What Was George Forrest's Plant Collection Journey like in China?

Since the 16th century, Western countries have conducted extensive plant collections in Asia, particularly in China, driven by the need to collect botanical resources and foster academic development. These activities have not only significantly enriched the Western botanical specimen collections but have also had a profound impact on the development of related disciplines such as botany, ecology, and horticulture. During this process, a large number of renowned plant hunters emerged, whose discoveries and contributions are still remembered today. George Forrest (1873-1932) was one of these distinguished plant hunters. From 1904 to 1932, he visited China seven times to collect plants and became famous for the regional distinctiveness of the species he collected. However, due to the lack of systematic collection, organization, and analysis of specimens collected by Forrest, only a few species, such as the species Rhododendron, are well-known among the many species he introduced to the West. Furthermore, the personal collecting characteristics and the characteristic species collected by Forrest are also not clear. This limits a comprehensive understanding of the specimen collection history and impact of Forrest in China. Therefore, systematic organization and analysis of Forrest's plant specimens collected in China are crucial to understanding his impact on botanical classification, Rhododendrons introduction, global horticulture, and plant propagation. This study aims to systematically organize and analyze the plant specimens collected by George Forrest in China to investigate the family, genus, and species composition of the collected specimens and the seven collection expeditions of Forrest in China, as well as the time and altitude of these collections. Furthermore, it seeks to discuss Forrest's scientific contributions to the global spread of plants, the widespread application of the Rhododendron, and his impact on the development of modern gardens, providing a theoretical basis and data reference for related research and professional development. To this end, we extensively consulted important historical literature related to Forrest and systematically collected data from online specimen databases. The conclusions drawn from the available data include 38,603 specimens, with 26,079 collection numbers, belonging to 233 families, 1395 genera, and 5426 species, which account for 48.24%, 32.63%, and 14.17% of the plant families, genera, and species in China, respectively. Rhododendron specimens made up 17.20% of the specimens collected in this study. The collection locations cover three provinces or autonomous regions, 11 prefecture-level cities, and 25 counties. Furthermore, we found that Forrest's collections were concentrated in spring and summer, mainly in high-altitude areas, with 135 species found below 1500 m and 3754 species at 1500 m and above. Rhododendron specimens were mostly found above 3000 m.

Shall we promote natural history collection today?-Answered by reviewing Ernest Henry Wilson's plant collection process in China.

Plant diversity exploration needs to be accelerated because many species will go extinct before their discovery and description, and many species-rich regions remain poorly studied. However, most contemporary plant collections prefer to focus on a specific group, which hinders the exploration and conservation of plant diversity. Therefore, we need an alternative approach to the dilemma at hand. The comprehensive Natural History Collection (NHC), which existed throughout the pinnacle of biodiversity exploration in the 20th century could be considered. We explore Ernest Henry Wilson's (one of the most successful naturalists in the 20th) plant collections in China as a case to illustrate the advantages of NHC and discuss whether NHC deserves to be promoted again today. From multiple sources, we gathered 19,218 available specimen records of 11,884 collecting numbers assigned and analyzed the collected species, the collection's nature, and restored four routes of his explorations. Results reveal that Wilson's specimens were collected from 28 prefecture-level cities and 38 county-level regions of 7 provinces or municipalities, they belong to 200 families, 1046 genera, 3794 species, and 342 infraspecific taxa, approximately 41 %, 22 %, 10 %, 5 % of Chinese plant families, genera, species, and infraspecific taxa respectively. The Wilson case study shows that NHC is particularly effective in emphasizing species discovery and conservation, recording ecological information, understanding a region's flora, and developing landscape applications. Therefore, we strongly advocate for the expansion of natural history collections in species-rich regions. Furthermore, we recommend the employment of specialized collectors, the enlistment of international cooperation, and the standardization of guidelines for future NHCs.