Fathers of Botany: The Discovery of Chinese Plants by European Missionaries by Jane Kilpatrick (review)

Every Western garden derives at least some—and perhaps most—of its plants from the extraordinary natural diversity of China. Their very names remind us of this—innumerable sinensis or chinensis epithets, and plenty of geographical locations, have been rendered into Latinate orthography: yunnanensis, szechuanica, hongkongensis. But gardeners also are aware of the plethora of Chinese plants known by epithets commemorating Westerners: henryi, wilsonii, forrestii, davidii, delavayi, fargesii, souliei, and many others. All played some part, great or small, in revealing the riches of the Chinese flora to Western science and horticulture.

To an Anglophone gardener the stories of the first three—Augustine Henry, Ernest Wilson, and George Forrest—are well known. The narratives of their travels in China, easily available in English, have led to their being accorded special status as horticultural heroes. But they were not the only botanists and seed collectors to be active in (especially) western China from c. 1860 to 1930; there are others whose achievements are recorded principally in French.

In Fathers of Botany Jane Kilpatrick particularly explores the extraordinary contributions to plant science made by some of the dedicated priests of the French Missions Etrangères de Paris. However culturally arrogant the missionary movement now appears to be, there is no doubt of the courage and devotion of these men as they went to China to bear witness to their faith. Often leaving France when comparatively young—the earnest, bearded faces in their formal photographs have a remarkably contemporary appearance—they expected never to return, living their lives in poverty in isolated mission stations, often several days’ travel from their nearest confrères and separated from other Europeans for years on end. Evangelical success was scanty, trials and tribulations numerous. Despite this, many of the fathers took up botanizing as a hobby and worked their patches with the intensity that only prolonged residence in an area can achieve.

Among them were Père Armand David, whose discoveries in Sichuan included the Giant Panda, the common Butterfly Bush Buddleja davidii, and Handkerchief Tree Davidia involucrata. Père Jean Marie Delavay, who went to China in 1867, became the pre-eminent missionary botanist, immensely fortunate to have been based in the botanical wonderland of Yunnan. He died peacefully in 1895, under European care at Kunming, but many other missionaries were brutally murdered after seeing their churches and works put to the torch. In 1904 Yellow Hat lamas attacked the missions in the Tibetan borderlands, and several missionaries were tortured and killed such as the botanical Jean Soulié, whereas the elderly Pères Pierre Bourdonnec and Jules Dubernard were captured and killed while attempting to escape in the company of Scottish plant hunter Forrest. The fitter Forrest managed to evade the lamas; his journey through extreme danger became part of the British legend of glorious plant-hunting endeavors.

One theme explored here is the botanical competition between French and British interests—both were very keen to outdo the other in the number and quality of their discoveries, supported by the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh respectively. For Anglophones, the British narrative has prevailed, but now the French voice can be heard through this book, and the balance is somewhat redressed. A summary of the careers of the dramatis personae would have been useful, but this beautifully produced and illustrated book is heartily recommended to anyone interested in the history of plant discovery or that of the Missions Etrangères and its brave men.