Thomas Evans (1751-1814), Clerk in the East India Company and Amateur collector
[From
History of European Botanical Discoveries in China, 1898, by Emil Bretschneider, p. 215-6:] Evans, Thomas, of Stepney, where he had a garden. This liberal patron of horticulture is frequently mentioned in the Hort. Kew. 2nd edit. and the illustrated botanical periodicals...He was connected with the India House. He sent a botanical collector to Pu lo Pinang...died between 1810 and 1815....
[From
Tropical Britain:] ...the type species was introduced to the UK by the eccentric Thomas Evans, who worked in the Treasury department of the East India Company. One of the very first exotic gardeners in the UK, Evans had a stove-house in Stepney in the early part of the nineteenth century at a time when that part of East London was still largely agricultural land and he paid other East India Company employees to bring him back exciting new botanical finds. The evansiana part of the synonym is named after him. He is also credited with introducing to the UK - among other plants - Bletilla striata and Iris japonica
[From
Tropical Britain:] Iris japonica is first recorded as being grown at Kew in 1792, however its original introduction is usually attributed to Thomas Evans, (b.1751 - d.1814). Evans was an interesting character in the history of exotic gardening in the UK. From humble beginnings, he was originally a clerk in the Treasury Department of the East India Company and was based at East India House, on Leadenhall Street. He had a highly-commendable passion for growing rare and exotic plants and through the offices of the company he developed several contacts in Canton and amassed a considerable collection which he housed in greenhouses that he built in the garden of his house in Crombie's Row in Stepney. Sir James Edward Smith, in his 1804 book, 'Exotic Botany', mentions Evans in a description of Cymbidium hyacinthinum (a synonym of Bletilla striata): 'A native of the island of Trinidad, for which we are obliged to our liberal friend Thomas Evans Esq., of the East India House, in whose choice collection it first flowered in the autumn of 1803.' Now, as I'm sure you know, Bletilla striata comes from Asia not Trinidad so Sir James got that just a little bit wrong. And in her wonderful book, 'Gifts from the Gardens of China', Jane Kilpatrick describes at length the remarkable botanical enthusiasm of Thomas Evans.
As well as Iris japonica and the root-hardy Begonia grandis ssp. evansiana (now taxonomically Begonia grandis), Evans was responsible for the introduction to the UK of Ardisia crenata, the aforementioned Bletilla striata, Michelia figo, Musa cocchinea, Reineckia carnea, Rosa multiflora var. carnea and Rubus roseifoliaus 'Coronarius'.
In previous taxonomical classifications the crested Iris had been known both as Iris evansia and Evansia chinensis. Richard Anthony Salisbury, the British botanist who had opposed the Linnaen system, renamed Iris japonica in 1812 as Evansia chinensis, to honour Thomas Evans.
