Citrus History #3 - Frank Meyer (1875-1918)
Discoverer of the Meyer Lemon
Born Frans Nicholas Meijer in Amsterdam in 1875. The Amsterdam Botanical Gardens fascinated him as a boy, and he spent all his free time there. Soon he came to the attention of the director of the garden Hugo Marie de Vries, who gave Frans a job as a gardeners assistant at the age of fourteen. Besides being the director of the botanical gardens, Hugo de Vries, was also a scientist and a professor of botany at the University of Amsterdam. Hugo took an interest in Meijer, and taught him English and French, and tutored him in the sciences. After eight years at the gardens Meijer rose to become head gardener in charge of the experimental garden. Frans Meijer wrote to a friend on October 1901 "I withdraw from humanity and try to find relaxation with plants." In search of personal equilibrium, Frans traveled by walking through nearby Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy to discover foreign scenery and plants. These hiking trips started a pattern, in which Frans Meijer would work for a short time in a nursery, earn some money, and then take to the road again in search of new plants, new sights and satisfaction derived from his migrant life. After working in England for a year he sailed to New York on the S.S. Philadelphia in October 1901. In the USA Frans changed his name to Frank Meyer and quickly found employment in Washington, DC in the greenhouses of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Not able to stay put, during the next four years, he made his way through California and Mexico, also traveling to Cuba. At the USDA, Frank became friends with David Fairchild, who was at that time head of the department of foreign seed and plant introduction. Responding to Meyer's all too evident wanderlust, David Fairchild easily convinced Frank to accompany him to Asia on a mission for the USDA to bring back to the United States whatever specimens they would deem of interest. Frank Meyer started on his first trip to China by himself, ironically Fairchild was unable to accompany him. This was at a time when China, was in the shadow of the Boxer Rebellion. On his first expedition (1905-1908) he went from Shanghai to Hupeh, Manchuria, and back. Frank shipped back quite a few plants, such as Ginkgo biloba. He was awed by the cornucopia of natural species. In a letter to David Fairchild he wrote: "Our short life will never be long enough to find out all about this mighty land." The letter was perceptive: Frank Meyer's life would be short indeed. He did return to China for another three plant collection expeditions in 1909-1911, 1912-1915, and 1916-1918. Frank roamed all over the vast China country side, collecting tens of thousand of specimens. The number of attendant introductions of useful plants in the United States was approximately 2,500 - a stupendous figure! In 1918 traveling in China had become highly dangerous for foreigners. The political situation was in turmoil. Frank Meyer was wisely ordered to return to the United States. He sailed down the Yangtze River to Shanghai on May 28, 1918. He was probably planning to leave Shanghai for the United States, but he never made it. He died under mysterious, suspicious circumstances during this last leg of his trip, at the age of only forty-three. As part of his legacy, Meyer happened to notice, in an ornamental pot sitting on the porch of a house near Beijing an attractive small tree bearing sweet tasting fruit, eerily similar in outer aspect to lemons. Meyer introduced this plant into the United States as S.P.I. (USDA Shipping Point Inspection) no. 23028. And Meyer lemons, as they became known, started colonizing the back yards of many homes in California, where they found a most congenial climate. (Information partly derived form "Citrus A History" by Pierre Laszlo
