by Norman
Todd October 2000
The
name of Joseph Banks cropped up recently in the Newsletter in connection
with peonia suffruticosa.Sir
Joseph has a monumental connection to a huge number of the plants we grow
in our gardens.At a recent meeting
we were shown some of the floral treasures of Newfoundland – unjust though
it is – a place not often thought of in connection with horticulture.Be
it remembered though, that it was Joseph Banks, who is much better known
as the founder of Kew Gardens, botanist to Captain James Cook on his first
voyage, champion of Merino sheep, father of Australia, friend of George
III, Vice President of the Society for the Improvement of naval Architecture,
President of the Royal Society from 30 November 1778 until his death on
20 June 1820, who introduced rhododendron canadense to cultivation
in 1767.He took it back to England
on completion of his expedition to Newfoundland.
R.
canadense
had been described by Linnaeus as Rhodora Canadensis in 1762, following
receipt of herbarium material from the Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm
who had traveled in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and southern Canada during
the period 1748 to 1751.Peter
Collinson of Pennsylvania had been sending seed of eastern North American
plants to England for 25 years (1735-1760) but it does not appear that
R. canadense was successfully introduced from his shipments.
Banks
was a great arranger and organizer.He
organized his own instruction in botany at Oxford and even if he did not
formally graduate he seems to have learned a lot.He
came of age in 1764.His father had
died in 1761.Personable and curious,
he inveigled an invitation for himself and Constantine Phipps to
be passengers on the H.M.S. Niger when it was dispatched on a fisheries
patrol mission to keep an eye on the behavior of the French fishermen on
the Grand Banks – a name which was no doubt viewed with approbation by
the young Joseph.The Niger’s
mission also included surveying the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland
and parts of Labrador and an instruction to improve relations with the
Indians and Eskimo.
Banks
made good use of his time.The first
plant catalogue of his collections from Newfoundland and Labrador listed
over 150 species although he undoubtedly collected more than that.(Banks
was extremely modest in his need for public recognition of his exploits
and he published no record of his journeys.)Averil
Lysaght’s monumental volume, ‘Joseph Banks inNewfoundland
and Labrador, 1776’, details the disposition and fate of his botanical
collections and compiles descriptions of the extensive zoological material.From
the very limited perspective of our Society’s interest, we should note
that Banks also described Ledum groenlandicum and Rhododendron
lapponicum.
The
second connection between Joseph Banks and contemporary rhododendron interest
is in the use of colchicum autumnale –the
autumn crocus.Some new commercial
rhododendrons have been ‘genetically engineered’ by the use of cholchinine,
an alkaloid drug obtained from meadow saffron or autumn crocus.This
affects tissue metabolism and cell division (mitosis) and can be used to
increase the number of chromosomes in a plant to give polyploidy.This
is claimed to give tougher foliage, flowers with heavier substance, and
increased plant hardiness.‘Briggs
Red Starr’ and ‘Briggs Northern Starr’ are current popular examples.
Banks’
interest in the autumn crocus stemmed from his terrible sufferings from
gout. ‘…The King is sorry to find Sir Joseph is still confined; and though
it is the common mode to congratulate persons on the first fit of the Gout,
He cannot join in so cruel an etiquette…’Joseph
was afflicted with gout for over thirty years.He
followed various regimes in the search for relief – Mr. Pittonet’s ginger
regime and Dr. Pitcairn’s milk regime among them.This
‘sad companion of old age’ caused Banks to write in 1797 ‘…I am now like
a Foundered horse lame when I go out, unsound when I come in & never
likely to be any more an useful animal…’Banks’
formidable stamina seems to have kept him going through the next ten years.He
found ‘getting on horseback’ and an austere diet beneficial.A
friend wrote ‘…Sir Joseph in the last 3 years has eat no animal food, no
wine, no spirits, but lives on Pudding and vegetables, and has better health
forit…’
The
disease was chronic and worsening in the severity of its bouts.In
1810 Banks received a bottle of a French palliative – Dr. Husson’s eau
medicinale.Banks did not tell
his regular physician, Dr. Home, of this acquisition.One
night Home left Banks with a pulse of 94, and gouty lesions on the great
toe, ankle, heel, knee, hip, elbow, shoulder and hand – and a gloomy prognosis.Next
day Home found Banks with a pulse of 62 and ‘all the joint pains relieved
in reverse order to the sequence of their onset.’“I
have taken a quack medicine”; Banks said Home chastised him.Whereupon
Banks took a second dose which caused a slight nausea and five bowel evacuations
but removed all gouty pains.Banks
entered the annals of British medicine with his gouty endeavours.His
physician, the skeptical Dr. Home, with insistent Banksian encouragement
(he, who must be obeyed) began to study eau medicinale.It
proved to be that the autumn crocus was the crucial ingredient.In
time Home evolved his own concoction using two pounds of the roots of
colchicum
autumnale in 24 ounces of sherry, brewing it for several days.Banks
himself pursued the mystery of the plant ‘hermodactyl’ (evidently colchicum).He
received roots from Syria with a French translation from Arabic texts.Husson’s
water continued to provide relief to Banks but he suffered debilitating
attacks of gout that lasted for ten months of the year over his last five
years.All of this is recorded –
complete with charts – in Harold B. Carter’s ‘Sir Joseph Banks’,
which was commissioned by the British Museum and published in 1988.
I
have no idea if colchicum is still used in pharmacology.It
would be interesting if some of our medical members could add a comment.There
Ernie
Lythgoe wrote articles for the Newsletter in November and December, 1991
on Banks.Following those I also
wrote an article on his trip with Cook but am unable to find a copy.
Postscript to Norman Todd’s Banks article
In response to Norman’s invitation for comment on gout and colchicum, I cannot resist relating my own experience.Some fifteen years ago, I was obliged to put off attending an important business meeting in New York, having suddenly been rendered immobile by an excruciating pain in my right foot.The young intern at the local hospital emergency room easily diagnosed gout, which cheered me a little, thinking of the historic linkage of the disease to the aristocracy.A simple capsule brought almost immediate comfort and I was successful in getting to the post-meeting reception and dinner.In the course of the evening, I mentioned my experience to our chairman, who rejoiced in the noble title of Baron of the Netherlands.“Ah James”, he said,“you’ve properly qualified for the higher echelon of our enterprise: it’s the company disease and our European board is all saddled with it”.Since then, the occasional gout bout has visited from time to time like an old friend, to be quickly dispatched by that same medication.Until this spring when suddenly, it worked no longer.Over a long weekend the disability grew and bloomed with new varieties of hurt and distortion of the flesh.Finally, upon reaching my stalwart GP, I was introduced to a tiny yellow pill – colchisine!Immediate relief ensued, and I have returned to the occasional curious pleasure ofthe ‘noble masochistic illusion’.
And now, to learn of my connection to Sir Joseph Banks, and to colchicum autumnale, possibly genealogical in both cases if one believes in phytomorphism, my elation becomes boundless.
(The Editor).