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, and the USA. He also played a role in the development of the

tea industry in India Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and norther ...

in the 19th century.

Life

Fortune was born at Edrom,

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of t ...

. After completing his apprenticeship, he was then employed at Moredun House, just to the south of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, before then moving on to the

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

. In 1840 he and his family moved to London to take up a position at the

Horticultural Society of London The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ( ...

's garden at Chiswick. Following the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later termed the Unequal Treaties. In the ...

in 1842, in early 1843 he was commissioned by the H.S. to undertake a three-year plant collection expedition to southern China. His travels resulted in the introduction to Europe, Australia and the USA of many new, exotic, beautiful flowers and plants. His most famous accomplishment was the successful introduction, although it was not the first by any means, of Chinese tea plants ('' Camellia sinensis''), along with skilled tea makers, from China to India in 1848 on behalf of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. Robert Fortune worked in China for several years in the period from 1843 to 1861. Wuyi Shan Fengjing Mingsheng Qu 2012

Similar to other European travellers of the period, such as Walter Medhurst, Fortune disguised himself as a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

merchant during several, but not all, of his journeys beyond the newly established

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

areas. Not only was Fortune's purchase of tea plants reportedly forbidden by the

Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, m ...

of the time, but his travels were also beyond the allowable

day's journey A day's journey in pre-modern literature, including the Bible, ancient geographers and ethnographers such as Herodotus, is a measurement of distance. In the Bible, it is not as precisely defined as other Biblical measurements of distance; the dis ...

from the European treaty ports. Fortune travelled to some areas of China that had seldom been visited by Europeans, including remote areas of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, and

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

provinces. Fortune employed many different means to obtain plants and seedlings from local tea growers, reputedly the property of the Chinese empire, although this was some 150 years before International biodiversity laws recognised State ownership of such natural resources. He is also known for his use of

Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791 – 4 June 1868 in St Leonard's, Sussex) was an English doctor who popularised a case for growing and transporting plants which was called the Wardian case. Biography Ward was born in London to Stephen Smith W ...

's portable

Wardian case The Wardian case was an early type of terrarium, a sealed protective container for plants. It found great use in the 19th century in protecting foreign plants imported to Europe from overseas, the great majority of which had previously died from ...

s to sustain the plants. It is also widely reported that he took skilled workers on contract to India who would facilitate the production of tea in the plantations of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. With the exception of a few plants which survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced in the north-western provinces of India perished. The other reason for the failure in India was that the British preference and fashion was for a strong dark tea brew, which was best made from the local Assam subspecies (''Camellia sinensis'' var. ''assamica'') and not the selection that Fortune had made in China. The technology and knowledge that was brought over from China was, however, instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry in Assam and Sri Lanka. In subsequent journeys he visited Formosa (modern day

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

) and Japan, and described the culture of the silkworm and the manufacture of rice. He introduced many trees, shrubs and flowers to the West, including the cumquat, a climbing double yellow

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

('Fortune's Double Yellow' (syn. Gold of Ophir) which proved a failure in England's climate) and many varieties of tree

peonies The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

, azaleas and chrysanthemums. A climbing white rose that he brought back from China in 1850, believed to be a natural cross between ''

Rosa laevigata ''Rosa laevigata'', the Cherokee rose, is a white, fragrant rose native to southern China and Taiwan south to Laos and Vietnam, and invasive in the United States. Description It is an evergreen climbing shrub, scrambling over other shrubs and ...

'' and '' R. banksiae'', was dubbed ''R. fortuniana'' (syn. ''R. fortuneana'') in his honour. This rose, too, proved a failure in England, preferring warmer climates. Today, both of these roses are still widely grown by antique rose fanciers in mild winter regions. ''Rosa fortuniana'' also serves as a valuable

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...

in Australia and the southern regions of the United States. The incidents of his travels were related in a succession of books. He died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1880, and is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...

Legacy

Fortune is credited with the introduction of a large number of plants, shrubs, and trees to Europe from China.

Plants named after Robert Fortune

*'' Arundinaria fortunei'' *''

Cephalotaxus fortunei ''Cephalotaxus fortunei'', commonly called the Chinese plum-yew, Fortune's yew plum, simply plum yew, Chinese cowtail pine or in Chinese as ''san jian shan'' (), is a coniferous shrub or small tree in the family Taxaceae. It is native to north ...

'' *'' Cyrtomium fortunei'' *'' Euonymus fortunei'' *''

Hosta fortunei ''Hosta sieboldiana'', Siebold's plantain lily, is a species of hosta native to Japan. A putative variety, ''Hosta sieboldiana'' var. ''elegans'' (called the giant blue hosta), has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit ...

'' *''

Keteleeria fortunei ''Keteleeria fortunei'' ( zh: 油杉, ''you shan'') is a coniferous evergreen tree. Originated in China, ''K. fortunei'' is an ancient relict species and a second-class national key protected plant, "mainly distributed in south subtropical to th ...

'' *'' Mahonia fortunei'' (''Berberis fortunei'') *'' Osmanthus × fortunei'' (''O. fragrans'' × ''O. heterophyllus'') *''

Paulownia fortunei ''Paulownia fortunei'' commonly called the dragontree, dragon tree or Fortune's empress tree, is a deciduous tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to southeastern China (including Taiwan), Laos and Vietnam. It is an extremely fast-growing tre ...

'' *''

Pleioblastus fortunei ''Pleioblastus fortunei'' is a species of bamboo in the family Poaceae. It is native to central and southern Japan, and has been introduced to southeast China, the North and South Islands of New Zealand, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Co ...

'' *'' Rhododendron fortunei'' *'' Rosa fortuniana'' *'' Saxifraga fortunei'' *''

Trachycarpus fortunei ''Trachycarpus fortunei'', the Chinese windmill palm, windmill palm or Chusan palm, is a species of hardy evergreen palm tree in the family Arecaceae, native to parts of China, Japan, Myanmar and India. Description Growing to tall, ''Trachyca ...

'' (has synonym ''Chamaerops fortunei'') In 1913, botanists

Rehder Rehder is a German surname. Notable people with this surname include the following: * Alfred Rehder (1863–1949), German-American botanist and Harvard professor * Elke Rehder (born 1953), German artist * Harald Alfred Rehder (1907–1996), Ameri ...

and

E.H.Wilson Ernest Henry "Chinese" Wilson (15 February 1876 – 15 October 1930), better known as E. H. Wilson, was a notable British plant collector and explorer who introduced a large range of about 2000 Asian plant species to the West; some sixty bear ...

named a plant genus from China, with one species, '' Fortunearia sinensis'', in his honour.

Publications

''Three Years' Wandering in the Northern Provinces of China, A Visit to the Tea, Silk, and Cotton Countries, with an account of the Agriculture and Horticulture of the Chinese, New Plants, etc.''
(1847, John Murray)
''A Journey To The Tea Countries Of China; Including Sung-Lo And The Bohea Hills; With A Short Notice Of The East India Company's Tea Plantations In The Himalaya Mountains.''
(1852, John Murray) *
Two visits to the tea countries of China and the British tea plantations in the Himalaya
with a narrative of adventures, and a full description of the culture of the tea plant, the agriculture, horticulture, and botany of China'' (1853, John Murray;

LCCN The Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) is a serially based system of numbering cataloged records in the Library of Congress, in the United States. It is not related to the contents of any book, and should not be confused with Library of ...

br>04-32957
National Library: CAT10983833)
''A Residence Among the Chinese; Inland, On the Coast and at Sea; being a Narrative of Scenes and Adventures During a Third Visit to China from 1853 to 1856, including Notices of Many Natural Productions and Works of Art, the Culture of Silk, &c.''
(1857, John Murray)
''Yedo and Peking; A Narrative of a Journey to the Capitals of Japan and China, with Notices of the Natural Productions, Agriculture, Horticulture and Trade of those Countries and Other Things Met with By the Way''
(1863, John Murray)

Biographies

* ''For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History''. By Sarah Rose. Viking: 2010. * ''Robert Fortune, A Plant Hunter in the Orient''. By Alistair Watt. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: 2017.

References

External links

Plant Explorers: Robert Fortune (1812-80)

Dreijährige Wanderungen in den Nord-Provinzen von China
(German)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortune, Robert Botanists with author abbreviations 1812 births 1880 deaths Scottish botanists Botanists active in China Botanists active in India Botanists active in Japan Plant collectors People from Berwickshire Burials at Brompton Cemetery People from Duns, Scottish Borders Scottish travel writers