Perennials collected by E.H. Wilson ... help!

Does anyone know where I can find a list of perennials collected by E.H. Wilson? I have a very large list of woodies to choose from, but need to fill in the gaps with herbaceous material. Even if there is not an "official" list, if anyone knows of plants of his in general, that would be great. They would need to be hardy to at least zone 6, preferably 5 though.

Thanks!

That would be a big list - there's a three volume book on the subject:

1917 Plantae Wilsonianae; an enumeration of the woody plants collected in western China for the Arnold arboretum of Harvard university during the years 1907, 1908, and 1910, by E. H. Wilson, ed. by Charles Sprague Sargent

You might be able to find it at a university library near you. Another possibility would be to try to contact the Arnold arboretum and see if they can help.

edit: oop, sorry, I see now that book is just the woody plants you referred to

This message was edited Jan 20, 2008 12:34 AM

This isn't a list, but a facsimile of a book that E. H. Wilson wrote in 1927 about his plant hunting travels - infinitely more fun than just a list! I don't know if this is still in print, but this facsimile was published in 1985 by Waterstone & Co. Limited, 49 Hay's Mews, London WIX 7RT (ISBNO947752250). The facsimile is titled Smoke that Thunders, but back in 1927, this book was originally published in the U.S.A. as Plant Hunting Vol. 1.

Part I of the book covers Wilson's plant hunting in Africa, South and Central, and Part II covers Australia and New Zealand. There's a wealth of herbaceous plants discussed in this book.

And then - his plant hunting in China - here's a page googling for that - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22E.+H.+Wilson%22+%2B+China . I'm too swamped right now to get into this, but it sure looks like a heavenly research project.

His discovery of Lilium regale gives new meaning to the word "adventure". Imagine an Asian (China?) alpine meadow filled brim to brim with those lilies - and that fragrance! I like to think he left a lot behind on his trip back to collect some bulbs. He had quite a "train" of porters to help carry supplies and bulbs that depended on human feet and mulish hooves. His leg was crushed by an avalanche on the way down the mountain, and the trail was so narrow that everyone - human and mule - had to step over him, one by one, while he lay there. Beyond that, my memory quits - we'll all have to find that passage and re-read it (It's somewhere around here, but I need to finish some other projects before I start hunting for that).

Well, lilies are bulbs and not herbaceous plants - but I just wanted to show how colorful his experiences were.

If you google "E. H. Wilson" + plants you get this page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22E.+H.+Wilson%22+%2B+plants&btnG=Search . The first link is to the Wikipedia page on E. H. Wilson. There are quite a few promising key words to google further, such as "Ernest
Wilson Memorial Garden" that might produce some answers.

Well, I'm President of the Procrastination Committee for Illoquin's 2nd Chance Seed Swap here on DG, so I better move along. Thank you for bringing up two of my favorite topics - plant hunters and books by them about their experiences.

Karen

Found a free, on-line, digitalized book by E. H. Wilson here - http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/union/Snot.html called Aristocrats of the Garden.

Thanks much for the help. If anyone else happens to have even more information, I'd appreciate that as well.

Smiles,
Gabrielle