John Bradby Blake, the Chinese Tallow Tree and the Infrastructure of Botanical Experimentation

Recent studies of the spread of the invasive Chinese tallow tree, , Triadica sebifera (L.) Small, downplay the role of the dissemination of seeds in the 18th century compared with the impact of 20th century state‐sponsored agriculture. But the long‐term development of Chinese, then European and American botanical knowledge, even in cases like the tallow tree, can be shown to have enabled and legitimized ecological expansion and large scale environmental experimentation. John Bradby Blake, who obtained, experimented with, described and illustrated tallow tree seed in the 1770s, played an important role in the dissemination of tallow trees to the southeastern American colonies, the British Caribbean and northeast India.