E. H. Wilson, Yichang,and the Kiwifruit

A. R. Ferguson

The fruits are rounded to oval 1’/z-2 inches long,russet-colored and more or less hairy. The skin of thefruit is very thm and the flesh is green, sweet and pleas-ant to the palate and is excellent for dessert or for mak-ing a preserve.

E. H. Wilson1915

So wrote E. H. Wilson of the fruit ofAc-tinidia chinensis Planchon var. hispida C. F.Liang, the fruit known to the Chinese as theyang tao or mihoutao and now known tomost of us as the Chinese gooseberry orkiwifruit. At the turn of the century, thekiwifruit was a wild plant in China, a veryhandsome climbing plant, ideal for pergolas,but only one of the many interesting newChinese plants being brought into cultiva-tion in Europe. By the 1950s it had become auseful fruiting plant grown in a few com-mercial orchards in New Zealand. The total

plantings then occupied fewer than a hun-dred acres, and only small quantities of fruitwere exported to the United Kingdom.In the early 1960s the first shipment ofkiwifruit was sent to the United States. Or-chardists in California began planting itsoon after, when they discovered that thefruit produced in New Zealand was beingsold in Los Angeles for remarkably highprices. By 1968 they had planted 15 acres.Today the kiwifruit has become a hor-

ticultural success story. At the beginning of1983, kiwifruit orchards covered over 20,000

acres in New Zealand, and that area is in-creasing by 3000 to 4000 acres annually. It isestimated that there are now over 6000 acresof the fruit in California. Plantings are beingmade in many other parts of the world also:

France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Japan, SouthKorea, Chile, Australia, Zimbabwe, andSouth Africa.

In comparison to that of most other fruitcrops, the history of the introduction of thekiwifruit is remarkably well-documented.By reading the accounts of the plant explor-ers, old gardening and horticultural journals,missionary records, and reports and files ofgovernment research stations, and by talk-ing to older growers and nurserymen, we cantrace almost every step in the domesticationof the kiwifruit. We can follow it from its

origin in China to its dispersal throughoutthe world and its development as an impor-tant horticultural crop.

The Kiwifruit in China

Accounts of the kiwifruit appear in manyof the early Chinese texts. Indeed, it is some-times suggested that the earliest referencesto it can be found in classics of over 2000

years ago. Identification of plants mentionedin such texts is notoriously difficult, how-ever. Many of the descriptions are vague, theallusions poetic, and a single plant is some-

25

times referred to by the different names ithad in different parts of China (worse, thesame name is sometimes used for different

plants). The first unequivocal descriptions ofthe kiwifruit date from the Tang dynasty(A.D. 618-907), and one poem indicates thatcultivation of it may have begun about thistime (Yan 1981). Cultivation cannot havebeen extensive, however, since most writersconsistently describe the kiwifruit as being awild plant, a plant of the mountains. Attimes the peasants would bring it to town tosell in the markets.

A kiwifruit orchard near Auckland, New Zea-land. Tree ferns ~Cyathea sp.) can be seen m theshelter belt at left.

European Discovery of the Kiwifruit

The first known collector of kiwifruit

plants was Pere Pierre Noel Le Cheron d’In-carville, a French Jesuit who spent 17 yearsat the Imperial Court in Beijing (Peking). Hecollected specimens (but no fruit) at Macao,soon after his arrival in China in late 1740.Incarville sent his specimens back to Francebut they remained there, ignored and unde-scribed, for over a century (Franchet 1882).The plant was formally described, andnamedActinidia chinensis, in 1847 (Plan-chon 1847), based on specimens collectedseveral years earlier by Robert Fortune, whohad been sent to China by the HorticulturalSociety of London (Cox 1943). Fortunebrought back dried specimens of kiwifruit

26

27

foliage and flowers but made no mention ofthe fruit. He probably had not seen fruit, ashe had had only a few chances of travelingany distance from the main ports.Towards the end of the 19th century,

botanists and horticulturists in Europe andNorth America were becoming more awareof the variety and beauty of the Chinese floraand the fitness of many of the plants fortemperate climates. This increased aware-ness was due in large part to the efforts ofAugustine Henry, who spent 20 years in theservice of the Chinese Maritime Customs.On his first tour of duty, from 1882 to 1889,Henry was stationed at Yichang (Ichang), asmall port on the Yangtze River about athousand miles inland and just downstreamfrom the famed Yangtze Gorges.Yichang had only a small European popu-

lation, and life in such an outpost could bevery lonely and dreary. Henry took up aninterest in botany. "My collecting is myexercise, and it keeps me in health, bodilyand mental; in these out-of-the-way posts,where stagnation is the rule" (Henry 1896).He was particularly interested in the eco-nomic uses of plants in China and in the ori-gins of cultivated plants. His writings referto the kiwifruit several times: "a climbingshrub which bears edible fruit about the sizeof a plum" (Henry 1887); "a very large climb-ing shrub with white conspicuous flowersand fruit about the size of a plum, which canbe made into a good jam with a guava-jellykind of flavour. This fruit might be muchimproved by cultivation" (Henry 1893); (;"produces in the wild state excellent fruit

Mature kiwifruit are harvested m New Zealand

dunng May (early autumn). (Photo courtesy of theNew Zealand Kiwifruit Authority.) (

about the size of a big plum .... the fruitwould be a great acquisition, I think" (Henry1903). Henry encouraged and aided expedi-tions to collect seed and explore the flora ofwestern China.

Wilson and the Introduction of theKiwifruit to Europe

Of the various collecting expeditions,E. H. Wilson’s had the greatest success. Onhis first two trips to China, Wilson was inthe employ of James Veitch & Sons, thefamous London nursery firm. Veitch’s hadsent a series of travelers abroad to collect

plants suitable for the nursery trade. From1840 to 1905 they almost always had at leastone collector overseas in the botanically un-explored parts of the world, and a remark-able range of plants had thus been intro-duced to Great Britain (Veitch 1906; Fullerand Langdon 1973). James Herbert Veitch,one of the younger members of the family,had collected in Japan in the early 1890s, andhe was aware of the richness of the Chineseflora. He had been keen to go to China buthad been refused permission by his uncleHenry James Veitch (Howard 1980). Sir Wil-liam Thiselton-Dyer, then director of Kew,had been getting enthusiastic letters fromHenry; he was undoubtedly an ally in em-phasizing the advantages of an expedition toChina (Nelson 1983). Another ally was C. S.Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum (Wilson1913). In 1899 Thiselton-Dyer was asked byVeitch’s to recommend a young man capableof undertaking a prolonged collecting jour-ney in China. Thiselton-Dyer proposed E. H.Wilson (see Howard 1980).The object of Wilson’s first trip for

Veitch’s was to obtain seeds, bulbs, and liv-

28

ing plants of species almost certain to behardy in Great Britain, species at that timeknown only by dried herbarium specimens.Plant collecting was often extraordinarilycompetitive, and claims to priority wereconsidered very important. In a newspaperinterview at the time ("The Flora and Faunaof Ichang," 1902), Wilson therefore said onlythat his "object has not been to collect anyparticular species of plants, but anythinglikely to be of interest or value to the botani-cal world." Later he admitted that he in facthad instructions to collect a very particularspecies of plant, Davidia involucrata.

Wilson’s first task was to visit Henry, whowas then at Simao (Szemao), Yunnan, to ob-tain details about Davidia and informationon the flora of western China in general(Wilson 1938). The journey to Simao to seeHenry certainly was not an easy one: "Icrossed no less than eleven distinct ranges,the highest altitude being 8200 ft., and manyexceeded 7000 ft. and were fearfully steep. Inone place we ascended 1000 ft. in three-quarters of an hour. The easiest way to climbsuch a mountain is to hang on to the mule’stail and let him drag you up" (Wilson 1900).Simao was "the most God-forsaken placeimaginable" but the trip was worth it: "Ifound Dr. Henry a splendid fellow, full ofknowledge of all kinds. A more genial man Ihave never met. He assisted me in every wayhe could, and whatever success attends ourventure will be largely due to him" (Wilson1900). Henry "freely imparted important in-formation regarding the plants Wilson wasin search of, and the ways and means ofreaching them" (Veitch 1906). Wilson prof-ited by this advice and used much of Hen-ry’s field experience in making his earlyplant introductions. As B. D. Morley (1979)

E. H. Wilson with two Japanese friends,T. Miyoshi and H. Ushio. The photo was taken inKagoshima, when Wilson visited Japan in 1917.

has pointed out, many of the plants first in-troduced by Wilson were those discoveredby Henry during his period at Yichang. Al-though Henry did not discover the kiwifruit,it was he who sent the first fruits to Europeand recommended that the plant be culti-vated.

After leaving Henry, Wilson traveled toShanghai and then up the Yangtze River toYichang, where he established himself forthe next two years (Wilson 1905). Yichangwas by now a busy port. (The YangtzeGorges made Yichang the upper limit forsteamers on the river.) The Chinese popula-tion was about 35,000, and the Europeanpopulation had increased from the dozen of

29

Henry’s early days in China to about 45.There was the staff of the Maritime Cus-

toms, the English consulate, the Germanconsulate, and about 20 missionaries. TheChina Inland Mission, the Scottish Mission,the American Presbyterian Mission, theAmerican Episcopalian Mission, the Scan-dinavian Mission, the Canadian Mission,and the Roman Catholic Mission were allresident or frequent passers through.Yichang was the starting point for travelsinto western China. Wilson made it his basefor collecting trips into the mountains andfor overwintering.

In 1900 Wilson obtained seed of 671 dif-ferent species of plants, herbarium speci-mens of 1764 species, and a great quantity ofbulbs and roots of herbaceous plants. Hiscollections during the following year werealso impressive: seed of 305 species, her-barium specimens of 906 species, and 35cases of bulbs, living roots, and rhizomes ofherbaceous plants, all shipped to Britain(Veitch 19061. As the parcels of seed arrivedfrom Chma, they were sorted and sent to thevarious Veitch nurseries. Here nothing wasstinted in the attempt to get satisfactorygermination (Harrow 1931). Often, of course,the seed of a species would fail to germinate,but many efforts were successful. In 1904the kiwifruit appeared in the Veitchcatalogue. "It has recently been raised fromseed gathered in the province of Hupeh,Central China, sent by Wilson, and hasproved hardy and of very rapid growth, at ourCoombe Wood Nursery .... [It produces]edible fruits the size of walnuts, and theflavour of ripe gooseberries. Apart from itsflowering and fruiting qualities it is a re-markably handsome plant, and will be ofgreat value as a pillar or pergola plant in the

Kiwifruit bemg inspected and graded m New Zea-land. Photo courtesy of the New Zealand Kiwi-fruit Authority.) (

open garden" (James Veitch & Sons Ltd.

1904).Like many of the other plants brought in

from China, the kiwifruit initially arousedgreat interest. It received an Award of Meritfrom the Royal Horticultural Society in1908. The first flowering of plants in En-gland and France was noted at length in thehorticultural journals of 1909. But Wilsonwas not satisfied with the plant’s perfor-mance in England: writing to C. S. Sargenthe complained, "A. chinensis, introduced byMessrs. Veitch, has so far failed to do itselffull justice; but, in the years to come, I be-lieve it will be one of the finest ornamentalclimbers in cultivation .... A difficulty to

30

the classifier and a drawback from the cul-tivator’s point of view is the fact of the flow-ers being polygamous [dioecius]" ( Wilson1909).That the flowers are dioecius (bearing

staminate [male] and pistillate [female]flowers on different plants) was definitely adrawback, for all the plants introduced andsold by the Veitch nursery were staminate.Without pistillate plants, horticulturistscould not produce the new and rare fruitHenry and Wilson had hoped for. It was notuntil 1912, eight years after the first plantswere distributed, that the nursery was ableto advertise that among the new plants re-cently introduced from western Chinathrough E. H. Wilson was "Actinidiachinensis foemina. The female form .... inhabit of growth ... is similar to the nowwell-known male form" (James Veitch &

Sons 1912). It seems, however, that by thenhorticulturists in Europe had lost interest inthe kiwifruit. The long-awaited first produc-tion of fruit in England in 1911 appears tohave gone almost unremarked. The dissolu-tion of the Veitch firm, and then the GreatWar, came soon after. The kiwifruit inBritain has remained only an ornamentalcuriosity; certainly the plants brought in byWilson and sold by the Veitchs did not giverise to any new horticultural industry.Making matters worse, it is now apparent

that Wilson could not even claim credit for

introducing the first kiwifruit to Europe, justas he could not claim credit for the firstDavidia. In 1897 Maurice de Vilmorin hadsecured seed of Davidia from Pere Paul Guil-laume Farges, a member of the MissionsEtrangeres, stationed in northeast Sichuan.The following year, and two or three yearsbefore Wilson’s collections reached England,

one Davidia plant was successfully raised atthe arboretum at Les Barres, in France. Arooted cutting of this plant was sent to Kewin 1901 while Wilson was still in China. Atthat time plant introduction was very com-petitive, and for Wilson this was "yet onelittle cup of bitterness to drain" (Wilson1938). Again, Farges had sent seed, in thecase of Actinidia chinensis, to Vilmorin in

1898, and a plant had been raised in 1899(Vilmorin and Bois 1904/, several years be-fore Wilson’s own seed had arrived in

Europe. No matter that Wilson was respon-sible for the introduction of every seedlingplant but one of the kiwifruit: he could notclaim the first plant.

The Kiwifruit in the United States

At the beginning of this century, the mainorganization introducing new plants into theUnited States was the Office of Foreign Seedand Plant Introduction in the Bureau ofPlant Industry, U.S. Department of Agricul-ture. The earliest recorded introductions ofkiwifruit into the United States occurred in1900 (USDA Bureau of Plant Industry 1905). ).The seed of the yang tao (the name used inthe Yangtze Valley) first came from G. D.Brill, who had made an extended tripthrough China and visited Yichang. Some ofthe other seed he sent is listed as being "pre-sented by Mr. E. H. Wilson of Kew Gardens,through Mr. G. D. Brill." This seed failed togrow, however (Fairchild 1913). The nextimports from China were more successful.In the autumn of 1903, the Americanconsul-general at Hankou (Hankow), L. S.Wilcox, received a sample of kiwifruit sentdownriver by a Mr. Goodhart of Yichang.

31

"When the fruits are picked and left for a fewdays until soft they are very fine eating," "

Wilcox said. "They have the flavour of thegooseberry, fig, and citron. They make de-licious jam, pies, and sauce." Wilcox was soimpressed that he decided to get a few plantsto send to the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture.

A letter was sent to Mr. Goodhart in

Yichang who agreed to help. For a long timenothing happened. Finally, Wilcox wrote, "abox came [on March 19, 1904] weighing

Harvested kiwifruit are removed from the or-chard in large bins. (Photo courtesy of the NewZealand Kiwifruit Authority.)

three or four hundred pounds, with the in-formation that they had been secured atChungking (1000 miles up river) from plantsformerly obtained on the borders of Yunnanby Mr. Wilson, under whose advice theyhave been packed in moss and sand, war-ranted to keep for months. I felt I had a whiteelephant in my hands; the bill for them hasnot yet been presented" (L. S. Wilcox, quotedby Fairchild 1913). Four vines survived thelong journey from Hankou to Shanghai,Nagasaki, San Francisco, and, finally, thePlant Introduction garden at Chico, Califor-nia. The vines grew well and flowered for thefirst time in 1907 (Fischer 1909). Over thenext few years more than 1300 young plantspropagated from the four vines were widely

32

distributed throughout the Pacific and GulfStates (Fairchild 1913). Unfortunately, all ofthese plants also proved to be staminate andwere therefore valuable only as ornamentals.The potential value of the kiwifruit as afruiting plant could not be assessed.Why all the plants initially introduced to

the United States and England proved to bestaminate is unknown. Early botanists notedthat staminate kiwifruit plants are consid-erably more common in the wild than pistil-late plants. Herbarium material of many Ac-tinidia species is also mostly staminate: thismay result from a predominance of stami-nate plants in the wild, or simply from thegreater floriferousness and therefore more

frequent collection of staminate plants. Noexperimental evidence exists for sex ratioseither in the wild or from seed.

Finally, in 1913, the bureau purchasedplants from Veitch’s that had been grownfrom cuttings of the female plant (sent byWilson) that had produced fruit in Englandin 1911. Although some plants from seedsent earlier by Wilson later proved to be fe-male, these plants from Veitch’s were "thefirst known female plants of this promisingfruit-producing species to be introduced intothe United States" (USDA Bureau of Plant In-dustry 1915a). Two years later a photographwas published of a kiwifruit vine "bearing asingle .... fruit, the first to be produced inAmerica. The vine [of unstated origin] wastrained over the porch of a private house atChico, California, and produced a number offruits" but unfortunately "never reachedmaturity" (USDA Bureau of Plant Industry1915b).Thus Wilson was clearly responsible, di-

rectly or indirectly, for the introduction ofthe kiwifruit into the United States. Wilson

believed the kiwifruit had considerable po-tential as a fruiting plant, as did David Fair-child, the agricultural explorer in charge ofthe Office of Plant Introduction. Fruit pro-duced from vines growing in California wasshipped to Washington and "eaten by anumber of people of discriminating taste,and the universal opinion appears to be thatwe have in this Chinese fruit a distinct new

possibility for home gardens in Southern re-gions. What American horticulturists willdo with it remains to be seen" (USDABureau of Plant Industry 1918). As we nowknow, American horticulturists did very lit-tle. Just as it had m England, the kiwifruitremained no more than an ornamental

curiosity in the United States. So littleinterest was taken in it that Wilson didn’teven include it in a manuscript he was com-pleting at the time of his death in 1930,"Wilson’s Plants in Cultivation." The

manuscript has accounts of three differentActinidia species but not the kiwifruit, Ac-tinidia chinensis, even though the kiwifruitis now considered perhaps the most impor-tant of all the commercial plants Wilsonbrought into cultivation.

The Arrival of the Kiwifruit in NewZealand

The introduction of the kiwifruit to Brit-ain and the United States is surprisinglywell documented, but it has little commer-cial significance. These introductions didnot lead to the horticultural industry of to-day. Ironically, very little has been writtenon how the kiwifruit was introduced intoNew Zealand, even though all commercialkiwifruit orchards throughout the world are

33

based on scions or seeds that originated inNew Zealand.The first known kiwifruit plants in New

Zealand were grown near Wanganui, a townon the west coast of the North Island. Alex-

ander Allison was a sheep-farmer therewhose greatest interest was the growing ofall sorts of plants and trees and, most par-ticularly, new and novel fruiting plants (Al-lison 1930). One of the plants he succeededin getting to grow and produce fruit was thekiwifruit. An acquaintance of Allison,named Frank Mason, wrote: "I have a recordin my diary dated July l Oth 1910 that I hadtasted the fruit of this plant from a bushgrown in his garden" (Mason 1953). Al-though it is uncertain as to whether thesewere the first kiwifruit plants in New Zea-land, it is clear that they were very impor-tant : all the cultivars of kiwifruit, and all thekiwifruit plantings in New Zealand, can betraced to Allison’s plants in Wanganui.The most plausible story as to how Alex-

ander Allison obtained his first seeds or

plants takes us back to Wilson and Yichang.Most of the Europeans in Yichang lived out-side the Chinese city in a suburb stretchedalong the bank of the Yangtze. Here were thebuildings of the Imperial Maritime Cus-toms, the consulates, and the various mis-sions. A British gunboat often lay opposite atanchor in the stream. Life for the Europeanpopulation had its difficulties, as that re-markable traveler Mrs. Bishop (Isabella Bird)observed: "Their amusements consist

chiefly m tennis, shooting, and boating pic-nics to some of the picturesque ravines androck temples off the main river, and to theIchang Gorge. The British Consul ... andthe Commissioner of Customs ... do theirbest to alleviate what, it must be confessed,

is the great monotony of life in a small andisolated community .... amusements areapt to pall. The winter evenings are long anddull, and those of summer hot andmosquito-infested. People soon gauge themental and social possibilities of new-comers, and know exactly what theirneighbours think on every subject which canarise, ... and the arrival of a stranger and ofthe mail boat and the changes in the cus-toms staff are the chief varieties in life"

(Bishop 1899).Wilson was one such stranger; his fre-

quent comings and goings would inevitablyhave been one of the "chief varieties in life." "

He would undoubtedly have been knownpersonally to every European resident ofYichang. He has written that "in 1900 I hadthe pleasure of introducing this fruit to theforeign residents of Ichang, with whom itfound immediate favour, and is now knownthroughout the Yangtze Valley as theIchang gooseberry" (Wilson 1929).The Church of Scotland opened its mis-

sion at Yichang in 1878. In 1897 the work ofthe mission was augmented by the arrival ofthree young female missionaries from New

Zealand under the sponsorship of theChurch of Scotland Women’s Associationfor Foreign Missions (Hewat 1960). One ofthese missionaries was C. G. (Katie) Fraser, ateacher and evangelist, who was to remam atYichang until the Revolution of 1911. MissFraser had sisters in New Zealand, one ofwhom, M. I. (Isabel) Fraser, was also ateacher and principal of Wanganui Girls’College. In 1903 Isabel Fraser was granted aleave of absence for eight months and sheleft Wanganui to join her sister in China.When she returned to New Zealand in Feb-

ruary 1904, she brought with her some seeds

34

of the kiwifruit. A. M. Atkins, a niece ofAlexander Allison, recalled: "Many yearsago, when I was at Wanganui Girls’ College,the head mistress, Miss M. I. Fraser, went fora holiday to China and brought back someseeds of Chinese Gooseberry [kiwifruit].These she gave to [Mrs. Atkins’ father] Mr.Thomas Allison, who passed them on to hisbrother, Mr. Alexander Allison; he grewthem..." (Atkins 1948). (.Today, nearly 80 years later, it is not pos-

sible for us to confirm that the seed broughtfrom China by Isabel Fraser and given toAlexander Allison did actually grow andproduce the plants that were fruiting in1910. Allison’s plants may have come fromelsewhere. It has been suggested that otherintroductions of kiwifruit to Wanganui tookplace at about the same time. Nevertheless,it seems plausible that the kiwifruit of todayhad its origin in those seeds from Yichangand that Katie Fraser was made aware of thekiwifruit by Wilson: Wilson is therefore duemuch of the credit - even if indirectly - forbringing the kiwifruit to New Zealand.

It seems ironic that the sending of seed bya missionary to an amateur gardener shouldeventually lead to a new horticultural indus-try, when the efforts of the Veitch Nurseryand the U.S. Department of Agriculturewere so much less successful. After all,Veitch’s was the greatest nursery of its day,and the U.S. Department of Agriculture hadall the resources of the Office of Foreign Seedand Plant Introduction, with its plantexplorers and its chain of plant introductiongardens. Perhaps it is largely luck that de-termines whether the introduction of a new

plant is successful.

Author’s Note

I am grateful to Dr. H. M. Mouat, formerly ofthe Fruit Research Division, Department of Sci-entific and Industrial Research, New Zealand, forpermission to cite the letter from Mr. Frank Ma-son, and to Dr. E. C. Nelson, National BotanicGarden, Dublin, Ireland, for permission to readhis then unpublished manuscript on AugustineHenry. The excerpt of the letter by Dr. Henry ispublished with the permission of the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew. My thanks are due to MissBella Smith and the library staff at the Mt. AlbertResearch Centre, Department of Scientific andIndustrial Research, Auckland, New Zealand, theArnold Arboretum, the Auckland Institute andMuseum, the Church of Scotland, the NationalLibrary of Scotland, and the Royal BotanicGardens, Kew.

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A R. Ferguson is a plant physiologist at the Depart-ment of Scientific and Industrial Research in New Zea-land.