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{{Short description|Scottish botanist, plant hunter and traveller}}

'''Robert Fortune''' ([[September 16]], [[1812]] - [[April 13]], [[1880]]), was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[botanist]] and traveller best known for introducing tea plants from [[China]] to [[India]].

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = <!--Use this parameter only if the name is different from page title-->

| image = RobertFortune.gif

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1812|09|16|df=y}}

| birth_place = [[Edrom]], [[Berwickshire]]

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1880|04|13|1812|09|16|df=y}}

| death_place = London

| fields = botanist, plant hunter

| known_for = Introducing plants to Europe, Australia and America

| author_abbrev_bot = '''Fortune'''

| workplaces = [[Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh]], [[Horticultural Society of London]]

}}

'''Robert Fortune''' (16 September 1812 – 13 April 1880)<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Fortune, Robert}}</ref> was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] botanist, [[plant collecting|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 North America. He also played a role in the development of the [[history of tea in India|tea industry in India]] in the 19th century. He also imported [[Castanea crenata|Japanese chestnuts]] into the United States, which led to the introduction of [[chestnut blight]] to the country 24 years after his death.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tredici |first=Peter Del |date=2017-09-01 |title=The introduction of Japanese plants into North America |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA506035732&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00068101&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon~eff03900&aty=open-web-entry |journal=The Botanical Review |language=English |volume=83 |issue=3 |pages=215–253}}</ref>

==Life==

== Travels and botanical introductions to Europe==

Fortune was born in 1812 in the small settlement or "fermtoun" of Kelloe in the parish of [[Edrom]], [[Berwickshire]].<ref>{{Cite HeDNB |wstitle= Fortune, Robert |volume= 20 |last= Boulger |first= George Simonds |author-link= George Simonds Boulger |pages = 50-51 |short=1}}</ref> After completing his apprenticeship, he was then employed inat Moredun House, just to the botanicalsouth gardenof in[[Edinburgh]], before then moving on to the [[Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh]]. In 1840, he and laterhis infamily moved to London to take up a position at the [[Royal Horticultural Society|Horticultural Society of London]]'s garden at [[Chiswick]], and. followingFollowing the [[Treaty of Nanking]] in [[1842]], wasin sentearly 1843, he was outcommissioned by the Horticultural Society to collectundertake plantsa inthree-year plant collection expedition to southern [[China]].

[[File:Map of Fortune's Wanderings in China.jpg|thumb|Map of Fortune's Wanderings in China]]

His travels resulted in the introduction to Europe, Australia, and North America of many 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]]. Robert Fortune worked in China for several years in the period from 1843 to 1861.

[[File:Wuyi Shan Fengjing Mingsheng Qu 2012.08.23 09-22-49.jpg|thumb|The remote [[Wuyi Mountains]] in Fujian Province, one of the important tea regions to which Fortune travelled.]]

Similar to other European travellers of the period, such as [[Walter Henry Medhurst|Walter Medhurst]], Fortune disguised himself as a Chinese merchant during several, but not all, of his journeys beyond the newly established [[treaty port]] areas. Not only was Fortune's purchase of tea plants reportedly forbidden by the [[Chinese government]] of the time, but his travels were also beyond the allowable [[day's journey]] from the European treaty ports. Fortune travelled to some areas of China that had seldom been visited by Europeans, including remote areas of [[Fujian]], [[Guangdong]], and [[Jiangsu]] provinces.

Fortune employed many means to obtain plants and seedlings from local tea growers, 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]]'s portable [[Wardian case]]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]]. With the exception of a few plants that survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced in the northwestern 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 tea|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 Lankan tea|Sri Lanka]].<ref>

His travels resulted in the introduction to Europe of many beautiful flowers; but another three-year-long journey, undertaken in [[1848]] on behalf of the [[British East India Company]], had much more important consequences, resulting in the successful introduction of 20,000 [[tea]] plants to [[Darjeeling]] of [[India]]. His personal endeavor created the tea industries of India and [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]] and ended China's natural [[monopoly]] of tea. He was the first European to discover that varieties of teas such as [[black tea]] and [[green tea]] were produced from the same plant.

{{Citation

| first = Fa-ti | last = Fan

| title = British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter

| place = Cambridge | publisher = Harvard University Press

| year = 2004

| pages = 82–3

| isbn = 0-674-01143-0

}}. [https://books.google.com/books/about/British_Naturalists_in_Qing_China.html?id=svlLHF3XzVMC 2009 pbk edition]</ref><ref>{{Citation

| first = EM

| last = Cox |author-link=Euan Hillhouse Methven Cox

| title = Plant-hunting in China: A History of Botanical Exploration in China and the Tibetan Marches

| place = London

| publisher = Scientific Book Guild

| year = 1945

| page = 89

}}.</ref>

In subsequent journeys, he visited Formosa ([[Taiwan|Formosa]]) 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]] ('Fortune's Double Yellow' (syn. Gold of Ophir) which proved a failure in England's climate), and many varieties of tree [[peony|peonies]], [[azalea|azaleas]]s and [[chrysanthemum|chrysanthemums]]s. A climbing white rose that he brought back from China in 1850, believed to be a natural cross between ''[[Rosa laevigata]]'' and ''[[Rosa banksiae|R. banksiae]]'', was dubbed ''R. fortuniana'' (syn. ''R. fortuneana'') in his honorhonour. This rose, too, proved a failure in England, thoughpreferring itwarmer 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]] in [[Australia]] and the southern regions of the [[United States]].

TheHe incidents ofrelated his travels were related in a successionseries of interesting books. He died in London in 1880, and is buried in [[LondonBrompton Cemetery]].

==Legacy==

Fortune is credited with the introduction of a large number of plants, shrubs, and trees to Europe from China.<ref>{{Citation | title = History of European botanical discoveries in China | author-link = Emil Bretschneider | first = Emil | last = Bretschneider | year = 1935 | publisher = KF Koehlers antiquarium | place = Leipzig}}.</ref> In 1913, botanists [[Alfred Rehder|Rehder]] and [[E.H.Wilson]] named a plant genus from China, with one species, ''[[Fortunearia|Fortunearia sinensis]]'',<ref>{{cite web |title=''Fortunearia sinensis'' Rehder & E.H.Wilson {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:430654-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=10 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> in his honour.<ref>{{cite book | last=Quattrocchi | first=Umberto | title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L | publisher=CRC Press | ___location=Boca Raton, Florida | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8493-2676-9}}</ref>

{{botanist|Fortune|Fortune, Robert}}

== 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.'' London, John Murray, 1847

*''A Journey to the Tea Countries of China; Sung-lo and the Bohea Hills; with a Short Notice of the East India Company's Tea Plantations in the Himalaya Mountains''. London, John Murray, 1852

*''Two visits to the tea countries of China and the British tea plantations in the Himalaya''. 1853, National Library: CAT10983833 LCCN: 04-32957

*''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.'' London, John Murray, 1857

*''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.'' London, John Murray, 1863

==Plants named after Robert Fortune==

*''[[Arundinaria fortunei]]''

*''[[CyrtomiumBerberis fortunei]]''

*''[[EuonymousCephalotaxus fortunei]]''

*''[[HostaCyrtomium fortunei]]''

*''[[KeteleeriaEuonymus fortunei]]''

*''[[MahoniaHosta fortunei]]''

*''[[MaxburretiaKeteleeria fortunei]]''

*''[[Osmanthus × fortunei]]'' {{small|Carrière}} (''O. fragrans'' × ''O. heterophyllus'')

*''[[PleioblastusPaulownia fortunei]]''

*''[[RhododendronPleioblastus fortunei]]''

*''[[Rhododendron fortunei]]''

*[[Rosa fortuniana]]

*''[[Rosa fortuniana]]''

*[[Trachycarpus fortunei]]

*''[[Saxifraga fortunei]]'' {{small|Hook.}}

*''[[Trachycarpus fortunei]]'' (has synonym ''Chamaerops fortunei'')

==Publications==

* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54720 ''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 (publishing house)|John Murray]]) [http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?searchterm=029_fortune1.inc&issue=029 Excerpt] [[China Heritage Quarterly]] No. 29 (March 2012) ISSN 1833-8461 .

* [https://archive.org/details/ajourneytoteaco00unkngoog ''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) [http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?searchterm=029_fortune2.inc&issue=029 Excerpt] China Heritage Quarterly.

* ''[http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CTWE/B36598719V1/ 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; [[Library of Congress Control Number|LCCN]] [https://lccn.loc.gov/04-32957 04-32957]; National Library: CAT10983833)

* [https://archive.org/details/residencechinese00fort ''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)

* [https://archive.org/details/yedoandpeking00fortgoog ''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)

==References and further reading==

==Other introductions by Fortune==

* Mather, Jeffrey. (2010). "[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13645145.2010.500099 Botanising in a Sinocentric world: Robert Fortune's travels in China]". ''Studies in Travel Writing'', 14(3), 257–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645145.2010.500099

*[[Jasminum nudiflorum]]

* [[Sarah Rose]]. [https://books.google.com/books/about/For_All_the_Tea_in_China.html?id=C8SBbECvbRUC ''For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History'']. Viking: 2010. {{ISBN|0670021520}}

*[[Dicentra spectabilis]]

* Watt, Alistair, ''Robert Fortune, A Plant Hunter in the Orient''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: 2017. {{ISBN|1842466194}} ([https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/R/bo25004461.html distributed by the University of Chicago Press])

*[[Forsythia viridissima]]

==In External links Fiction==

Robert Fortune features as a character in [[Sara Sheridan]]'s novel ''The'' ''Secret Mandarin (2009)''

* [http://www.plantexplorers.com/Explorers/Biographies/Fortune/ Robert Fortune (1812-1880)] - (PlantExplorers.com)

* [http://www-gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/cgi-bin/digbib.cgi?PPN51254302X ''Dreijährige Wanderungen in den Nord-Provinzen von China''] (online version of German edition)

==Notes==

*{{EB1911|wstitle=Fortune, Robert}}

{{reflist}}

==External links==

[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations|Fortune, Robert]]

{{wikisource|works=or}}

{{wikispecies|Robert Fortune}}

* The China Vintage Hour [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV00dVnMaPE Robert Fortune's Wanderings in China] (Part 1) YouTube video.

* The China Vintage Hour [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQmApFQwW60 Robert Fortune's Wanderings in China] (Part 2) YouTube video.

* [http://www.plantexplorers.com/Explorers/Biographies/Fortune/ Plant Explorers: Robert Fortune (1812-80)]

* [http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/toc/?PID=PPN51254302X Dreijährige Wanderungen in den Nord-Provinzen von China] (German)

* [http://www.magiminiland.org/1800Refs/Fortune.html "Dwarf Trees" from Robert Fortune's Books]

* Mark O'Neill, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCJRB78Gv8U Robert Fortune, the Scottish Botanist Who Stole the Tea of China] The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong. YouTube

* {{Librivox author |id=17450}}

* [https://collections.rhs.org.uk/collection/249998 Digitised papers of Robert Fortune, held at the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library. RHS Digital Collections]

{{Authority control}}

==References==

*{{1911}}

[[Category:Scottish botanists|Fortune, Robert]]

[[Category:Botanists active in China|Fortune, Robert]]

[[Category:Botanists active in India|Fortune, Robert]]

[[Category:Botanists active in Japan|Fortune, Robert]]

[[Category:1812 births|Fortune, Robert]]

[[Category:1880 deaths|Fortune, Robert]]

[[de{{DEFAULTSORT:Robert Fortune]], Robert}}

[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]

[[es:Robert Fortune]]

[[frCategory:Robert1812 Fortunebirths]]

[[itCategory:Robert1880 Fortunedeaths]]

[[Category:19th-century Scottish botanists]]

[[ja:ロバート・フォーチュン]]

[[Category:Botanists active in China]]

[[pt:Robert Fortune]]

[[Category:Botanists active in India]]

[[Category:Botanists active in Japan]]

[[Category:Scottish plant collectors]]

[[Category:People from Berwickshire]]

[[Category:Burials at Brompton Cemetery]]

[[Category:People from Duns, Scottish Borders]]

[[Category:Scottish travel writers]]