George Forrest: Plant Hunter by Brenda McLean, Antique Collectors鈥� Club, 拢29.50, ISBN 1851494618 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
UNKNOWN except to gardeners, George Forrest was an adventurous and indefatigable plant hunter, making many expeditions to one of the most rugged areas of the world, Yunnan in south-west China. His journeys, successful in discovering hundreds of new species, were appallingly arduous and dangerous. By pure chance he escaped being murdered by wandering bands of hostile lamas.
It was also by chance that Brenda McLean found her material for this vivid biography. Rich in illustrations, Plant Hunter shows, incidentally, how strange the world of the early 1900s now appears. One picture is of a British consul being carried around in a palanquin by Chinese bearers. He wears a frock coat, striped trousers and a bicorn hat. Enjoyable.
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