274 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



to 80,000 bulbs frequently arriving in one consignment. 

 Many well-known species were sent home first by Charles 

 Maries, who collected for Veitch in Japan and China about 

 1877-79, an d who afterwards became superintendent of the 

 Gwalior gardens, until his death in 1902. Primula Obconica 

 and Hydrangea rosea axe perhaps his two best-known im- 

 portations. 



India and Burmah furnished a wide field for the plant col- 

 lector, and a very large number of plants came from there 

 during the first half of the nineteenth century. Researches 

 in those countries were greatly facilitated by the encourage- 

 ment botany received from the East India Company. The 

 botanical garden at Calcutta was a centre of activity, and its 

 influence was felt far into the Western world. Owing to the 

 energy of the three eminent Superintendents, Dr. William 

 Roxburgh, who had charge of the garden from 1793 to 1814 ; 

 Dr. Nathaniel Wallich, from 1815 to 1856 ; and Dr. Hugh 

 Falconer, who was in India from ±830 to 1855, and took over 

 the garden in 1848, the country round was explored, and the 

 new-found plants were cultivated under their supervision in 

 the botanical gardens, and from thence despatched to adorn 

 the green-houses of England. The three thick folios of por- 

 traits of rare plants, by Wallich, 1 gives some idea of the 

 wonders first brought to light by the Calcutta garden and its 

 staff. In 1847 Sir Joseph Hooker, who had already explored 

 the Arctic regions with Ross, turned towards the tropics, and 

 during the three following years made the most adventurous 

 journeys in Sikkim, Tibet, and Nepaul. Much of his road lay 

 through the country of hostile native rulers, who stopped his 

 food-supplies and put countless obstacles in the way of his 

 progress. In spite of bad weather, biting cold, and the 

 roughest of travelling in high altitudes and inhospitable regions, 

 he persevered, and was able to enrich English gardens by 

 wondrously beautiful Rhododendrons and rock-loving plants 

 from the fringes of the eternal snows of the Himalayas. 



The thirst for plant-collecting seems frequently to have been 

 shared by several members of a family. Veitch, the famous 

 firm of nurserymen of Exeter and Chelsea, who employed many 

 1 Planta Asiatic ce Rariores, 1830-32. 



