物种的跨洋传播与生态经验互动——桉树在中国的早期传播(1890~1920)

Transoceanic Species Dispersal and Interaction of Ecological Experience:The Early Dispersal of Eucalyptus in China(1890-1920)

我国学界一般认为桉树是1890年经由意大利引种至中国的,这种讹误的说法实际反映的是《桉谱》作为第一部桉树引种著作在中国人自主引进并推广桉树种植过程中留下的知识印记。由旅居外国商人、传教士所主导的小规模桉树引种,推动了桉树种植的区域性传播和桉树种植地向内陆的点状扩散。各地官营农林试验场一定程度上承担了向周边地区分发树种、推进种植的功能,为以木材生产为目标的桉树造林提供了必要条件。由欧洲植物学家、林业官员所推动的物种跨洋流通,清末以来现代林学的建立,中西医学碰撞之初在桉树防治疟疾问题上的“共识”,促成了桉树在中国的早期传播。桉树在中国的早期传播,体现了哥伦布大交换与生态扩张主义所带动的太平洋区域内部更为复杂的物种与生态经验互动。

The Chinese academia generally believes that eucalyptus was introduced to China from Italy in 1890.This fallacy actually reflects the knowledge imprint left by An Pu,or the Album of Eucalyptus as the first work on introducing eucalyptus during the process of Chinese independent introduction and promotion of eucalyptus planting.The small-scale introduction of eucalyptus led by foreign merchants and missionaries enhanced the regional development of eucalyptus planting and its spotty expansion toward inland China.To some extent,the state-owned agricultural and forestry experimental farms in different places took charge of distributing tree species to surrounding areas and promoting their planting,which provides necessary conditions for eucalyptus afforestation for the purpose of timber production.The early dispersal of eucalyptus in China was enabled by the transoceanic dispersal of species driven by European botanists and forestry officials,the establishment of modern forestry in the late Qing Dynasty and the“consensus”on using eucalyptus for malaria control and treatment during the earliest contact of Chinese medicine and Western medicine.The dispersal of eucalyptus in China from the 1890s to the 1920s reveals the more complex interaction of species and ecological experience in the Pacific region driven by the Columbian exchange and ecological imperialism.