The stories of how familiar plants arrived in our plots help add swash and buckle to gardens. The German plant hunter Philipp Seibold, who gave western gardens the flowering cherry Prunus x sieboldii, was arrested and accused of high treason in Japan; the Scot David Douglas, famed for the Douglas fir, died in 1834 when he fell down a bull pit trap in Hawaii; and his compatriot George Forrest, who collected thousands of plants from China including the early flowering Camellia saluenensis, escaped with two arrows through his hat after the rest of his party was killed in Yunnan in 1905.
我們身邊的常見植物如何經過「運籌帷幄」最終落戶英國的故事，算是給我們的花園增添了不少曲折的內容。德國植物標本採集者菲律普•賽博德(Philipp Seibold)曾在日本因叛國罪被拘捕，他把櫻花品種Prunus x sieboldii成功引到了西方花園。因成功引入花旗松樹種而聞名於世的蘇格蘭植物學家大衛•道葛拉斯(David Douglas)，1834年因跌落於夏威夷的牛坑陷阱而命喪黃泉。1905年，其同胞喬治•福雷斯特(George Forrest)在雲南時，帽子中了兩箭，他僥倖逃脫，而隨行的同夥均遭不測；福雷斯特從中國採集了成千上萬的植物標本，其中就包括了早開花的怒江山茶。