Potts 2023. Sir Henry Willock (1788-1858) and the New-York Horticultural Society. Garden History: Journal of the Gardens Trust 51/1: 67-81. (original) (raw)

Previously recognized by the Horticultural Society of London for his contributions to botany through the provision of seeds, his donation to the American society, representing approximately thirty ornamental and economically useful plants, has previously gone unrecognized. Here, Willock's donation is considered in light of the international exchange of seeds and botanical data that linked scientific societies around the world. The specific cultivars sent to America are examined in the context of early nineteenth-century agriculture and the growth of scientific institutions in the young republic. The flora of Iran was poorly known in the West when Willock made his donation, and although not a botanist by training like others who followed him, he made a significant contribution which, by expanding his scientific generosity beyond the confines of Britain to New York, greatly increased the world's awareness of Iranian cultivars and ornamental plants.