Synopses & Reviews
Many of the worldand#8217;s most renowned and exciting ornamental plantsand#151;including magnolias, roses, rhododendrons, tree peonies, lilies, and blue poppiesand#151;have their origins in China. In the mid-nineteenth century, professional plant hunters were dispatched by nurseries and botanic gardens to collect living botanical specimens from China for cultivation in Europe, and it is these adventurers and nurserymen who are often credited with the explosive bloom of Chinese flowers in the West.
But as Jane Kilpatrick shows in Fathers of Botany, the first Westerners to come upon and document this bounty were in fact cut from a different cloth: the clergy. Following the Opium Wars, European missionaries were the first explorers to dig further into the Chinese interior and send home evidence of one of the richest and most varied floras ever seen, and it was their discoveries that caused a sensation among Western plantsmen. Both men of faith and talented botanists alike, these missionaries lent their names to many of the plants they discovered, but their own stories disappeared into the leaf litter of history. Drawing on their letters and contemporary accounts, Kilpatrick focuses on the lives of four great French missionary botanistsand#151;Pand#232;res Armand David (of Davidia involucrataand#151;the dove treeand#151;and discoverer of the giant panda), Jean Marie Delavay, Paul Guillaume Farges, and Jean Andrand#233; Souliand#233;and#151;as well as a group of other French priests, Franciscan missionaries, and a single German Protestant pastor who all amassed significant plant collections, as she unearths a lost chapter of botanical history. In so doing, she reminds todayand#8217;s gardeners and botanistsand#151;and any of us who stop to smell the rosesand#151;of the enormous debt owed to these obscure fathers of botany.
Review
and#8220;Exciting. As an account of the lives and dedication of these (mostly) French missionaries and plant discoverers, Fathers of Botany will be of wide interest. A fascinating account of some very frightful situations.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Kilpatrick has . . . explained these committed Christiansandrsquo; achievements with admirable clarity and freshness. Their individual stories are not new, but she draws them very ably into a related whole. Historians and gardeners can all gain from her unmissable book Fathers of Botany. . . . With only a few converts and to many of us, a hopeless aim, it would be easy to write wryly of these French priestsandrsquo; hopes of spreading the Gospel. Excellently, Kilpatrick shows the Christian church built in Cigu in 1867, on the Tibetan borderlands, where once the fathers had struggled to give the Eucharist to only a few converts. Now there are more than 10 million Catholics in China and the faith is growing far faster than in old Europe. One day a Pope will be Chinese, but I doubt if he will bring unknown rhododendrons to the Vatican. On many of the hillsides near towns in western China they have been felled as firewood, making way for farming, not for gardening of the future.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;The subjects of Kilpatrickandrsquo;s book are major contributors to the Western worldandrsquo;s knowledge of the striking and valuable flora of China. She is an experienced historian and garden writer with the skill to make historical information very lively reading. . . . While many of their discoveries are now relatively common staples in ornamental horticulture, the stories of the missionariesand#39; struggles and experiences have not been told until now. The author successfully illuminates their contributions and thereby raises them from their undeserved obscurity. Their many adventures, some involving serious dangers, are engagingly described and accompanied by beautiful and thoughtfully chosen maps and black-and-white and color photographs. This book serves a very valuable function in documenting the history of Chinaandrsquo;s botanical contribution to the worldandrsquo;s horticultural treasury. . . . Recommended.andquot;
Synopsis
The first to come upon the bounty of Chinese flowers were Catholic missionary priests who were also remarkable botanists. They spent hours collecting in their districts, and sending dry specimens back to European botanists. Many of the plants they discovered carry their names, but few know of the David behind Davidia involucrata, or the Hugonis of Rosa hugonis. The chapters in this work focus primarily on the lives of four great French missionary botanistsand#151;Pere Armand David, Pere Jean Marie Delavay, Pere Guilaume Farges, and Pere Jean Andre Soulieand#151;and also a group of other French priests and Franciscan missionaries who collected, in addition to one German pastor, the only Protestant missionary to make significant plant collections. Pere David is among the best known, having discovered the Giant Panda, but the others have disappeared into the thick of history. This book will help ensure that todayand#8217;s gardeners and botanists appreciate the debt owed to this obscure group, drawing on their journals, drawings, and other historical documents.
About the Author
Jane Kilpatrick is an Oxford-educated freelance historian and garden writer who is based in the UK. She is the author of Gifts from the Gardens of China: The Introduction of Traditional Chinese Garden Plants to Britain 1698-1862.