William Charles Cotton Strawberries To New Zealand 1842

William Charles Cotton, Wardian cases and the first modern strawberries in New Zealand, 1842 Although William Charles Cotton failed to bring his hives of bees aboard the Tomatin from Plymouth, England, to the North Island of New Zealand in 1842, 1 there is strong evidence he was the first to introduce a modern variety of strawberries to Auckland. In the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener for 7 May 1868, is to be found a lecture delivered by Mr Wilson, President of the Horticultural Society, Canterbury. Titled “Progress of Gardening in New Zealand” it contains much detail on the introduction of plants not to be found in G. M. Thomson’s later and weighty tome The Naturalisation of Animals & Plants in New Zealand (1922). Of the wild strawberry, Fragaria vesca, Linn., Thomson states “Probably introduced by very early settlers. …"Dieffenbach, in 1839, speaks of it as spreading over the country (at Matamata).” (p.406) Polack commented, briefly reported by Thompson, "At present (1838), grapes are largely cultivated to the northward of the river Thames; strawberries and raspberries overrun the soil on which they are planted;” 2 (p.291)

The beach strawberry, F. chiloensis At this time wild strawberries were indigenous to Europe and Asia (Fragaria vesca), Central Europe (F. moschata), the scarlet or Virginia strawberry to Eastern North American (F. virginiana) and the pine or beach strawberry to the West Coast of North and South America (F. chiloensis). “… a French botanist, Antoine Nicholas Duchesne, was working on the strawberry, and planted a Virginia strawberry near a beach strawberry in his experimental plots. The two New World plants cross pollinated, and produced a hardy plant with excellent fruit. It was named F. ananassa, because of a pineapple fragrance. These hybrids were sent to various botanists in Europe, with the first commercially successful plants produced in England in 1819 and called Barrett, Peter (1997) William Charles Cotton, Grand Bee Master of new Zealand, 1842 to 1847, Springwood, published by the author 2 Polack, Joel Samuel (1838) New Zealand: being a narrative of travels and adventures during a residence in that country between the years 1831 and 1837, Richard Bentley, London 1

Keen's seedlings.” 3 Strawberry varieties present in New Zealand before 1842 were most likely planted from seeds rather than brought out as live plants from England.

Keens’ Seedling Strawberry In his lecture, Wilson, a nurseryman by profession, initially gave a rapid survey of the introduction of the principal trees and flowers which had been brought into Canterbury. He then spoke of walnut trees, White Muscadine and the Black Hamburgh grape vines, olives, apples, pears and plums. “Another important importation had been Keens' Seedling Strawberry; the honour of bringing this delicious fruit here [Canterbury] was due to Mr. Guise Brittan. He (Mr. Wilson) had himself brought some from Auckland - in fact he had procured 3000 plants, and they were now distributed throughout the length and breadth of the province. Mr. Cotton, an English clergyman, had first brought them to Auckland; and it might be added that the same reverend gentleman was the first to introduce bees into that province. As the Strawberry plants were being brought here, a number perished, and only fifteen survived the voyage. From this sprung, as he had remarked, all those now in Canterbury.” (pp.343-344) Given the implication the voyage was a long one, this seems to preclude the possibility the strawberries were sourced in Sydney during Cotton’s stopover there in April - May 1842 and shipped across the Tasman aboard the Bristolian, Bishop Selwyn’s and Cotton’s conveyance to Auckland.

Keens' Seedling Strawberry from James Anderson's The New Practical Gardener and Modern Horticulturist, London, 1875 “The strawberry named itself: its Latin name is "Fragaria", for its fragrance.” Wild strawberry details from web page http://marcsala.blogspot.com/2005/12/strawberrys-long-journey.html 3

From John Lindley’s (1841) Pomologia Britannica: or, Figures and descriptions of the most important varieties of fruit cultivated in Great Britain: 4 on Keens' Seedling Strawberry: “Perhaps no new fruit has enjoyed so great a degree of celebrity, upon its first appearance, as that which is now represented; and it may without impropriety be added, that few have had greater claims to reputation. The publication of a figure in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society, 5 the exhibition of fruit at their meetings, and the rapid dispersion of many thousand plants throughout the country, either by public or private channels, have carried the fame of Keens' Seedling to the remotest corners of Great Britain; and its peculiar excellence has enabled it to maintain the station in public opinion which it so acquired. Its great merits are, that it is very large, very good, and very prolific. It forces better than any other, carries extremely well, and bears its fruit high enough above the earth to keep it free from the soil. No Strawberry has the same vigorous appearance as this. Its deep green, broad leaves, and stout flowerscapes, attest a healthiness of constitution which is scarcely equalled by any of its class, except the Old Pine; and if Keens' Seedling be inferior to that in flavour, it is much more than equal to it in size and productiveness. It was raised from the seed of Keens' Imperial, by Mr. Michael Keens, a market gardener at Isleworth.” (p.91)

Keens' Seedling Strawberry, from Lindley, 1841 Extracted from G.M. Darrow’s web page The Strawberry: History, Breeding and Physiology 6 “The Strawberry in England: In the late 1700's and early 1800's, varieties F. virginiana Scarlet strawberry -- were the popular English garden strawberries. … In quality most were markedly superior to the general type of Scarlets - but none surpassed some of the wild virginiana in flavor. In size the berries showed but little improvement over the best wild ones. Growers who found that raising new plants from seed sometimes produced variations superior to the parent type, conducted experiments with seeds directly imported from Canada and North America, instead of working with American varieties imported earlier. As E. A. Bunyard observed, though 4

Lindley, John (1841) Pomologia Britannica: or, Figures and descriptions of the most important varieties of fruit cultivated in Great Britain, Vol., 2, Henry g. Bohn, London 5 Hort. Trans, vol. v. p. 260. t. 12 6 http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Strawberry/book/boksix.htm

slight differences resulted, the variation of F. virginiana was "not more than might have been in the wild state." 1 … Michael Keens, a market gardener of Isleworth near London, raised the first large-fruited market variety of strawberry in 1806 … and he found the Society both interested and appreciative of his efforts. … Keens became second only to Knight in his importance to the English development of the strawberry. … Keens wrote to the Society from Isleworth on January 10, 1814. He then described how he had sown the seed of the White Chili strawberry, along with a great many others in 1806 and had discovered that one of the Chili seedlings was very different from, and far superior to, its companions. This was the Keens Imperial. …. In 1821 the Society, had its artist paint … Keens Seedling, raised in 1819 from the seed of Keens Imperial. The Society awarded Keens a silver cup and published a description of the berry in "Notices of New or Remarkable Varieties of Fruits, ripened in the summer and autumn of the year 1821," a review of fruits which had been exhibited at recent meetings. … The berries of Keens Seedling were large for the 1820's - up to two inches in diameter, one and a half inches in length and somewhat coxcomb in shape. The fruit was a very deep rich red in color and white at the center, though the red color stained deep into the flesh. The flesh was tender, compact and very juicy at the center with a flavor like that of the Pine strawberry. … Keens grew his strawberries in gardens extending over more than sixty acres at Worton Lane in Isleworth, the chief of the market garden towns in the region just north of the Thames, known as the "great fruit garden" of the London markets. Michael Keens and John Wilmot, originator of Wilmot's Superb Strawberry, were the chief two gardeners in early nineteenth century Isleworth. Their strawberry plantings made the township famous as a strawberry-growing center. Most of Keens' gardens were devoted to the Keens Seedling strawberry and the Keens gooseberry. …”

The Wardian Case The Wardian case, so named after its creator, was invented by Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868), of London, about the year 1829. From Wikipedia’s entry on the Wardian case: “Dr Ward was a physician with a passion for botany. His personally collected herbarium amounted to 25,000 specimens. The ferns in his London garden in Wellclose Square, however, were being poisoned by London's air pollution, which consisted heavily of coal smoke and sulphuric acid. In contrast to his flagging ferns, in the bottles where Dr. Ward kept cocoons of moths and the like, he found that fern spores were germinating and growing in a bit of soil. He had a carpenter build him a closely-fitted glazed wooden case and found that ferns grown in it thrived. Dr. Ward published his experiment and followed it up with a book in 1842, On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases.” From the Friends of Norwood Cemetery web site “In 1829, he placed a moth chrysalis together with some mould in a sealed glass bottle, in order to obtain an adult specimen. He found later that fern and grass seeds contained in the mould had germinated and were growing well. After a few years of experiment, he devised a glazed case in which plants could be placed with sufficient soil and water, and would thereafter grow satisfactorily. Water would evaporate in the day, but condense again at night, and as long as it could not escape, the plant's environment within the case remained stable.”

Nathaniel Ward (from the original, Bodleian Library) Again from Wikipedia: “English botanists and commercial nurserymen had been passionately prospecting the world for new plants since the end of the 16th century, but these had to travel as seeds or corms, or as dry rhizomes and roots. But with the new Wardian cases, tender young plants could be set on deck to benefit from daylight and the condensed moisture within the case that kept them watered but protected from salt spray. The first test of the glazed cases was made in July 1833, when Dr. Ward shipped two specially-constructed glazed cases filled with British ferns and grasses, all the way to Sydney, Australia, a voyage of several months that found the protected plants still in good condition upon arrival. Somewhat more interesting plants made the return trip: a number of Australian native species that had never survived the transportation previously. The plants arrived in good shape, after a stormy voyage around Cape Horn.”

A much younger Ward The reverse shipment was facilitated by one George Loddiges, Vice-President of The Horticultural Society. He said that "whereas I used formerly to lose nineteen out of the twenty of the plants I imported during the voyage, nineteen out of the twenty is now the average of those that survive". The Wikipedia entry on Loddiges infers some importations originated from the Botanical Garden, Adelaide, South Australia.

Of many complimentary letters reproduced in Ward’s book, one came from G. Loddiges, Esq., to the Author, dated Hackney, February I8th, 1842. “My Dear Sir, In reply to your inquiries respecting the importation of living plants in your cases, I beg leave to say that my brother and I have, since 1835, made trial of more than five hundred cases to and from various parts of the globe, with great variety of success, but have uniformly found, wherever your own directions were strictly attended to - that is, when the cases were kept the whole voyage in the full exposure to the light upon deck, and care taken to repair the glass immediately in cases of accident - the plants have arrived in good condition; … we … have to deplore the number of importations totally ruined, even in your cases, simply for the want of the light of day, and these too under the care of captains who engage that they shall be kept upon deck, when the moment we are out of sight, they stow them away below, and they are never more thought of until their arrival: … we find that there cannot be a worse mode of sending living plants than in these same cases, so placed in the dark. Some of the cases have been opened in fine order after voyages of upwards of eight months; in short, nothing more appears to be wanting to ensure success in the importation of plants, than to place them in these boxes properly moistened, and to allow them the full benefit of light during the voyage.” More from Wikipedia: “One of Dr. Ward's correspondents was William Jackson Hooker, later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Hooker's son, Joseph Dalton Hooker, was one of the first plant explorers to use the new Wardian cases, when he shipped live plants back to England from New Zealand in 1841, during the pioneering voyage of HMS Erebus that circumnavigated Antarctica. …” From an Extract from last Report on the state of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in Ward’s (1852) On the growth of plants in closely glazed cases “Sir William Hooker states … that there have been sent abroad, mainly to our own territories, between January 1847 and December 1850, living rooted plants, in glazed Wardian Cases, as follows: … Total 2722, despatched in sixty-four glazed cases …” Some 28 destinations were the recipients including New Zealand, Port Philip [Melbourne], Sydney, South Australia, West Australia and Van Dieman's Land. (p.133)

One example of a Wardian case, from Ward (1852)

The publication of Ward’s book was too late for Cotton’s specific use, however, knowledge of its technology and utility was not necessarily precluded from the intelligentsia, including students like Cotton at Oxford University. Indeed, the Preface to the first edition 7 of Ward’s book states: “Most of the facts detailed in the following work have been long before the public. They have been published in several periodicals, and in a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker, which appeared in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine for May, 1836. This letter was subsequently printed separately for private distribution among the Author's friends. The attention of the scientific world was likewise drawn to the subject at three several meetings of the British Association, and more particularly by an admirable paper written by the late Mr. Ellis, of Edinburgh, and published in the Gardener's Magazine for September, 1839. …” From the Friends of Norwood Cemetery web site 8 “The Horticultural Society, of which Loddiges was a Vice-President, began equipping its collectors with Wardian cases from the mid-1830s, and their use had become general by the time Ward published a book on the subject …” The many subsequent adopters of the Wardian case included botanist Allan Cunningham. In order to take up his post of Colonial Botanist, Cunningham embarked for a second time to Australia, where he “engaged his passage to Sydney on board the (male) convict ship, Norfolk, Captain Gatenby, and joined that vessel at Spithead, the latter end of October, anticipating a quick passage, and as full of enthusiasm as when he left the same port, two-and-twenty years before. In a letter, dated Spit-head, the 28th of October, 1836, he says: - ‘… Here we are, still, and likely to continue at anchor another day … Capt. Gatenby declares in positive terms, [our passage] shall not exceed a hundred days … out to that land of blue sky and sunshine, where I hope to employ a second series of years in the advance of botanical and other science … My plants look exceedingly well in the Wardian cabins, which appear as if they had been measured for the only snug spot I know of in the ship, out of harm's way, namely on the poop, under the spanker-boom, and abaft the binnacle. Several daisies, primroses, &c. are now gaily in flower, and all are very verdant and vigorous. …" (p.271) 9 The response to a reader’s enquiry in 1850 to The Cottage Gardener: A Practical Guide in every department of horticulture and rural and domestic economy, 10 from “M.C.E.” who wanted to send plants to Australia: “No plants can live in a tin case soldered close, for any length of time; living plants must have light, and that can only be given in such a voyage by a Wardian case.” (p.90) Fourteen years later, correspondent “J.C.” enquired of the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener about garden requirements for New Zealand. Sutton & Sons of Reading replied in the 1 November 1864 issue, in ignorance of the ready availability of antipodean strawberries. Following defective advice regarding seeds and tools – “With regard to plants of Strawberries, we do not know whether they would undergo such a journey, but ‘fruit nurseryman’ would, doubtless, know. If they are taken they should be packed separately. Seeds for New Zealand should be packed in stout wooden cases lined with zinc, which are of no small value over there.” (pp.352-353) Benj. Wells of 11 Orchard Place, Plumstead Road, Woolwich, was more informed: “I am able to answer ‘J.C.’ having spent fifteen years in that country. I have 7

Ward, Nathaniel Bagshaw (1852) On the growth of plants in closely glazed cases, 2nd ed., John Van Voorst, London 8 http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no53.shtml 9 Hooker, William Jackson (1842) London Journal of Botany 10 Johnson George W. (1850) The Cottage Gardener: A Practical Guide in every department of horticulture and rural and domestic economy

seen Strawberry plants taken out in a small Wardian case, but ‘J.C.’ need not go to that trouble unless he has some very extraordinary sorts. He will find plenty of Strawberries in New Zealand. … ‘J.C.’ must not put his seeds in the ship’s hold, but must keep them in a box in his cabin. The damp heat of the hold in the Tropics destroys their vitality.” (pp.352-353) A short biography of Benjamin Wells appeared in The Cyclopedia of New Zealand (1908). Mr. Benjamin Wells was one of the pioneer colonists of Taranaki, and for many years was connected with its educational and other public institutions. He was born in the year 1824, at Woolwich, England, … He came to New Zealand in 1849 in the barque “Cornwall,” and landed in New Plymouth. … In 1864 he visited England, but returned two years later. In the year 1874 he became editor of the Taranaki News, and held the position until his death. … Mr. Wells wrote a History of Taranaki, which is of the greatest value to students of the country's colonisation.” The appearance of Wells’ letter in the 1864 issue of the Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener is thus explained.

Early Records of Strawberries in Australia and New Zealand The gardener’s diary in the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator for 6 July 1842 advised readers to “Prepare ground for strawberries.” (p.2) By December 1842 the first meeting of the Horticultural Society at Port Nicholson was able to award the ‘Fruits’ first prize to one of the “fortunate exhibitors”, Mr. D. Wilkinson, a display of 12 strawberries. The Society’s report in the New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser for 30 December 1842 noted “The only novelty exhibited was Cherries, Strawberries, Currants, and Gooseberries.” Some fourteen months later they appear to have been generally available for the Gardener’s Calendar in the New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator for 28 February 1844, advised “strawberries may now be planted.” (p.2) Articles that had previously appeared in the New Zealand Journal were collected together under the title “Instructions for transmitting seeds and plants to NZ, by W.” This collation appeared in the New Zealand Journal for 16 September 1843. At that time the pseudonym “W” was sufficient to identify the contributor as Colonel William Wakefield, leader of the first colonizing expedition to New Zealand and a founder of Wellington, who arrived in Port Nicholson on the Tory in August 1839. It’s unknown when the strawberry was first successfully cultivated in Australia. The earliest reference I could find appears in the Sydney Gazette for 28 March 1818, in an article on the productions of Van Dieman’s Land. “Gooseberries and currants, raspberries and strawberries, thrive abundantly, and seem as well disposed to harmonize with their equatorial differences of position as we ourselves appear to have done.” (p.2) On 22 April 1824 the Sydney Gazette reported “The extent and diversity of the Australian horticulture is not so generally known as might be wished. To shew [sic.] to what a state of perfection our gardens are arriving, we take the opportunity of enumerating, amongst the multiplicity of productions, the following plants. They are kindly handed to us by one of the most proficient horticulturists of the day.” Amongst the exhaustive inventory: “Gooseberries and strawberries are abundant and general.” Reproduced from the Perth Gazette for 23 February, the Sydney Gazette for 21 May 1833 reported the Virginian strawberry variety, Fragaria Virginiana, was “very abundant in the colony” [Swan River, Perth]. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser for 2 January 1834 reported “Strawberries and raspberries are this year excellent and abundant in the market.”

According to one of the “instructions” in the New Zealand Journal for September 1843, it seems no strawberries were available within New Zealand before January 1841. In issue no. 38, page 167 of the New Zealand Journal there appeared an “extract from a letter of Captain W. Smith, R.A., Surveyor-General, dated Wellington, Jan. 31, 1841. ‘I have no doubt but that all kinds of flowers, as well as vegetables, will thrive here if the seed is good, and sown at a proper season. There have been a great many fruit-trees imported, and are doing well. There are gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, plumbs, peaches, apricots, and grapes. I will get some plants next year, if I can, from Sydney. Colonel Wakefield has planted some acorns, of which about 100 came up, and are looking well. I wish you would send me some, and some beech-nuts. Any seeds, whether flowers, trees, or vegetables, will be acceptable. …” (p.246) Cotton’s achievement in shipping Keens’ Seedling Strawberry from England aboard the Tomatin to Sydney – most likely in a Wardian case - and finally to Auckland aboard the Bristolian, is some compensation for his failure to bring his beloved bees from the Old World to the New. Peter Barrett, Caloundra, Queensland, September 2009