Baudin and the Bees (3)

One of those areas of contention was the Caribbean, a place so important to the King that he was prepared to give up his Canadian assets to maintain his hold on this collection of islands. And, strange as it may seem, it was from these islands that a woman came who was to have a huge influence on the future direction of France including the capture, propagation and distribution of flora and fauna from all around the world but especially from Australia.

From our Anglo-centric perspective it is perhaps difficult to comprehend that the French and not the English did more to propagate information about the new flora from the other side of the world. Étienne Pierre Ventenat’s, Jardin de La Malmaison was first published in 1803, and Labillardiere’s, Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen published in 1807 was the first publication to describe and illustrate the flora of Australia. While Banks had spent thousands of pounds of his own money having engravings made from Sydney Parkinson’s sketches and paintings from Cook’s first voyage these were not published until the 1980’s as Banks' Florilegium[1]

The Tasmanian Blue Gum, Eucalyptus globulus was named by Labillardiere and it was also a Frenchman named Charles Louis L’Héritier who identified and named the species Eucalyptus from a specimen of Eucalyptus obliqua held at the Natural History Museum in London.

But I get ahead of myself.

While Bruni D’Entreasteaux’s explicit instructions were to search for the lost La Perouse he would have been aware of the writings of de Brosses, Buffon, Rousseau and Voltaire and the French government who approved Bougainville’s secret settlement plans in 1764[2] would undoubtedly have advised him to be on the lookout for potential areas for settlement.

His unexpected discovery of the area around Recherche Bay and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel are well documented. What is less well known is that the gardener on his expedition, Felix Delahaye, the man who planted the so called “French Garden”, and who, together with Jacques Labillardiere, during their five week visit, collected, ‘…some 5000 specimens comprising thirty genera and about 100 new species.’[3] He was later to propagate and care for many of these same plants in the garden of the woman from Martinique.

The botanist Labillardiere with the assistance of Delahaye amassed a large collection of plant material during this voyage. This was carefully tended during the return trip and kept intact despite the republicans in the crew being placed under arrest for many months in the tropical heat of Surabaya due to the outbreak of war between France and the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the collection was subsequently seized by the English when the ship carrying it was captured off Saint Helena. As spoils of war the collection came into the hands of the naturalist Joseph Banks who was intent on passing it on to the queen for her herbarium.

Labillardiere, distraught at the loss of his precious collection devised a plan to retrieve it. He petitioned the French Assembly to write to the English advising that the collection was the personal property of Labillardiere and not that of the French Government. Labillardiere also appealed to his friend Joseph Banks who, always the scientist as well as the politician, proclaiming that, ‘By this…the national character of Great Britain will certainly gain much credit for holding a conduct towards Science and Scientific men liberal in the highest degree’[4], re-packed and dispatched the samples to France in 1796 where, in the Jardin de Plantes, they were known as the Labillardiere Collection. For some unknown reason the specimens from Baudin’s subsequent expedition were also added to this collection which, on Labillardiere’s death was sold to an Englishman and, subsequently transferred to Florence.

Delahaye was unable to return to France until 1797 after which he became in turn the chief gardener at the châteaux the Grand Trianon and Malmaison and then, in 1814 after the death of his patron, a private nurseryman..

In the time he had been away France had had a revolution and, within two years, was to be ruled by a man who would choose Childéric’s golden bees, an ancient symbol of royalty in France, and a metaphor for a Republic of equals under a single leader, as a heraldic symbol to trump the Bourbon fleur-de-lys. This man was also to commission Baudin to continue the exploration of New Holland on behalf of the French government.

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[1] Banks' florilegium Alecto Historical Editions in association with the British Museum (Natural History), London 1981-1988

[2] T Ryan op cit p177

[3] E Duyker. A French Garden in Tasmania in Pacific Journeys, Cropp et al Eds., Victoria University Press, Wellington 2005 p25

[4] Edward Duyker, Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration, Miegunyah Press, Carlton, 2003.