A Traveller's Notes, or Notes of a Tour through India, Malaysia, Japan, Corea, the Australian Colonies and New Zealand during the years 1891-1893 de Veitch, James Herbert - 1896

Royal Exotic Nursery, Chelsea: Printed for Private Circulation, 1896. With signed presentation inscription to J. Hollingsworth (head gardener at Tredegar Park followed by Margam Park]. Illustrated with a large folding map frontispiece (with, as usual, tears and creases at the upper join, now neatly repaired), nine large full-page plates on heavy card. many small text images from photographs, quarto, pp 219, slight age-toning and marking, some inner joints rather cracked and weak, the last third of the book has rather damp-wrinkled pages, with light staining on the last few pages, original decorated cloth with paper inlay, bevelled edges, a bit rubbed and marked, the spine dull and age-toned andpulled at the head and tail, the upper cover slightly unevenly age-toned. [In October 1891 Veitch embarked on a tour of inspection of the great Botanic and Public Gardens maintained by governments in various countries as well as visiting many private horticultural establishments, to decide whether the Veitch gardens and nurseries might be enriched by further additions. He set off by way of Rome and Naples to Ceylon, thence overland from Tuticorin to Lahore. He continued to Calcutta and on to the Straits Settlements. In Penang he visited the Botanic Gardens, whose curator Charles Curtis was formerly employed by James Veitch & Sons as a plant collector, before moving on to Singapore where he visited the Botanic Gardens. He then visited Johore, before returning to Singapore in February 1892, when he climbed Bukit Timah (the highest point on the island) with Walter Fox, curator of the Gardens. He then travelled to Buitenzorg, West Java where he visited the Botanical Gardens. He also explored the crater of Kawah Papandajan (volcano), and visited Lake Bagendit near Garoet. His travels then took him to Japan, where he met Charles Sprague Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum, and they undertook a joint plant collecting expedition including ascending the Hakkoda Mountains together. After visiting Korea, he reached Australia in 1893. However he found Australia disappointing and wrote that it was easier to collect seed in Japan where there was cheap labour; in Australia "no one will help". He complained that the seeds of many plants "were so tiny he did not know if he was collecting seed or dust". He sent to Kew a collection of dried specimens of 250 species from Western Australia. Later he visited the North Island of New Zealand, before returning to England in July 1893. ]. Signed by Author. First Edition. Cloth. Fair.