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John Gould Veitch (April 1839 – 13 August 1870) was a British
horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
and traveller, one of the first Victorian plant hunters to visit Japan. A great-grandson of John Veitch, the founder of the Veitch
horticulture Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
dynasty, he also visited the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and other Polynesian islands. He brought back a number of the glasshouse plants in vogue at the time, such as '' Acalyphas'', ''
Cordyline ''Cordyline'' is a genus of about 24 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family (biology), family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandrace ...
s'', '' Codiaeums'' (Crotons) and '' Dracaenas'', and, from Fiji, a palm of a new genus later named after him, '' Veitchia joannis''. The Veitch family name is honoured by hundreds of plant names, including the genus '' Veitchia''. The Veitch nursery introduced 232 orchids, some 500 greenhouse plants, 118 exotic ferns, about 50 conifers, 153 deciduous trees, 72 evergreen and climbing shrubs, 122 herbaceous and 37 bulbous plants from various corners of the globe. In Japan, he came across the eminent plant collector
Robert Fortune Robert Fortune (16 September 1812 – 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist, 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, an ...
, and their competing collections returned to England on the same ship. For example, both men claimed discovery of a species of ''
Chamaecyparis pisifera ''Chamaecyparis pisifera'' (Sawara cypress or Sawara ) is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū.Farjon, A. (2005). ''Monograph of Cupressaceae and Sciadopitys''. Royal Botanic Ga ...
''. The Veitch Nursery on Kingston Coombe site, established a Japanese Water Garden adjacent to Warren House. It's legacy lives on today in a Veitch Heritage Garden. He was married to Jane Hodge soon after his return to England in 1866 and fathered two sons, James Herbert Veitch (1868 – 1907) and John Gould Veitch, Jr. (1869 – 1914) before dying of
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
at the age of 31.He is buried in
Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is since 1852 the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown Estate, Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington a ...
and according to their burial registers, he died at the Coombe Wood Nursery on Kingston Hill.


References


External links


"John Gould Veitch 1839 - 1870", by Ian Edwards, The Tropical Garden Society of Sydney


{{DEFAULTSORT:Veitch, John Gould English botanists English horticulturists 1839 births 1870 deaths Businesspeople from Exeter Veitch Nurseries Plant collectors