Dr. George Govan and the Saharanpur botanical gardens

References

• Nevili , H. R. 1909 . District Gazetteers for the United Provinces, Vol. II, Saharanpur 51 – 2 .
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• Atkinson , E. T. 1875 . Gazetteer North‐Western Provinces of India, Vol. II, Meerut Division Part I 1715 – 5 . for an earlier account of the Saharanpur gardens.
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• Britten , James and Boulger , George S. 1931 . British and Irish Botanists Edited by: Rendle , A. B. 127 By Wallich in Calcutta. See
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• Crawford , D. G. 1930 . Roll of the Indian Medical Service, 1615–1930 Calcutta 3 Assistant Surgeons’ Certificates, 1809, No. 10, MS Service Army List, Bengal, Medical, Vol. II: I.O.L. (India Office Library, London)
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• University of Edinburgh . 1867 . List of Graduates in Medicine, 1705–1826 41 Edinburgh The subject of his dissertation, which in accordance with custom he delivered in Latin, was the respiratory system (De Respiratione): see
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• 5 An Assistant Surgeon's initial financial outlay in those days was considerable. He was obliged to pay for his outward passage (£110) in one of the Company's ships, although he was able to recover half of this sum if he acted as ship's surgeon on the voyage. On arrival in India, he had to buy a regulation tent, horse, saddle and bridle, furniture and cooking utensils at a cost of not less than £150, which he was encouraged by the Calcutta money lenders to borrow at 18 per cent, interest:
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• 1837 . Asiatic Journal of Bengal , January
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• McDonald , Donald . 1950 . Surgeons Twoe and a Barbe , : 109
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• 1825 . “It were vain to attempt describing the enthusiasm and delight experienced by admirers of nature on first entering these districts with the invading army in the end of 1814 “: . Edinburgh Journal of Science , II : 19 Some years later he wrote:
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• Govan to R. Grindall and T. P. Calvert, November 1, 1816: N.A.I. (National Archives of India, New Delhi).
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• Govan to Dr. James Hare, April 18, 1816: N.A.I.
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• 9 Dated April 17, 1816: N.A.I. It consists of 21 folio pages.
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• 10 This was eventually established in Nahan (Sirmur), but was later closed down by Govan's successor, Dr. Royle, in preference for a more suitably situated branch garden at Mussoorie.
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• Staunton , Sir George . 1797 . Authentic Account of the Earl of Macartney's Embassy to the Emperor of China London ), passim. Staunton accompanied Macartney to China in 1792 and acted as secretary of the mission. Macartney was able to collect several specimens of tea plants and send them to Bengal.
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• 12 The tea plant grew wild in Assam, as well as in China, but this was not generally known until 1826, when David Scott, the first Commissioner of Revenue in Assam, sent specimens of the leaves for examination to the Calcutta Botanical Gardens, where Dr. Wallich, pronounced them as belonging to the genus Camellia This attribution, although scientifically defensible, unfortunately diverted attention from the significance of the discovery for some years. Consequently it was not until 1836 that the first pound of Indian tea made from indigenous leaves reached London. Meanwhile, the plant under the directions of the Governor‐General, Lord William Bentinck, was being increasingly cultivated from Chinese seeds in Saharanpur and the Himalayas. See
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• Encyclopaedia Britannica, , nth ed. Vol. XXVI , 476 – 7 .
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• 13 Home Department, Public Consultations, No. 25 of March 8, 1817: N.A.I.
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• 14 Government Secretary to Board of Commissioners, June 13, 1817: N.A.I.
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• 15 Wallich to Government, January 17, 1818: N.A.I. Most of the plants which Govan communicated to Wallich are now in the Wallich Herbarium at Kevv, including Hypericum govanianum noted above (No. 4815). Royle, who succeeded Govan in 1823, paid tribute to the first Superintendent's industry in this respect in his
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• 1839 . Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains Vol. I , 2 London
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• Gerard , Alexander . 1841 . Account of Koonawar Edited by: Lloyd , George . 191 – 267 . London This area was then virtually unknown, and Gerard was the first to survey it almost up to the Tibetan border. See
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• 1953 . Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society , 54 December 17 Information communicated to Mr. I. H. Burkill. See his articles on the history of botany in India in the
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• 18 Govan to Lushington, January 20, 1821. Home Department, Public Consulta tions, No. 60 of January 26, 1821: N.A.I.
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• 19 Vol. II, No. I, January, 1825, pp. 17–38. The paper was read in Edinburgh on June 6, 1824.
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• G.E.C. Complete Peerage Vol. VII , 493 20 Lauderdale, who was described by a contemporary as “a nobleman of the sweetest disposition and finest accomplishments,” died in 1744:
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• He fought against the Jacobites, was Master of the Mint in Scotland and Lord Lieutenant of Edinburgh. His son, the Hon. Frederick Lewis Maitland, R.N., was a godson of Frederick Prince of Wales and father of Charles Maitland‐Makgill above. The latter married Mary, daughter of David Johnston, Laird of Lathrisk, by his wife Margaret Dick, heiress both of James Crichton Viscount Frendraught and of the family of Makgill of Rankeilour, whose surname Mary Maitland's father assumed in addition to Maitland. Mary's brother, David Maitland‐Makgill‐Crichton (1801–51), took a prominent part in the. formation of the Scottish Free Church.
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• 21 His Narrative of the Surrender of Buonaparte and of his Residence on board H.M.S. Bellerephon was published in 1826.
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• 22 Home Department, Public Consultations, No. 3 of February 13, 1823: N.A.I. John Forbes Royle (1799–1858) was later Professor of Materia Medica at King's College, London. His handsomely produced Illustrations of the Botany and Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains appeared in 1839.
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• 1842 . Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta , XI ( 126 ) Published as a special supplement to the
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• Ritchie , A. T. and Evans , R. 1894 . Lord Amherst 199 Oxford
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• Hooker , J. D. 1875 . Flora of British India Vol. I , 394
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• Buck , E. J. 1925 . Simla Past and Present, , 2nd ed. Bombay 26 It is possible to identify Govan's house in Simla from papers relating to a dispute over adjacent land, in which Govan was involved, as lying between the main Simla‐Kotgarh road and the house known as Stirling Castle: East Punjab State Archives (Patiala), Ambala Division No. VII/4/(i), Bundle 3, at p. 55. In the map described as “the oldest map known of Simla “dated 1832 and reproduced as frontispiece to
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• the house is marked, probably in error, as belonging to “Dr. Gordon.”
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• 27 George Moncrieff Govan (1829–98) also joined the Bengal Medical Service, seeing service in the Mutiny and also in the Burma and North‐East Frontier campaigns, eventually retiring with the rank of Brigade‐Surgeon. His daughter Frances married Lt.‐Colonel Lewis Gordon Fischer (1862–1947), I.M.S. Their daughter Mary is married to the writer of the present article.
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• Jacquemont , Victor . 1933 . Etat Politique et Social de I'lnde dtt Nord Edited by: Mar‐tineau , A. 240 Paris
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• 29 Govan to E.I. Co.’s Agents, Saharanpur, November 1, 1816: N.A.I.
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• 30 In 1906–7, over 17,000 fruit trees and 55,000 other plants, as well as 9,500 Ib. of seeds, were sold, yielding an approximate profit of Rs. 17,000: Nevill, op. cit., 54–6.
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• 1852 . Tea Districts of China and India 390 London 31 Superintendent's Report for 1876–7, cited Nevill, 55. The statement by Robert Fortune in his
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• that Dr. John Royle “was the first to recommend the cultivation of tea in the Himalayas,” is. of course, incorrect.
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