Person Cunningham; James (c 1667 - 1709); naturalist Cunningham James naturalist Cuninghame c 1667 - 1709 Scottish Male Scotland c 1667 1667 1709 1709

Surgeon Botany Education: Leyden (admitted 1686) Career: Surgeon to the HEIC at Emoui, China (1698); went to Chusan (1700-1702); visited Ascension Island and Pulo Condore (1703), where he escaped a massacre; imprisoned in Cochin China (1705-1707); went to Batavia and then Banjar-Massin, from whence he was expelled and embarked for England, but appears to have died on the voyage home from Calcutta; he sent many plants to Sir Hans Sloane (FRS 1685), John Ray (FRS 1667) and James Petiver (FRS 1695) The first European to successfully return botanical collections from China. He sent many new plants, including tea specimens, to other botanists like Dubois, Plukenet, and Petiver, who acknowledged him in their works. Estimated to have collected about 600 different plant species in China, documenting them with descriptions, localities, uses, and local names. Plukenet published his findings, and Petiver described around 200 of Cuninghame's plants, which are now part of the Sloane herbarium held in the Natural History Museum and the collected drawings at the British Library. Cuninghame also sent the first published account of plants and shells from Ascension, and his observations on Chusan agriculture, including the cultivation of tea, were printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Robert Brown commemorated Cuninghame in the Latin name of the Chinese fir, Cunninghamia, now extended to the fossil plants Cunninghamites and Cunninghamiostrobos. Fellow 20/12/1699 Sir Hans Sloane Sources: Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Hunter; Innes Smith C E Jarvis and P H Oswald, 'The collecting activities of James Cuninghame FRS on the voyage of "Tuscan" to China (Amoy) between 1697 and 1699' in Notes adn Records vol 69, issue 2, 20 June 2015 International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa 1996 ISBN 0-9696035-3-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/action/doSearch?AllField=cunninghame&startPage=&ContribRaw=Cunningham%2C%20James - ? 1709 The past Fellows entries are under continuous revision. If you have queries or additional information to contribute, please contact Library@royalsociety.org. Content in external sources is not controlled by the Royal Society and historical sources may include content that is now unacceptable. Reviewed on 08/11/2023 as part of the Name Authority Project update. NA6763 21/11/2001 Andyg Pmab 08/11/2023 RS_NET\VidaM Yes 9a610b74-0aa6-4628-9645-a9a1ef76cd9f