VICTORIAN plant Hunters

Forget Indiana Jones—the real action heroes of history were a group of Scottish botanists

-  TL Mogford

When quizzed by The New York Times about how long she planned to stay in the music business, Taylor Swift replied, "When I'm in my fifties, I kind of think I'll want to be in a garden." Most people think about gardens in a similar way to Taylor Swift. Somewhere to escape the slings and arrows of everyday life. Havens of tranquility where danger and threat have no place.

But these fragrant sanctuaries conceal exhilarating secrets. Take a seat in an average garden, and you are likely to find yourself surrounded by monuments to deadly peril and nerve-shredding courage. Because the chances are that the commonplace plants around you-camellias, jasmines, lupins—will be descended from blooms once considered so exotic that brave adventurers would risk, and sometimes forfeit, their lives to find them.

Plant hunters have been around since time immemorial—there are Ancient Egyptian annals detailing a botanical expedition dispatched by Queen Hatshepsut to Somalia to bring back myrrh trees. But the profession really hit its stride in Victorian Britain, when new technology in glass manufacture and coal-fired boilers led to the creation of elaborate, heated greenhouses. Ally this development with the country's burgeoning wealth, and thirst for exploration, and a lucrative market for exotic plants was born.

In order to meet unprecedented demand, nursery owners and private collectors invested huge sums of money sending people to remote parts of the world in search of rare plants. And not just anyone would do-the job required unlimited courage, resourcefulness and a high level of botanical knowledge. An unusual combination of brain and brawn.