"When these suckers had formed roots in the open ground, or kind of nursery where they were planted, they were looked over and the best taken up for potting"
About this Quote
That’s the subtext of Fortune’s world: botany as logistics. “Open ground” and “kind of nursery” signal a controlled space where foreign specimens can be acclimatized, ranked, and redirected. Once the plants demonstrate hardiness, the “best” are selected for potting, meaning portability, ownership, and display. The phrase “taken up” is doing cultural work, smoothing over what is, in effect, a transfer of life from common soil into private containers.
Context matters because Fortune wasn’t just any scientist. He was a plant hunter at the height of Britain’s imperial appetite for economically valuable flora, moving specimens (famously tea) across borders and into new systems of profit. In that light, this line becomes a small, precise mirror of empire: cultivate in shared ground, surveil for promise, extract the winners, and package them for export. The science sounds neutral; the method is power.
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| Topic | Nature |
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| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fortune, Robert. (2026, January 17). When these suckers had formed roots in the open ground, or kind of nursery where they were planted, they were looked over and the best taken up for potting. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-these-suckers-had-formed-roots-in-the-open-80880/
Chicago Style
Fortune, Robert. "When these suckers had formed roots in the open ground, or kind of nursery where they were planted, they were looked over and the best taken up for potting." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-these-suckers-had-formed-roots-in-the-open-80880/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When these suckers had formed roots in the open ground, or kind of nursery where they were planted, they were looked over and the best taken up for potting." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-these-suckers-had-formed-roots-in-the-open-80880/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
