INTRODUCTION 



the introduction of valuable plants discovered in the course 

 of his travels, and also as a young man full of zeal and enter- 

 prise in his profession a worthy representative of his father's 

 and grandfather's name. 



"John Gould Veitch was born at Exeter in April 1839, 

 and had, therefore, only reached his 32nd year. He was at 

 an early age initiated in the mysteries of the nursery trade, 

 and took an active part in the management of the establish- 

 ment at Chelsea. It was in April 1860, almost as soon as he 

 had attained his majority, that he started on his voyage to 

 Japan and China, whence he proceeded to the Philippine 

 Islands. The result of this journey was the enrichment of 

 our collections with many choice plants, amongst which the 

 lovely Primula cortusoides amoena would of itself form no 

 mean monument to his memory. Various handsome Conifers, 

 as Abies firma and Alcoquiana, Cryptomeria elegans, and 

 other plants, as Lilium auratum, Ampelopsis tricuspidata 

 (Veitchii) and japonica, &c., were, however, also obtained as 

 the fruits of that first journey, and our volumes for 1860-1861 

 contain from his own pen the interesting records of his 

 journeyings and discoveries during the two years which 

 elapsed previously to his returning in the spring of 1862. 



" The spirit of enterprise and the desire of making dis- 

 coveries, which prompted him at first to set sail for Japan, 

 then lately made accessible to Europeans, did but slumber for 

 a season, for in 1864 we find him again en route, this time 

 bound for Australia and the South Sea Islands, whence he 

 returned in February 1866, after an absence of some eighteen 

 or twenty months, bringing with him some of the most 

 beautiful plants of modern introduction : witness the numerous 

 richly-coloured forms of Croton and Dracaena which are only 

 now becoming known. Of the Crotons alone no fewer than 



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