Asia’s

This week I checked
my winter jasmine
plant to see if there
were enough large buds
or flowers open for a
winter bouquet.

One normally thinks of jas-
mine as being a tender sub-
tropical plant rather than one
that comes into flower in mid-
winter. Upon checking the
plant's origin, I found that
Jasmine mudiflorun: is ove of
many plants brought from
China by the famous Scottish
plant hunter, Robert Fortune.

Prior ta the middle of the
19th century, both China and
Japan were closed to the west-
ern world. At the end of the
Opium Wars in 1842, Great
Britain signed the Treaty of
Nanking and forced China to
Open several seaports and the
surrounding territory to
Europeans.

This was the first ime
western plant hunters could
enter China and take advan-
tage of the wealth of botanical
specimens unknown to the
rest of the world.

Robert Fortune was born
and raised in Scotland and
served his apprenticeship at
several private gardens before
joining the Edinburgh
Botanical Gardens in 1839. In
1843, when the London
Horticultural Society was
looking for a. plant collector
for its China expedition,
Fortune was chosen for the
job. He was 31 years old. He
was given a list of known
Chinese plants and asked to
collect live specimens and
seeds that could be shipped
back to England.

Even though the Chinese
ports were open, Fortune took
many risks when he ventured
into the hinterlands. To con-
coal his identity he dressed in
fed clothes, wore his hair in a
pigtail and quickly mastered
the Chinese language. Fortune

north shore news

4s, FIOME & GARDEN
Dispersing
seeds

Ges

returned to England in 1846
with more than 200 live plants
and many more seeds.

Two years later Fortune
took on a new commission
with the East India Company
to go to China and collect ta
seedlings ( Thea sinensis) that
could be introduced into India
and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). By
1851 he was ready to sail to
Caleutta with 2,000 tea
seedlings and thousands of
germinating seeds. Atter

See Fortune puge 34

The Premium Series by Selkirk i is very easy to use, has great

Wednesday, December 10, 1997 - North Shore News ~ 33,, .

Green Tip from Environment Canada

ea at the
snow by taking
the bus to work.

Public transit means
fewer cars on the
road and fewer
emissions.

— |
hristmas ards

UNICEF Cards are
available at:

Purdy's Chocolates, [kea
IGA, Safeway, Super-Valu
SFU and UBC Bookstores
Duthie Books, Capers
Save-On-Foods, Le Chocolate Belge
UNICEF Stores @ Sinclair Centre &
@ Broadway and Cambie

Give hope 1
by
» Biving Hite id's childs
en wr
. — TCERS ards.
NEWS photo Terry Peters:
THANKS to the famous Scottish plant hunter Robert

Fortune piants such as Clematis, above, flower in the
Lower Mainland.

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