importing plants--2/5/25

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Today's selection-- from The Scientist Turned Spy by Patrick Spero. In the 18th century, countries raced to import as many plants from around the world as they could acquire:

“The second imperative was a drive to import and naturalize in one's country as many plants from around the world as possible. Three impulses fueled this craving to acquire. The first driver was a practical concern. Botany in this era was considered one of the most promising fields of study because of its potential to improve life. Many policy leaders believed that studying and understanding plants, especially foreign ones that could in­ crease agricultural output, could transform a nation's economy and the lives of all who lived within it. Michaux's early experiments were examples of this desire to import foreign plants to increase France's productivity, whether it was in growing new types of barley or introducing dyes for man­ufacturing materials. One of Michaux's botanical peers, Ambroise Marie Francois Joseph Palisot de Beauvais, nicely captured this zeitgeist. In an age in which scarcity loomed, natural history was, he wrote, ‘the source with­out interruption from which man can obtain abundantly all his needs.' The second reason behind this collecting craze was scientific. Natural histori­ans wanted to document all plants, not just those that could be imported from a foreign country and used to benefit society, because they found the pursuit of knowledge to be a reason unto itself. The third and final impulse was both ornamental and political. In this era, botany became intertwined with status. Public gardens filled with exotic plants sprouted throughout Europe, displaying to the world the opulence and majesty of the monarch who owned them—and often their imperial conquests around the globe. These lush public displays became marvels, bringing great pride to a nation and projecting its power to others.

“The race to identify and import foreign plants was a priority shared by all European nations. In fact, it fed into existing rivalries that would shape Michaux's own career. The French viewed their greatest rival, Great Britain, jealously. British agents and natural historians traveled throughout their global empire and sent home a plethora of plants for both practical and decorative purposes. The British Isles abounded with private and public botanical gardens that showcased the empire's vast reach, and London, with Kew Gardens and the British Museum as anchors, became an international center of botanical studies. Many in France saw the British gardens blos­soming and fretted that they were losing ground, a further spur for patriots like Michaux. The competition, though, was not just confined to these two imperial rivals. Almost all European countries took part in this acquisitive­ness. Botanical gardens dotted the European landscape with almost every country supporting several by the end of the eighteenth century.

“Across the ocean, Americans, too, were engaged in this scientific enter­prise. Many of the leading figures in the new nation, such as George Wash­ington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, were active participants in the international exchange of seeds. They believed the importation of useful foreign plants could introduce crops that could strengthen the still fragile country's economic foundation. It would be hard to overstate the centrality of this international effort. Jefferson himself captured the weight given to bo­tanical work in a revealing, if a bit egotistical, note he wrote to himself about himself. One day, Jefferson decided to list all of his major contributions to American society. He was, he recorded, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the force behind the disestablishment of the church in Virginia, the end of entails, the prohibition on the importation of slaves, and prison reform. At the end, though, he decided that none of these was his greatest achievement. Instead, he reserved that for his introduction of olive trees and African rice to the southern United States in 1789 and 1790. ‘The greatest service which can be rendered any country.’ Jefferson wrote, ‘is to add an useful plant to it's culture; especially a bread grain. [N]ext in value to bread is oil.’Jefferson, conveniently, had done both.”

author:	Patrick Spero
title:	The Scientist Turned Spy: André Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Conspiracy of 1793 (Jeffersonian America)
publisher:	University of Virginia Press
pages:	18-19