plant names, including the genus ''

Veitchia ''Veitchia'' is a genus of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae. It contains the following species, all native to islands in the Pacific Ocean (Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consi ...

''. The Veitch nursery introduced 232 orchids, some 500 greenhouse plants, 118 exotic ferns, about 50 conifers, 153 deciduous trees, 72 evergreen and climbing shrubs, 122 herbaceous and 37 bulbous plants from various corners of the globe. In Japan, he came across the eminent plant collector

Robert Fortune Robert Fortune (16 September 1812 – 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller, best known for introducing around 250 new ornamental plants, mainly from China, but also Japan, into the gardens of Britain, Australia, a ...

, and their competing collections returned to England on the same ship. For example, both men claimed discovery of a species of ''

Chamaecyparis pisifera ''Chamaecyparis pisifera'' (Sawara cypress or Sawara ja, サワラ , translit=Sawara) is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū.Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupressaceae and ...

''. He was married to Jane Hodge soon after his return to England in 1866 and fathered two sons,

James Herbert Veitch James Herbert Veitch F.L.S., F.R.H.S. (1 May 1868 – 13 November 1907), was a member of the Veitch family who were distinguished horticulturists and nursery-men for over a century. Early days James was born at Chelsea, London, the elder son of ...

(1868 – 1907) and John Gould Veitch, Jr. (1869 – 1914) before dying of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

at the age of 31.

References

External links

"John Gould Veitch 1839 - 1870", by Ian Edwards, The Tropical Garden Society of Sydney

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veitch, John Gould English botanists English horticulturists 1839 births 1870 deaths Businesspeople from Exeter Veitch Nurseries Plant collectors