James Bateman ( 1811 - 1897 )

Orchids continued to increase in popularity as ornamental plants, and larger numbers of them appeared in the glasshouses and conservatories throughout England. Ironically ,great numbers of them perished because of the widespread misunderstanding , prior to the introduction of Sir Joseph Paxton's cultural methods, of their requirements . Systems of classification were being developed , monographs of genera were being published , and many other technical aspects were being explored , but there remained a desperate need for published cultural information on the horticultural level. Toward this end James Bateman , an early and enthusiastic orchid hobbyist , was instrumental in the spread of growing techiniques , by the many semitechnical and popular books and articles be authored .

James Bateman was born at Redivals , Bury ,England, on 18 July 1811. At Oxford he received his B.A. in 1834 and his M.A. in 1845. Like many other famed orchidologists , Bateman took an early and abiding interest in botany. While attending Magdalene college , Oxford , on one occasion he was required to write out half the Book of Psalms as punishment for absenting himself from class beyond a prescribed period. He had stopped at a local nursery to buy a plant of Renanthera coccinea ,which had caught his eye. This plant was to become the beginning of his fine orchid collection at Knypersley Hall .

Bateman's father encouraged his son in horticulture , and in 1833 young Bateman hired a botanical collector named Colley to go to Demerara , chiefly to search for orchids. By this venture about sixty species of orchids were sent back alive , a third of them new to cultivation. One of these was named Batemannia colleyi by John Lindley , thus commemorating both employer and collector .

Bateman was an industrious hobbyist anxious to establish acquaintance with anyone who lived in areas where orchids grew naturally . Learning that the Natural History Museum at Manchester had received shipments of birds and animals from one George Ure Skinner ,Bateman wrote to the collector and horticulturist . As each shipment of plants were received from Guatemala , Bateman established them in his greenhouse at Knypersley Hall, flowered them , and had them identified by contemporaries in London but particularly by John Lindley. Within ten years he possessed the finest examples of Guatemalan orchids then avilable in England.

Several fine orchid books emanated from his pen . From the standpoint of size alone, his Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala is monumental . Issued in parts from 1837 to 1843, it consists of forty huge folio plates, twenty -seven inches in height by fifteen inches in width, and includes descriptions and cultural advice . Only 125 copies of this gigantic volume were issued . The drawings were specially prepared for Bateman by Mrs. Withers , flower painter for Queen Adelaide . The plate depicting Odontoglossum bictoniense is of particular historic interest because it pictures the first member of the genus introduced to cultivation.

Bateman moved to Kensington in 1860,where he compiled the texts for many of the new orchids figured inPaxton's Botanical Magazine . Reissued in 1867 in one volume, these texts and figures became known as A second Century of Orchidaceous Plants .

During the ten-year period of 1864-1874 Bateman issued his Monograph of Odontoglossums , the introduction of which recalls the mistaken manner in which " cool" orchids were cultivated in stoves ." But" , stated Bateman ," no sooner had a few houses , constructed and managed on the cool-culture system, made it clear that the orchid of temperate regions were prepared to submit to the skill of the cultivator , that a general rapid was made upon the more accessible countries in which they were known to abound , more especially certain districts in Mexico and New Granada . To the latter country collectors were simultaneously sent off by the Horticultural Society , by Mr. Linden , and by Messrs.Low and Co. , and all these rival envoys , much to their own mortification , and chargin , found themselves sailing for the same destination in the same steamer on the same errand ."

The Monograph was originally intended to be concluded with an analysis of the genus and a conspectus of all known species, but this section never appeared , the thirty plates issued being the entirely of the work .

Bateman also contributed to the Gardeners' Chronicle , doing a series of papers entitled " Dies Orchidianae," under the pen name of Serapias , and he published a Guide to Cool Orchid Growing in 1864.

His horticultural associations were many. He served as a fellow of the Linnean Society from 1833 and as a fellow of the Royal Society from 1838. He lectured to the Royal Horticultural Society for many years,and that organization awarded him the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1885. On 27 November 1897, at the age of eighty -six , James Bateman passed away at Worthing ,Sussex.

References

Cutis' Botanical Magazine . 1931. Dedications and Portraits 1827-1927.Compiled by Ernest Nelmes and Wm .Cuthbertson . London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd.

Garden ,The . Obituary .Vol. 52, no. 1359.

Orchid Review ,The . 1931. Records of the past .vol. 39. no. 461.

Wilson , Gurney . 1950. Bateman's " Odontoglossum" . The Orch.Rev. 58. no. 682.