Who was John Gould Veitch?
Q: Who was John Gould Veitch?
A: John Gould Veitch was an expert on plants and growing plants, a traveller, and one of the first Victorian British plant experts to visit Japan. He was also a great-grandson of John Veitch, the founder of the Veitch family plant growing business.
Q: Where did he travel to look for new plants?
A: He visited Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, and other Polynesian islands looking for new plants to bring back to Great Britain.
Q: What type of plants did he bring back from his travels?
A: He brought back a number of glasshouse plants that were in fashion at the time such as Acalyphas, Cordylines, Codiaeums (Crotons) and Dracaenas. From Fiji he brought back a palm of a new genus later named after him - Veitchia joannis.
Q: Who did he meet while in Japan?
A: While in Japan he met another famous plant collector called Robert Fortune.
Q: How many children did John Gould Veitch have?
A: He had two sons - James Herbert Veitch (1868 – 1907) and John Gould Veitch Jr (1869 – 1914).
Q: How old was John Gould Veitch when he died?
A:John Gould Veitch died at age 31 due to tuberculosis.
