What is John Gould Veitch?
[[Image:John Gould Veitch (1839-1870).jpg|right]] '''John Gould Veitch''' (April 1839 – 13 August 1870) was an expert on plants and growing plants, he was also a traveller and one of the first [[Victorian era|Victorian]] British plant experts to visit Japan to look for and collect new plants. He was a great-grandson of [[John Veitch (horticulturist)|John Veitch]], the founder of the Veitch family plant growing business. He also visited the Philippines, Australia, [[Fiji]], and other Polynesian islands looking for new plants to bring back to Great Britain. He brought back a number of the glasshouse plants that were in fashion at the time, such as ''Acalyphas'', ''Cordylines'', ''Codiaeums'' (Crotons) and ''[[Dracaena (plant)|Dracaena]]s'', and from Fiji, a palm of a new [[genus]] later named after him, ''Veitchia joannis'', in addition to this genus the Veitch family name is honoured by hundreds of other plant names.<ref>{{cite book|last=Veitch|first=James H. |authorlink= James Herbert Veitch|title=Hortus Veitchii: a history of the rise and progress of the nurseries of Messrs. James Veitch and sons, together with an account of the botanical collectors and hybridists employed by them …|chapter=Stove and Greenhouse Plants|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19619094#page/361/mode/1up|year=1906|publisher=J. Veitch & sons. |page=295}}</ref> In Japan, he met another famous plant collector called Robert Fortune, and their competing collections returned to England on the same ship. For example, each man claimed that they had discovered a species of ''Chamaecyparis pisifera'' (a kind of cypress). He married Jane Hodge soon after his return to England in 1866 and they had two sons, James Herbert Veitch, (1868 – 1907) and John Gould Veitch, Jr. (1869 – 1914) John Gould Veitch died of [[tuberculosis]] at the age of 31. ==References== {{Reflist}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Veitch, John Gould}} [[Category:1839 births]] [[Category:1870 deaths]] [[Category:British botanists]] [[Category:Deaths from tuberculosis]]