Although we haven’t had our usual Monthly Meetings at The Murley Hall we have been able to get together on Zoom for a different version of our WI. This month saw a ‘live’ speaker, Trevor Wiltshire a horticulturalist from Pencarn Gardens.
Among the things Trevor spoke about was the story of Jeanne Bare, the lover of French botanist Philibert Comercon, who disguised herself as a cabin boy in order to sail on a ship circumnavigating the globe. The captain was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, for whom bougainvillea is named. But it’s possible that Jeanne Bare, a woman, was the first European to see the plants. She is also rumoured to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe!
