Frank Meyer, Isabel Shipley Cunningham Agricultural Explorer For 60 years the work of Frank N. Meyer has 2,500 pages of his letters tell of his journeys remained a neglected segment of America’s and the plants he collected, and the USDA heritage. Now, as people are becoming con- Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported con- cerned about feeding the world’s growing tains descriptions of his introductions. population and about the loss of genetic di- Until recently little was known about the versity of crops, Meyer’s accomplishments first 25 years of Meyer’s life, when he lived have a special relevance. Entering China in in Amsterdam and was called Frans Meijer. 1905, near the dawn of the single era when Dutch sources reveal that he was bom into a explorers could travel freely there, he be- loving family in 1875. Frans was a quiet boy, came the first plant hunter to represent a who enjoyed taking long walks, reading government and to search primarily for eco- about distant lands, and working in his fami- nomically useful plants rather than orna- ly’s small garden. By the time he had mentals. No one before him had spent 10 fimshed elementary school, he knew that ’ years crossing the mountains, deserts, farms, wanted to be a world traveler who studied he ’,if and forests of Asia in search of fruits, nuts, plants; however, his parents could not afford vegetables, grains, and fodder crops; no one to give him further education. When he was has done so since. 14 years old, he found work as a gardener’s During four plant-hunting expeditions to helper at the Amsterdam Botanical Garden. China and Central Asia, Meyer enriched During the next eight years, Frans pro- America’s agricultural and horticultural re- gressed to gardener and then head gardener in sources, made important botanical discov- charge of the experimental garden. Hugo de eries, and improved the economy of his Vries, director of the experimental garden, adopted country. As he fulfilled his promise observed that Frans was intelligent, indus- to "skim the earth in search of things good trious, and dependable and trained him to be for man," no hardship or danger deterred his assistant. He taught the boy French and him. He sent the United States Department English and allowed him to attend lectures of Agriculture hundreds of shipments of live on botany and plant propagation. In his lei- cuttings and thousands of packages of seeds, sure Frans studied languages, mathematics, which resulted in more than 2,500 plant in- and science and collected herbarium speci- troductions. Though he published little, the mens of the plants of the Netherlands. When he was 20, de Vries arranged for him to study Isabel Cunningham’s biography of Frank Meyer, for six months at the University of Gronin- entitled Frank Meyer: Plant Hunter .m Asia, was pubhshed in June of this year by Iowa State Um- gen. versity Press. Though he continued to work at the Amsterdam Botanical Garden for two years ment and Meyer eagerly accepted. To train thereafter, Frans felt faraway places beckon- him for his work, Fairchild sent him on a ’ ing until his desire to see the world became 10-day trip to the New York Botanical Gar- too strong to resist. For several months he den and the Arnold Arboretum. After exam- wandered across Europe, using maps and a ining Augustine Henry’s herbarium speci- compass as guides. Once he almost lost his mens in New York, Meyer studied the tre- life in a blizzard when he crossed the Alps in mendous collections at the Arnold Ar- an area where there were no roads. In 1900 boretum and received the advice of the di- he set out for England to earn money for his rector, Charles Sprague Sargent. Two days passage to America. A year later, in October later he began his journey to China. 1901, he arrived in the United States. When Meyer reached Washington, he pre- The First Expedition sented a letter of introduction from Hugo de Vries to Dr. Erwin F. Smith, a bacteriologist Soon after Meyer reached Peking (Beijing) in at the department of agriculture, and found September 1905, he hired a guide, cart, work in the USDA greenhouses on the Mall. driver, and donkeys and set out into the For a year he was content in new surround- mountains on a 10-day trip. A sweet, seed- ings. Then his desire to see what lay beyond less persimmon four inches in diameter was the horizon led him to work as a gardener in his first major discovery. "As soon as the southern California. There he continued to leaves are off," he promised Fairchild, "I’ll " long for "farther off and unseen places." go back to those trees and will try to send After 18 months he left California to study you a thousand scions." Sargent later pre- the flora of Mexico. He walked 1,000 miles, dicted that this persimmon would add discovering new fruits and flowers every $100,000 to the American economy. In late day, and felt that he was learning more about autumn Meyer divided his collection of plants than books could have taught him in grape, apricot, and catalpa cuttings, pear, 10 years. persimmon, and elm scions, and Ginkgo After returning to the United States in biloba andPinus bungeana (white-barked July 1904, Meyer found employment at the pine) seeds. Then he mailed bundles to the Missouri Botanical Garden, where he ini- USDA and the Arnold Arboretum. He never tiated the preparation of a list of seeds for trusted anyone else to pack his cuttings and exchange with botanical gardens in other scions, for only he could judge just how countries. He planned to leave St. Louis as much water he must wring out of the dam- soon as he had saved enough money to pened sphagnum moss before wrapping each explore the Andes; however, his destiny was package first in oiled paper and then in bur- to lead him in another direction. David Fair- lap, which he stitched at the seams. If the child, head of the Foreign Plant Introduction moss were too wet or too dry, the material Section of the USDA, for several years had would not survive the long journey to Amer- been searching for an explorer to send to ica. China. When he heard of Meyer’s willing- Meyer eagerly complied with the USDA ness to walk great distances and his passion policy of collecting ornamentals "when en- for plants, Fairchild offered him this assign- countered." In January, when ice a foot thick 5 formed on the canals, he returned to the Peking pear (Pyrus pyrifolia var. culta /,a Western Hills, where he had observed rem- promising maple (Acer truncatum), and a nants of original vegetation around an- semidouble rose (Rosa xanthma "to be cient temples. There he collected cuttings of shared with Professor Sargent." Sargent later the Chinese pistachio (Pistacia chinensis), aa wrote that this rose had been known to horse chestnut (Aesculus chinensis/, a botanists only through Chinese paintings catalpa (Catalpa bungei/, and a cultivar of until Frank Meyer sent it to America. the Peking willow (Salix matsudana ’Um- The letters Meyer wrote during his first braculifera’). None of these trees was new to six months in China reflect a kaleidoscope botanists, but all were virtually unknown in of impressions and emotions: the miserable America. In the mountains he also found a nights spent on brick beds in filthy inns, columnar juniper (juniperus chinensis ‘Col- where he battled bedbugs, centipedes, lice, umnaris’), wild peach trees (Prunus and scorpions; his joy when he "felt at peace davidiana) for use as a rootstock, the famous with the whole creation" as he collected seeds of crimson oaks and flaming maples in Frank Meyer collected the globular-headed wil- the Ming Tombs Valley; the shock of awa- low (Sahx matsudana ’Umbracuhfera’), below, in kening one night in Mongolia to find an as- the Western Hills, Pekmg (Beijmg~ China. sassin’s knife a few inches from his throat; 6 ,I his pleasure while watching his Chinese weeks of the journey, they walked 20 to 35 guide making his own herbarium collection; miles every day. At last they reached Siberia. the frustration of lacking time to learn Man- From Vladivostok Meyer shipped his col- darin and the many dialects of the Chinese lection of 220 kinds of seeds and cuttings, as language; and his pride in finding useful well as herbarium specimens, and then con- plants to send to his adopted country. He tinued his journey north. At Nikolsk (Us- admired the Chinese people: "China is going suriysk, formerly Voroshilov) he arranged an to come to the front, for the people are a exchange of seeds of hardy plants with a solid kind of men and they possess many government forester; in the countryside sterling virtues. In agriculture, they are ex- nearby he collected seeds of the Amur maple perts."" (Acer ginnala), which bore an abundance of When authorities approved his plan to fol- rosy-red fruits. low the Yalu and Tumer rivers to Siberia in He paused at Khabarowsk to mail his col- search of hardy plants, he left Peking m late lection of pears, plums, nuts, wheat, barley, April for Newchwang (Yingkou) in Man- forage crops, and the Amur lilac (Syringa churia. There he mailed the USDA a collec- amurensis). He also arranged seed exchanges tion containing the first oil-bearing soybean with the government agronomist and the sent to the United States. He then set out head forester of the Imperial Domains there.