author

James Forbes

1773–1861

A Scottish gardener and botanist whose work at Woburn Abbey helped turn practical horticulture into careful botanical record-keeping. His books capture both the beauty of cultivated plants and the curiosity of an early nineteenth-century plant collector.

1 Audiobook

Journal of a Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium, and part of France, in the Autumn of 1835 To which is added, a Catalogue of the different Species of Cacteæ in the Gardens at Woburn Abbey.

Journal of a Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium, and part of France, in the Autumn of 1835 To which is added, a Catalogue of the different Species of Cacteæ in the Gardens at Woburn Abbey.

by James Forbes

About the author

Born in Bridgend, Perthshire, in May 1773, James Forbes became the gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and built a reputation as a skilled horticulturist as well as a botanist. He was elected a member of the Linnean Society of London in 1832, and his botanical author abbreviation is recorded as J.Forbes.

Forbes is best known for books that grew out of his work with important plant collections at Woburn, including Salictum Woburnense (1829), Hortus Woburnensis (1833), and Pinetum Woburnense (1839). He also published Journal of a Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium, and Part of France (1837), sharing observations from his travels with a wider readership.

He died at Woburn Abbey on July 6, 1861. Today he is remembered as one of those practical men of plants whose writing preserved a vivid record of nineteenth-century gardening, collecting, and botanical exchange.