Talk: Yours and a Crowd

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“Yours and a Crowd” - inscribed by George Forrest on the back of a photograph from one of his many plant collecting expeditions to China. For it was never just one man, of course, plant collecting was a complex endeavour and success was most likely when expertise and enthusiasm from a range of individuals, including indigenous collectors, were brought together.
 
George Forrest was a master collector, who showed a keen understanding of the requirements for a productive expedition even from the very beginning of his plant collecting career. He embarked on his first plant collecting expedition in 1904, travelling to China on behalf of the nurseryman A K Bulley, on the recommendation of Professor Isaac Bayley Balfour, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE). This was to be the first of many trips to this region in search of Rhododendron, Primula and other exotics destined for the gardens of Britain. Concentrating on the dramatic highs and lows of this first expedition, and using Forrest’s own words and pictures, this evening talk at the RHS Lindley Library will explore the process of collecting and the people behind it. Leonie Paterson, Archivist at RBGE and Yvette Harvey, Keeper of the RHS herbarium will give an insight into the life of George Forrest and will look at his use of indigenous collecting teams led by Zhao Chengzhang.
 
Additional info:
Entry includes the opportunity for a late evening viewing of the public library and the exhibition Collecting in the Clouds: Early 20th-century Plant Discoveries.
 
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