Clarke Abel was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 surgeon

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 and naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

.

He accompanied Lord Amherst on his mission to China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in 1816-17 as the embassy's chief medical officer and naturalist, on the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks. The mission was Britain's second unsuccessful attempt to establish diplomatic relations with China and involved travelling to the capital Pekin (Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

) and the famous botanical gardens of Fa Tee near Canton. While in China, Abel collected specimens and seeds of the plant that carries his name, Abelia chinensis

Abelia

Abelia is a genus of about 15-30 species and many hybrids in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae Some authors, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, considers Abelia and related genera to belong instead in the segregate family Linnaeaceae, also including such genera as Linnaea, Abelia,...

, described by Banks' botanical secretary Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

, "with friendly partiality". However a shipwreck and an attack by pirates on the way back to his home in Britain caused him to lose all of his specimens. Abel's Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China, 1818, gives a detailed account of the collection's misfortunes.< Fortunately, he had left some specimens with sir George Staunton at Canton

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

, who was kind enough to return them to him; living specimens of the Chinese Abelia that we know today were introduced by Robert Fortune

Robert Fortune

Robert Fortune was a Scottish botanist and traveller best known for introducing tea plants from China to India.-Travels and botanical introductions to Europe:Fortune was born in Kelloe, Berwickshire...

 in 1844..

In March, 1819 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society He was also a member of the Geological Society

Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

.

Abel was the first Western scientist to report the presence of orangutan

Orangutan

Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...

 on the island of Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. He went on to become the surgeon-in-chief to Lord Amherst when the earl was appointed Governor-general of India

Governor-General of India

The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...

. Abel died at Cawnpore, India, 24 November 1826, aged 37.