Thomas Lobb
Encyclopedia
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
William Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, collected plants for the plant nursery Veitch
Veitch Nurseries
The Veitch Nurseries were the largest group of family-run plant nurseries in Europe during the 19th century. Started by John Veitch sometime before 1808, the original nursery grew substantially over several decades and was eventually split into two separate businesses - based at Chelsea and...
.
Lobb worked in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In 1845 he discovered the first orchid species of the genus Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis
Phalaenopsis Blume , abbreviated Phal in the horticultural trade, is an orchid genus of approximately 60 species. Phalaenopsis is one of the most popular orchids in the trade, through the development of many artificial hybrids....
growing in the eastern Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, at an altitude of ~1500 m. This plant, Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii
Phalaenopsis lobbii is a species of orchid found from the eastern Himalaya to Indochina.It is named in honour of Cornish plant hunter Thomas Lobb....
, is named in his honour.
Early life
He was born and raised in PerranarworthalPerranarworthal
Perranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
and Egloshayle
Egloshayle
Egloshayle is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated beside the River Camel immediately southeast of Wadebridge. The civil parish extends southeast from the village and includes Washaway and Sladesbridge.-History:Egloshayle was a Bronze Age...
, near Wadebridge
Wadebridge
Wadebridge is a civil parish and town in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel five miles upstream from Padstow....
where his father John worked as an estate carpenter at Pencarrow
Pencarrow
Pencarrow is a country house in north Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east-southeast of Wadebridge and three miles north-northwest of Bodmin...
and gamekeeper at Carclew estate, for Sir Charles Lemon
Charles Lemon
Sir Charles Lemon, 2nd Baronet Lemon of Carclew was a British Member of Parliament for several constituencies and a baronet.-Service in Parliament:...
. Both brothers, despite varying accounts (neither wrote an autobiography), worked in the stovehouse. Both brothers were encouraged in study of horticulture and botany. Thomas moved to join the Veitch family at Killerton
Killerton
Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public...
in 1830, aged 13. The Veitch Nurseries moved to Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
in 1832 and Thomas suggested his brother William as the nursery's first plant hunter in 1840.
Plant collecting
Thomas' first collecting trip, inspired by the success of his brother William LobbWilliam Lobb
William Lobb was a Cornish plant collector, employed by Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, who was responsible for the commercial introduction to England of Araucaria araucana from Chile and the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum from North America.He and his brother, Thomas Lobb, were the first...
, was from 1843 to 1847, collecting in Java as well as visiting rainforests in Singapore, Penang and Malaysia.
After a rest period working back at the Veitch Nurseries and after seeing William again for the first time since 1840, a second collecting trip took place from 25 December 1848 to 1853. This visited India, Sarawak, Philippines and Burma, India and Nepal. During this visit he briefly met up with Sir Joseph Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
who was on a collecting expedition in the Khasi Hills
Khasi Hills
The Khasi Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and is part of the Patkai range and of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion...
.
His brother William returned to America in 1854, finished working for Veitch in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1864.
Thomas Lobb returned to Java in 1854 to 1857, his third collecting trip.
A leg injury occurred on his fourth and final collecting trip (1858 to 1860) visiting North Borneo, Burma, Sumatra and the Philippines. He retired to Cornwall in 1860 to live near family, having injured a leg, which was eventually amputated either in the Philippines or Cornwall.
Thomas Lobb appears to have parted company with the Veitch nursery in 1860, possibly over compensation for his leg injury and amputation suffered collecting plants in the Philippines in 1860 (according to the Veitch Nursery history, Hortus Veitchii).
A later argument over a possible return to collecting in 1869 contributed to the death by heart attack of James Junior Veitch.
After this, Thomas Lobb remained in quiet secluded retirement in Stanley Villa, Devoran
Devoran
Devoran is a village in south Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated four miles southwest of Truro at . Formerly an ecclesiastical parish, Devoran is now in the civil parish of Feock....
, Cornwall, busy with gardening and painting, whilst living off his money from his herbarium collections and letting several cottages he had built.
He died in 1894 and is buried in Devoran churchyard, Cornwall where a small memorial garden and headstone can be found to himself and his brother William.
Other plant introductions
Plant introductions credited to Thomas Lobb (illustrated in The Plant Hunters by Toby and Will Musgrave and Chris Gardner) show the route of his travels. They were introduced to Britain via cultivation at the Veitch nursery include:Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis amabilis, commonly known as the Moon Orchid, is a species of orchid.- Taxonomy and nomenclature :It was first discovered on a small island off the east coast of New Guinea by native botanist Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in 1653; however, he named it Angraecum ablum majus...
(1846), an epiphytic moth orchid from rainforests across Java, Philippines, New Guinea and Northern Australia;
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea
Nepenthes sanguinea is a large and vigorous Nepenthes pitcher plant species, native to the Malay Peninsula, where it grows at 900–1800 m altitude. The pitchers are variable in size, from 10–30 cm tall, and range from green and yellow to orange and red. The insides of the pitchers are usually...
(c.1847), a blood red marked climbing pitcher plant from cloud forest in Malaysia;
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata
Nepenthes albomarginata , the White-Collared Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant native to Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, and Sumatra...
, a Nepenthes
Nepenthes
The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...
pitcher plant from Borneo;
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea
Aerides rosea is a species of orchid....
(1850), a fox-brush orchid from India, Vietnam and China;
Aerides multiflora, an orchid from India;
Vanda caerulea (c.1850) a blue epiphytic orchid from Burma, Thailand and India;
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor
Vanda tricolor is a species of orchid occurring in Laos and from Java to Bali....
(c.1846) a pink-lipped, pale yellow brown patterned epiphytic orchid from Java;
Rhododendron veitchianum (c. 1850), from Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. This is one of many Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
species he collected and introduced to Britain including Rhododendron malayanum (c.1850) with small pink flowers, Rhododendron brookeanum (c.1850) with yellow-gold flowers and Rhododendron javanicum (c.1850) with small pink flowers.
External links
- A History of British Gardening (BBC) – William and Thomas Lobb
- Lobb's Cottage (BBC)
- The Lobb Brothers and their Famous Plants (Caradoc Doy)
Image:Thomas_Lobb_botanist_headstone_Devoran_Church_Cornwall.jpg|Thomas Lobb's headstone, Devoran church, Cornwall
Image:Thomas and William Lobb botanist memorial garden pictures Devoran church Cornwall 2009.jpg|Thomas and William Lobb's memorial garden planting near his headstone, Devoran church, Cornwall