High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Fortune (16 September 1812 13 April 1880) was a Scottish botanist and traveller best known for introducing tea plants from China to India. Fortune was born in Kelloe, Berwickshire. He was employed in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and later in the Horticultural Society of London's garden at Chiswick, and following the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 was sent out by the Society to collect plants in China. His travels resulted in the introduction to Europe of many new, exotic and beautiful flowers. His most famous accomplishment was successfully transportation of tea from China to India in 1848 on behalf of the British East India Company.