The Pioneers of Orchids.
John Goodyer
John Goodyer (1592–1664) was a 17th-century botanist who lived in south east Hampshire, England, all his life. He amassed a large collection of botanical texts which were bequeathed to Magdalen College, Oxford, and translated a number of classical texts into English. Though married, he died childless.
Carl Linnaeus (L.)
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the epithet "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).
Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants and minerals, while publishing several volumes. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth." The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist". Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists), "The Pliny of the North", and "The Second Adam". He is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology.
In botany, the author abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species' names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation "Linn." is found (for instance in: Cheeseman, T. F. (1906). Manual of the New Zealand Flora.). Linnaeus' remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens, following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen he is known to have examined when writing the species description was himself.
William Roxburgh (Roxb.)
William Roxburgh (3 or 29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known as the founding father of Indian botany. He published numerous works on Indian botany, illustrated by careful drawings made by Indian artists and accompanied by taxonomic descriptions of a large number of plant species. Apart from the numerous species that he named, many species were named in his honour by his collaborators.
Carl Lidwig Willdenow (Willd.)
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was also a mentor of Alexander von Humboldt, one of the earliest and best known phytogeographers. He also influenced Christian Konrad Sprengel, who pioneered the study of plant pollination and floral biology. Willdenow was born in Berlin and studied medicine and botany at the University of Halle. After studying pharmaceutics at Wieglieb College, Langensalza and in medicine at Halle, he returned to Berlin to work at his father's pharmacy located in the Unter den Linden. His early interest in botany was kindled by his uncle J. G. Gleditsch and he started a herbarium collection in his teenage years. In 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was a director of the Botanical garden of Berlin from 1801 until his death. In 1807 Alexander von Humboldt helped to expand the garden. There he studied many South American plants, brought back by Humboldt. He was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that the same climate had plants having common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is still preserved in the Botanical Garden in Berlin. Some of the specimens include those collected by Humboldt.
Humboldt notes that as a young man he was unable to identify plants using Willdenow's Flora Berolinensis. He subsequently visited Willdenow without an appointment and found him to be a kindred soul only four years older and in three weeks he became an enthusiastic botanist.
In his 1792 book, Grundriss der Kräuterkunde or Geschichte der Pflanzen Willdenow came up with an idea to explain restricted plant distributions. Willdenow suggested that it was based on past history with mountains surrounded by seas with different sets of plants initially restricted to the peaks which then spread downward and out with receding sea levels. This would fit with the Biblical notion of floods. This was contrary to earlier assertions by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann that plants were distributed as they had been in the past and that there had been no changes.
Nathaniel Wallich (Wall.)
Nathaniel Wallich (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the East India Company. He was involved in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, describing many new plant species and developing a large herbarium collection which was distributed to collections in Europe. Several of the plants that he collected were named after him.
John Goodyer (1592–1664) was a 17th-century botanist who lived in south east Hampshire, England, all his life. He amassed a large collection of botanical texts which were bequeathed to Magdalen College, Oxford, and translated a number of classical texts into English. Though married, he died childless.
Carl Linnaeus (L.)
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the epithet "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus (after 1761 Carolus a Linné).
Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants and minerals, while publishing several volumes. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth." The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote: "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly." Swedish author August Strindberg wrote: "Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist". Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum (Prince of Botanists), "The Pliny of the North", and "The Second Adam". He is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology.
In botany, the author abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species' names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation "Linn." is found (for instance in: Cheeseman, T. F. (1906). Manual of the New Zealand Flora.). Linnaeus' remains comprise the type specimen for the species Homo sapiens, following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, since the sole specimen he is known to have examined when writing the species description was himself.
William Roxburgh (Roxb.)
William Roxburgh (3 or 29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known as the founding father of Indian botany. He published numerous works on Indian botany, illustrated by careful drawings made by Indian artists and accompanied by taxonomic descriptions of a large number of plant species. Apart from the numerous species that he named, many species were named in his honour by his collaborators.
Carl Lidwig Willdenow (Willd.)
Carl Ludwig Willdenow (22 August 1765 – 10 July 1812) was a German botanist, pharmacist, and plant taxonomist. He is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. Willdenow was also a mentor of Alexander von Humboldt, one of the earliest and best known phytogeographers. He also influenced Christian Konrad Sprengel, who pioneered the study of plant pollination and floral biology. Willdenow was born in Berlin and studied medicine and botany at the University of Halle. After studying pharmaceutics at Wieglieb College, Langensalza and in medicine at Halle, he returned to Berlin to work at his father's pharmacy located in the Unter den Linden. His early interest in botany was kindled by his uncle J. G. Gleditsch and he started a herbarium collection in his teenage years. In 1794 he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was a director of the Botanical garden of Berlin from 1801 until his death. In 1807 Alexander von Humboldt helped to expand the garden. There he studied many South American plants, brought back by Humboldt. He was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that the same climate had plants having common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is still preserved in the Botanical Garden in Berlin. Some of the specimens include those collected by Humboldt.
Humboldt notes that as a young man he was unable to identify plants using Willdenow's Flora Berolinensis. He subsequently visited Willdenow without an appointment and found him to be a kindred soul only four years older and in three weeks he became an enthusiastic botanist.
In his 1792 book, Grundriss der Kräuterkunde or Geschichte der Pflanzen Willdenow came up with an idea to explain restricted plant distributions. Willdenow suggested that it was based on past history with mountains surrounded by seas with different sets of plants initially restricted to the peaks which then spread downward and out with receding sea levels. This would fit with the Biblical notion of floods. This was contrary to earlier assertions by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann that plants were distributed as they had been in the past and that there had been no changes.
Nathaniel Wallich (Wall.)
Nathaniel Wallich (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the East India Company. He was involved in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, describing many new plant species and developing a large herbarium collection which was distributed to collections in Europe. Several of the plants that he collected were named after him.
Carl Ludwig Blume (Blume)
Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796, Braunschweig – 3 February 1862, Leiden) was a German-Dutch botanist.
He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life working in the Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands, where he was Director of the Rijksherbarium (state herbarium) at Leiden. His name is sometimes given in the Dutch language form Karel Lodewijk Blume, but the original German spelling is the one most widely used in botanical texts: even then there is confusion, as he is sometimes referred to as K.L. Blume (from Karl).
He carried out extensive studies of the Flora of southern Asia, particularly in Java, then a colony of the Netherlands. From 1823 to 1826 Blume was Deputy Director of Agriculture at the botanic garden in Bogor (Buitenzorg) in Java. In 1827 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1855, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He planned, together with Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), the foundation of the "Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot aanmoediging van den Tuinbouw". (Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Horticulture). This was carried to fruition in 1842.
The botanical journal Blumea is named after him.
Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume (9 June 1796, Braunschweig – 3 February 1862, Leiden) was a German-Dutch botanist.
He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life working in the Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands, where he was Director of the Rijksherbarium (state herbarium) at Leiden. His name is sometimes given in the Dutch language form Karel Lodewijk Blume, but the original German spelling is the one most widely used in botanical texts: even then there is confusion, as he is sometimes referred to as K.L. Blume (from Karl).
He carried out extensive studies of the Flora of southern Asia, particularly in Java, then a colony of the Netherlands. From 1823 to 1826 Blume was Deputy Director of Agriculture at the botanic garden in Bogor (Buitenzorg) in Java. In 1827 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1855, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He planned, together with Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), the foundation of the "Koninklijke Nederlandsche Maatschappij tot aanmoediging van den Tuinbouw". (Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Horticulture). This was carried to fruition in 1842.
The botanical journal Blumea is named after him.
Robert Wight (Wight)
Robert Wight (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading taxonomist in south India. He contributed to the introduction of American cotton. As a taxonomist he described 110 new genera and 1267 new species of flowering plants. He employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate a large number of plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained. Some of these illustrations were published William Hooker in Britain, but from 1838 published a series of illustrated works in Madras including the uncoloured, six-volume Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the Illustrations of Indian Botany (1838–50) and Spicilegium Neilgherrense (1845–51). By the time he retired from India in 1853 he had published 2464 illustrations of Indian plants.
Robert Wight (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon in the East India Company, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading taxonomist in south India. He contributed to the introduction of American cotton. As a taxonomist he described 110 new genera and 1267 new species of flowering plants. He employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate a large number of plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained. Some of these illustrations were published William Hooker in Britain, but from 1838 published a series of illustrated works in Madras including the uncoloured, six-volume Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the Illustrations of Indian Botany (1838–50) and Spicilegium Neilgherrense (1845–51). By the time he retired from India in 1853 he had published 2464 illustrations of Indian plants.
John Lindley (Lindl.)
John Lindley, (born Feb. 5, 1799, Catton, Northumberland, Eng.—died Nov. 1, 1865, London), British botanist whose attempts to formulate a natural system of plant classification greatly aided the transition from the artificial (considering the characters of single parts) to the natural system (considering all characters of a plant).
In 1819 Lindley arrived in London where, with the help of the botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker, he obtained a position as an assistant librarian. In 1822 he became garden assistant secretary at the Horticultural Society for which, in 1830, he organized the first flower shows to be held in England. He then served as the first professor of botany at the University of London (University College), where he remained until 1860. Lindley’s investigation in 1838 of the conditions at the Kew Gardens in London led him to recommend that the gardens be turned over to the nation and used as the botanical headquarters for the United Kingdom. His famous collection of orchids was eventually housed in the Kew herbarium. His Theory and Practice of Horticulture (1842) is considered to be one of the best books ever written on the physiological principles of horticulture. He developed his own natural system of plant classification for his best-known book, The Vegetable Kingdom (1846). Although his system was never adopted by other botanists, it did much to enhance the popularity of the natural system in England.
John Lindley, (born Feb. 5, 1799, Catton, Northumberland, Eng.—died Nov. 1, 1865, London), British botanist whose attempts to formulate a natural system of plant classification greatly aided the transition from the artificial (considering the characters of single parts) to the natural system (considering all characters of a plant).
In 1819 Lindley arrived in London where, with the help of the botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker, he obtained a position as an assistant librarian. In 1822 he became garden assistant secretary at the Horticultural Society for which, in 1830, he organized the first flower shows to be held in England. He then served as the first professor of botany at the University of London (University College), where he remained until 1860. Lindley’s investigation in 1838 of the conditions at the Kew Gardens in London led him to recommend that the gardens be turned over to the nation and used as the botanical headquarters for the United Kingdom. His famous collection of orchids was eventually housed in the Kew herbarium. His Theory and Practice of Horticulture (1842) is considered to be one of the best books ever written on the physiological principles of horticulture. He developed his own natural system of plant classification for his best-known book, The Vegetable Kingdom (1846). Although his system was never adopted by other botanists, it did much to enhance the popularity of the natural system in England.
Sir Joseph Paxton (Paxton)
Sir Joseph Paxton (3 August 1803 – 8 June 1865) was an English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament, best known for designing the Crystal Palace, and for cultivating the Cavendish banana, the most consumed banana in the Western world. Paxton was born in 1803, the seventh son of a farming family, in Milton Bryan, Bedfordshire. Some references, incorrectly, list his birth year as 1801. This is, as he admitted in later life, a result of misinformation he provided in his teens, which enabled him to enrol at Chiswick Gardens. He became a garden boy at the age of fifteen for Sir Gregory Osborne Page-Turner at Battlesden Park, near Woburn. After several moves, he obtained a position in 1823 at the Horticultural Society's Chiswick Gardens.
Willem Hendrik de Vriese (de Vriese)
Willem Hendrik de Vriese (August 11, 1806 – January 23, 1862) was a Dutch botanist and physician born in Oosterhout, North Brabant. He studied medicine at the University of Leiden, earning his doctorate in 1831. Afterwards he practiced medicine in Rotterdam, where he also gave classes in botany at the medical school. In 1834, he was appointed associate professor of botany at the Athenaeum Illustré in Amsterdam, and in 1841 was promoted to full professor. In 1845, he became a professor of botany at Leiden and successor to Caspar Georg Carl Reinwardt (1773–1854) at the Hortus Botanicus Leiden. He became a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1838. In October 1857, he was commissioned to conduct botanical investigations in the Dutch East Indies, and consequently spent the following years performing research in Java, Borneo, Sumatra and the Moluccas. In March 1861, he returned to the Netherlands in a weakened state, and died in Leiden several months later.
Among his written works was the first part of "Hortus Spaarne-Bergensis" (1839), a catalogue of banker Adriaan van der Hoop's exotic plant collection. He was an editor of Caspar Reinwardt's scientific works, two years after Reinwardt's death, he published "Plantae Indiae Batavae Orientalis: quas, in itinere per insulas Archipelagi Indici Javam, Amboinam, Celebem, Ternatam, aliasque, annis 1815-1821 exploravit Casp. Georg. Carol. Reinwardt" (1856). He was the author of a memoir on Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen as well as of noteworthy treatises on cinchona (1855), vanilla (1856) and camphor (1856). Also, he published monographs on the genus Rafflesiaand of the botanical family Marattiaceae (with biologist Pieter Harting 1812-1885).
The botanical genus Vriesea (family Bromeliaceae) was named in his honor by British botanist John Lindley (1799–1865).
Hugh Falconer
Hugh Falconer MD FRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865) was a Scottish geologist, botanist, palaeontologist, and paleoanthropologist. He studied the flora, fauna, and geology of India, Assam, and Burma, and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium. He was the first to discover the Siwalik fossil beds, and may also have been the first person to discover a fossil ape.
Johannes Elias Teijsmann (Teijsm.)
Johannes Elias Teijsmann (June 1, 1808 – June 22, 1882) was a biologist, botanist and plant collector. He was born in Arnhem, The Netherlands. His surname is sometimes spelled Teysmann, although he himself spelled it Teijsmann.
Teijsmann travelled to Java in 1830 as gardener of Governor General Johannes van den Bosch. He was appointed the director - hortulanus - of the 's Lands Plantentuin in Buitenzorg (now Bogor) the following year, a post he held until 1869. He took part in important botanical expeditions throughout maritime Southeast Asia. Teijsmann was also part of a Dutch fact-finding mission to Siam (presently Thailand).
William Griffith (Griff.)
William Griffith (1810–9 February 1845) was a British doctor, naturalist, and botanist. Griffith's botanical publications are from India and Burma. After a brief stay in Madras, he was assigned as a Civil Surgeon to Tenasserim, Burma, where he studied local plants and made collecting trips to the Barak River valley in Assam. He explored various parts of Burma, traveling the rivers, including the Irrawadi as far as Rangoon. He visited the highlands of Sikkim, and the region of the Himalayas around Shimla. Subsequently, Griffith was appointed as Civil Surgeon in Malacca, where he died of a parasitic liver disease.
Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (Miq.)
Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 in Neuenhaus – 23 January 1871 in Utrecht) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Miquel studied medicine at the University of Groningen, where, in 1833, he received his doctorate. After starting work as a doctor at the Buitengasthuis Hospital in Amsterdam, in 1835, he taught medicine at the clinical school in Rotterdam. In 1838 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute, which later became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1846 he became member. He was professor of botany at the University of Amsterdam (1846–1859) and Utrecht University (1859–1871). He directed the Rijksherbarium (National Herbarium) at Leiden from 1862. In 1866, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Miquel did research on the taxonomy of plants. He was interested in the flora of the Dutch Empire, specifically the Dutch East Indies and Suriname. Although he never traveled far, he knew through correspondence a large collection of Australian and Indian plants. He described many species and genera in important families like Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae, Piperaceae and Polygonaceae. In total, he has published some 7,000 botanical names. Through his partnership with the German botanist Heinrich Göppert, he became interested in paleobotany, the study of fossil plants, notably the fossil Cycads. Along with Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda, Pieter Harting and Winand Staring, he was in the first commission to create a geological map of the Netherlands, which was published in 1852 by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke. Miquel died at the age of 59 in 1871, after which he was succeeded as the director of the National Herbarium by Willem Frederik Reinier Suringar. From his estate, the Miquel fund was established, which provides financial support to botanists at the University of Utrecht. The former home of the director of the botanical gardens in the city center of Utrecht is called "Miquel's House". In the Laakkwartier district of the Hague is a street named after him.
Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel (24 October 1811 in Neuenhaus – 23 January 1871 in Utrecht) was a Dutch botanist, whose main focus of study was on the flora of the Dutch East Indies. Miquel studied medicine at the University of Groningen, where, in 1833, he received his doctorate. After starting work as a doctor at the Buitengasthuis Hospital in Amsterdam, in 1835, he taught medicine at the clinical school in Rotterdam. In 1838 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute, which later became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1846 he became member. He was professor of botany at the University of Amsterdam (1846–1859) and Utrecht University (1859–1871). He directed the Rijksherbarium (National Herbarium) at Leiden from 1862. In 1866, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Miquel did research on the taxonomy of plants. He was interested in the flora of the Dutch Empire, specifically the Dutch East Indies and Suriname. Although he never traveled far, he knew through correspondence a large collection of Australian and Indian plants. He described many species and genera in important families like Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae, Piperaceae and Polygonaceae. In total, he has published some 7,000 botanical names. Through his partnership with the German botanist Heinrich Göppert, he became interested in paleobotany, the study of fossil plants, notably the fossil Cycads. Along with Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda, Pieter Harting and Winand Staring, he was in the first commission to create a geological map of the Netherlands, which was published in 1852 by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke. Miquel died at the age of 59 in 1871, after which he was succeeded as the director of the National Herbarium by Willem Frederik Reinier Suringar. From his estate, the Miquel fund was established, which provides financial support to botanists at the University of Utrecht. The former home of the director of the botanical gardens in the city center of Utrecht is called "Miquel's House". In the Laakkwartier district of the Hague is a street named after him.
Charles Wright (C.Wright)
Charles Wright (October 29, 1811 – August 11, 1885) was an American botanist.
Jean Jules Linden
Jean Jules Linden (born 12 February 1817 Luxembourg – died 12 January 1898 Brussels) was a Belgian botanist, explorer, horticulturist, and businessman, specialising in orchids, on which he published a number of books. (Lindenia : iconographie des Orchidées)
Charles Wright (October 29, 1811 – August 11, 1885) was an American botanist.
Jean Jules Linden
Jean Jules Linden (born 12 February 1817 Luxembourg – died 12 January 1898 Brussels) was a Belgian botanist, explorer, horticulturist, and businessman, specialising in orchids, on which he published a number of books. (Lindenia : iconographie des Orchidées)
Joseph Dalton Hooker (Hook.f.)
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
Heinrich Zollinger (Zoll.)
Heinrich Zollinger (March 22, 1818 – May 19, 1859) was a Swiss botanist. In 1842 he moved to Java, working in a botanical garden, and on small government-financed scientific expeditions. He returned to Switzerland in 1848, but came back to Java in 1855 with his wife and two children. The species Clavaria zollingeri described scientifically by French mycologist Joseph-Henri Léveillé in 1846 was named after Heinrich Zollinger, who researched the genus Clavaria, and collected the type specimen in Java.
Simon Binnendijk (Binn.)
Simon Binnendijk (March 26, 1821, Leiden – October 28, 1883, Buitenzorg) was a Dutch gardener and botanist.
He received botanical training under Willem Hendrik de Vriese (1806–1862) in Leiden. From 1850 to 1869 he was assistant curator at the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg in the Dutch East Indies, afterwards serving as curator of the gardens. During his tenure in the East Indies, he participated on a botanical expedition to the Moluccas.
With Johannes Elias Teijsmann (1808–1882), he was co-author of "Plantae novae in Horto Bogoriensi cultae" (1862) and "Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto botanico bogoriensi coluntur" (1866). With Teijsmann, he described the genera Capellenia, Eusideroxylon and Gonystylus, as well as numerous botanical species. The specific epithet of binnendijkii commemorates his name, two examples being Garcinia binnendijkii and Ficus binnendijkii.
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
Heinrich Zollinger (Zoll.)
Heinrich Zollinger (March 22, 1818 – May 19, 1859) was a Swiss botanist. In 1842 he moved to Java, working in a botanical garden, and on small government-financed scientific expeditions. He returned to Switzerland in 1848, but came back to Java in 1855 with his wife and two children. The species Clavaria zollingeri described scientifically by French mycologist Joseph-Henri Léveillé in 1846 was named after Heinrich Zollinger, who researched the genus Clavaria, and collected the type specimen in Java.
Simon Binnendijk (Binn.)
Simon Binnendijk (March 26, 1821, Leiden – October 28, 1883, Buitenzorg) was a Dutch gardener and botanist.
He received botanical training under Willem Hendrik de Vriese (1806–1862) in Leiden. From 1850 to 1869 he was assistant curator at the Botanical Garden of Buitenzorg in the Dutch East Indies, afterwards serving as curator of the gardens. During his tenure in the East Indies, he participated on a botanical expedition to the Moluccas.
With Johannes Elias Teijsmann (1808–1882), he was co-author of "Plantae novae in Horto Bogoriensi cultae" (1862) and "Catalogus plantarum quae in Horto botanico bogoriensi coluntur" (1866). With Teijsmann, he described the genera Capellenia, Eusideroxylon and Gonystylus, as well as numerous botanical species. The specific epithet of binnendijkii commemorates his name, two examples being Garcinia binnendijkii and Ficus binnendijkii.
Benjamin Samuel Williams (B.S.Williams)
Benjamin Samuel Williams (2 March 1822 – 24 June 1890), English orchidologist and nurseryman in London, known mainly for his horticultural notes on orchids in publications such as The Orchid Grower's Manual (London 1871), Select Orchidaceous Plants (London 1862 onwards) and The Orchid Album (London 1882-97). Williams' father James was gardener to Robert Warner, the botanist, at Hoddesdon, and Benjamin began working under his father at the age of fourteen. He first gained prominence as an orchid grower when he was hired by the orchid collector C. B. Warner, whose orchids soon began winning prizes at top orchid shows. Williams was a business partner of Robert Parker's in a nursery at Seven Sisters Road in Holloway between 1854 and 1861, and later moved to the nearby Victoria and Paradise Nurseries. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation B.S.Williams when citing a botanical name.
Benjamin Samuel Williams (2 March 1822 – 24 June 1890), English orchidologist and nurseryman in London, known mainly for his horticultural notes on orchids in publications such as The Orchid Grower's Manual (London 1871), Select Orchidaceous Plants (London 1862 onwards) and The Orchid Album (London 1882-97). Williams' father James was gardener to Robert Warner, the botanist, at Hoddesdon, and Benjamin began working under his father at the age of fourteen. He first gained prominence as an orchid grower when he was hired by the orchid collector C. B. Warner, whose orchids soon began winning prizes at top orchid shows. Williams was a business partner of Robert Parker's in a nursery at Seven Sisters Road in Holloway between 1854 and 1861, and later moved to the nearby Victoria and Paradise Nurseries. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation B.S.Williams when citing a botanical name.
Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Rchb.f.)
Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 – Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century. His father Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (author of Icones Florae Germanicae et Helveticae) was also a well-known botanist.
He started his study of orchids at the age of 18 and assisted his father in the writing of Icones. He became a Doctor in Botany with his work on the pollen of orchids (see ‘Selected Works’).
Soon after his graduation, Reichenbach was appointed to the post of extraordinary professor of botany at the Leipzig in 1855. He then became director of the botanical gardens at the Hamburg University (1863-1889).
At that time, thousands of newly discovered orchids were being sent back to Europe. He was responsible for identifying, describing, classifying. Reichenbach named and recorded many of these new discoveries. He probably was not the easiest of personalities, and used to boast about his many descriptions, some of which were superficial, leading to a great deal of taxonomic confusion.
H.G. Reichenbach became the world’s leading authority on orchids, after the death of his friend, the 'father of orchidology' John Lindley in 1865.
"Orchid specimens from all over the world were sent to him for identification, and these, together with his copious notes and drawings, forms an immense herbarium which rivaled that of Lindley at Kew" (Reinikka, 'A history of the orchid', p. 215).
His immense herbarium and library were bequeathed to the 'Naturhistorisches Museum' in Vienna, Austria (instead, as expected, to the Kew Gardens), on the condition that it would not be consulted during the first 25 years after his death. Reichenbach probably acted this way out of resentment of the appointment of Robert Allen Rolfe, a self-taught orchid expert, as the top taxonomist at Kew. This resulted in a great number of double or multiple descriptions of orchid species, which had to be corrected afterwards.
After Reichenbach’s death, his work was continued by Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (“Fritz”) Kraenzlin (1847-1934).
In 1886, Frederick Sander commissioned Henry George Moon (1857-1905), a pure colourist, to paint 192 watercolor plates of orchids with descriptions by Reichenbach (1888-1894). These monthly publications became known as the Reichenbachia and are the richest reference sources on orchids ever produced.
Henry Fletcher Hance (Hance)
Henry Fletcher Hance (4 Aug 1827 – 22 June 1886) was a British diplomat who devoted his spare time to the study of Chinese plants.
Born in London, his first appointment was to Hong Kong in 1844. He later became vice-consul to Whampoa, consul to Canton, and finally consul to Xiamen, where he died in 1886. In 1873, Hance published a supplement to George Bentham's 1861 Flora Hongkongensis.
He found, named and described (in Latin) Iris speculatrix in 1875. He was the taxonomic author of many plants. In 1857 Berthold Carl Seemann named the genus Hancea (family Euphorbiaceae) in his honour.
Samuel Bonsall Parish (C.S.P.Parish)
Samuel Bonsall Parish (1838 - 1928) was a California botanist and curator of the herbarium at Stanford University. A number of plants were named in his honor, including some orchid species: Hygrochilus parishii, Vanda parishii, Stauropsis parishii.
After studying at New York University in 1858, he became a professor and then participated for four years at the American Civil War. With his brother, he bought a ranch near San Bernardino in 1872 and studied the flora of southern California. His collection of plants of this region led him to undertake a collaboration with Charles Christopher Parry and C. G. Pringle. His herbarium was sold to Stanford University in 1917.
Harry Veitch (H.J. Veitch)
Sir Harry James Veitch (24 June 1840 – 6 July 1924) was an eminent English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establishing the Chelsea Flower Show, which led to him being knighted for services to horticulture.
Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer (Pfitzer)
Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer (born 26 March 1846 in Königsberg, died 3 December 1906 in Heidelberg) was a German botanist who specialised in the taxonomy of the Orchidaceae (orchids).
Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Ludwig Kranzlin (Kraenzl.)
Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Ludwig Kränzlin (25 July 1847 – 9 March 1934) was a botanist associated with the Natural History Museum (BM).
In the history of the European study of South African orchids, Fritz Kränzlin appears after Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach describing many new orchids in the region, and revising some of the genera. His book Orchidacearum Genera et Species was never finished, but the volume containing the Habenaria, Disa, and Disperis genus was completed in 1901.
Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 – Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century. His father Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (author of Icones Florae Germanicae et Helveticae) was also a well-known botanist.
He started his study of orchids at the age of 18 and assisted his father in the writing of Icones. He became a Doctor in Botany with his work on the pollen of orchids (see ‘Selected Works’).
Soon after his graduation, Reichenbach was appointed to the post of extraordinary professor of botany at the Leipzig in 1855. He then became director of the botanical gardens at the Hamburg University (1863-1889).
At that time, thousands of newly discovered orchids were being sent back to Europe. He was responsible for identifying, describing, classifying. Reichenbach named and recorded many of these new discoveries. He probably was not the easiest of personalities, and used to boast about his many descriptions, some of which were superficial, leading to a great deal of taxonomic confusion.
H.G. Reichenbach became the world’s leading authority on orchids, after the death of his friend, the 'father of orchidology' John Lindley in 1865.
"Orchid specimens from all over the world were sent to him for identification, and these, together with his copious notes and drawings, forms an immense herbarium which rivaled that of Lindley at Kew" (Reinikka, 'A history of the orchid', p. 215).
His immense herbarium and library were bequeathed to the 'Naturhistorisches Museum' in Vienna, Austria (instead, as expected, to the Kew Gardens), on the condition that it would not be consulted during the first 25 years after his death. Reichenbach probably acted this way out of resentment of the appointment of Robert Allen Rolfe, a self-taught orchid expert, as the top taxonomist at Kew. This resulted in a great number of double or multiple descriptions of orchid species, which had to be corrected afterwards.
After Reichenbach’s death, his work was continued by Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (“Fritz”) Kraenzlin (1847-1934).
In 1886, Frederick Sander commissioned Henry George Moon (1857-1905), a pure colourist, to paint 192 watercolor plates of orchids with descriptions by Reichenbach (1888-1894). These monthly publications became known as the Reichenbachia and are the richest reference sources on orchids ever produced.
Henry Fletcher Hance (Hance)
Henry Fletcher Hance (4 Aug 1827 – 22 June 1886) was a British diplomat who devoted his spare time to the study of Chinese plants.
Born in London, his first appointment was to Hong Kong in 1844. He later became vice-consul to Whampoa, consul to Canton, and finally consul to Xiamen, where he died in 1886. In 1873, Hance published a supplement to George Bentham's 1861 Flora Hongkongensis.
He found, named and described (in Latin) Iris speculatrix in 1875. He was the taxonomic author of many plants. In 1857 Berthold Carl Seemann named the genus Hancea (family Euphorbiaceae) in his honour.
Samuel Bonsall Parish (C.S.P.Parish)
Samuel Bonsall Parish (1838 - 1928) was a California botanist and curator of the herbarium at Stanford University. A number of plants were named in his honor, including some orchid species: Hygrochilus parishii, Vanda parishii, Stauropsis parishii.
After studying at New York University in 1858, he became a professor and then participated for four years at the American Civil War. With his brother, he bought a ranch near San Bernardino in 1872 and studied the flora of southern California. His collection of plants of this region led him to undertake a collaboration with Charles Christopher Parry and C. G. Pringle. His herbarium was sold to Stanford University in 1917.
Harry Veitch (H.J. Veitch)
Sir Harry James Veitch (24 June 1840 – 6 July 1924) was an eminent English horticulturist in the nineteenth century, who was the head of the family nursery business, James Veitch & Sons, based in Chelsea, London. He was instrumental in establishing the Chelsea Flower Show, which led to him being knighted for services to horticulture.
Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer (Pfitzer)
Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer (born 26 March 1846 in Königsberg, died 3 December 1906 in Heidelberg) was a German botanist who specialised in the taxonomy of the Orchidaceae (orchids).
Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Ludwig Kranzlin (Kraenzl.)
Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Ludwig Kränzlin (25 July 1847 – 9 March 1934) was a botanist associated with the Natural History Museum (BM).
In the history of the European study of South African orchids, Fritz Kränzlin appears after Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach describing many new orchids in the region, and revising some of the genera. His book Orchidacearum Genera et Species was never finished, but the volume containing the Habenaria, Disa, and Disperis genus was completed in 1901.
Robert Allen Rolfe (Rolfe)
Robert Allen Rolfe (1855, Basford, Nottinghamshire – 1921, Richmond, Surrey) was an English botanist specialising in the study of orchids. He was the first curator of the orchid herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, founded the magazine The Orchid Review, and published many papers on hybrids of different species of orchids.
The genus Allenrolfea of amaranths was named after him by Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze.
Henry Nicholas Ridley (Ridl.)
Henry Nicholas Ridley (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula and, for the fervour with which he pursued it, came to be called as "Mad Ridley".
Achille Eugène Finet (Finet)
Achille Eugène Finet (1863, Argenteuil – 1913, París) was a French botanist best known for his study of orchids native to Japan and China.
Within the family Orchidaceae, he was the taxonomic authority of the genera Arethusantha, Hemihabenaria, Monixus and Pseudoliparis as well as of numerous orchid species. With François Gagnepain, he circumscribed a number of plant species from the family Annonaceae.
In 1925 Hu Xiansu named the orchid genus Neofinetia in his honor.
Robert Allen Rolfe (Rolfe)
Robert Allen Rolfe (1855, Basford, Nottinghamshire – 1921, Richmond, Surrey) was an English botanist specialising in the study of orchids. He was the first curator of the orchid herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, founded the magazine The Orchid Review, and published many papers on hybrids of different species of orchids.
The genus Allenrolfea of amaranths was named after him by Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze.
Henry Nicholas Ridley (Ridl.)
Henry Nicholas Ridley (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) was an English botanist, geologist and naturalist who lived much of life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting rubber trees in the Malay Peninsula and, for the fervour with which he pursued it, came to be called as "Mad Ridley".
Achille Eugène Finet (Finet)
Achille Eugène Finet (1863, Argenteuil – 1913, París) was a French botanist best known for his study of orchids native to Japan and China.
Within the family Orchidaceae, he was the taxonomic authority of the genera Arethusantha, Hemihabenaria, Monixus and Pseudoliparis as well as of numerous orchid species. With François Gagnepain, he circumscribed a number of plant species from the family Annonaceae.
In 1925 Hu Xiansu named the orchid genus Neofinetia in his honor.
Francois Gagnpain (Gagnep)
François Gagnepain (23 September 1866 – 25 January 1952) was a French botanist. With Achille Eugène Finet, he named a number of species within the botanical family Annonaceae. The genus Gagnepainia (family Zingiberaceae) was named in his honor by Karl Moritz Schumann. The French Academy of Sciences awarded Gagnepain the Prix de Coincy for the year 1907.
Rudolf Schlechter (Schltr.)
Friedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter (16 October 1872 – 16 November 1925) was a German taxonomist, botanist, and author of several works on orchids.
He went on botanical expeditions in Africa, Indonesia, New Guinea, South and Central America and Australia.
His vast herbarium was destroyed during the bombing of Berlin in 1945.
Cecil Ernest Claude Fisher (C.E.C.Fisch.)
Cecil Ernest Claude Fischer (1874-1950), was a British botanist.
Elmer Drew Merril (Merr.)
Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through the course of his career he authored nearly 500 publications, described approximately 3,000 new plant species, and amassed over one million herbarium specimens. In addition to his scientific work he was an accomplished administrator, college dean, university professor and editor of scientific journals. In 1924 Merrill returned to the United States to join the University of California, Berkeley. There he was appointed Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. At Berkeley he led a reorganization of the faculty, revised the curriculum, emphasized academic training of staff, added buildings and equipment, and stressed fundamental research. In 1925, Merrill established the journal Hilgardia, named for Eugene W. Hilgard who organized the Agriculture Department and was the founding director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. During his spare time, Merrill continued to work on systematic botany of the Asia-Pacific flora and added more than 100,000 specimens from that region to the University herbarium.
In 1926 a proposal was developed to establish the California Botanic Garden in Los Angeles. Merrill took part-time leave from the College to become director of the Garden Foundation. The plan involved the purchase of 4,500 acres at Mandeville Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. About 800 acres in the center of the tract were to be developed as a botanical garden financed by the sale of surrounding property for residential homes. During his short tenure as director Merrill built administrative offices and greenhouses, started a library, established an herbarium of 180,000 specimens and planted 1,200 species in the gardens. Unfortunately, not long after Merrill left, the plans collapsed when property prices plummeted as a result of the Great Depression. The herbarium was transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles and the gardens were subdivided and sold for housing.
In 1929 Merrill accepted dual appointments as Director of the New York Botanic Garden and Professor of Botany at Columbia University. He started his new job at the onset of the Great Depression and the Garden was facing severe financial constraints. Despite these difficulties, he was able to continue many of the programs by taking advantage of personnel provided by the Works Progress Administration. Up to 300 personnel were employed building walks, roads, fences and other infrastructure in the gardens; or they worked in the herbarium as mounters, artists, secretaries, librarians, clerks and technicians.
The herbarium collection was completely rearranged, operations were improved, and specimens inventoried for the first time. Once the substantial backlog of unmounted material was complete, specimens were mounted for other institutions including the Arnold Arboretum and the Gray Herbarium. In 1931 Merrill established a new journal focused on systematic botany and plant geography, named Brittonia after Nathaniel Lord Britton, a co-founder of the Garden.
n 1935 Merrill left the Botanic Garden and took a job as Administrator of Botanical Collections at Harvard University, a new position created to consolidate the supervision of eight separate Harvard botanical units. A year after his arrival Merrill also became the Arnold Professor of Botany, and in 1937 the Director of the Arnold Arboretum. In his new roles Merrill devoted significant time to expanding the herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum and to research on Asiatic plants. Over the next ten years 220,000 plant specimens were acquired from all parts of Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Merrill continued to publish numerous papers on Asia flora as well as articles dealing with the cultivation and dispersion of domesticated plants. During the Second World War he consulted with the United States War Department and wrote a handbook, Emergency Food Plants and Poisonous Plants of the Islands of the Pacific.
In 1946, at the age of seventy Merrill retired from his administrative duties and became Professor Emeritus in 1948. He continued with his research at Harvard and traveled as much as his age and health would allow. One of his last major contributions was The Botany of Cook's Voyages and it's Unexpected Significance in Relation to Anthropology, Biogeography and History, published in 1952.
Merrill died on February 25, 1956 at Forest Hills, Massachusetts. His library of 2,600 titles was donated to the New York Botanical Garden and a fund was established to award an annual medal to “that individual within the entire field of botany irrespective of race, creed or nationality who was considered worthy of such an award”.
André Guillaumin (Guillaumin)
André Louis Joseph Edmond Armand Guillaumin (21 June 1885 in Arrou – 29 May 1974 in Athis-Mons), was a French botanist.
He obtained his license in natural sciences in 1906 and began work in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris in 1909 as a preparer. He obtained a doctorate in science in 1910 and became assistant to the chair of botany and plant physiology. In 1932 he succeeded Désiré Georges Jean Marie Bois (1856-1946) as head of the department of horticulture at the museum. He became the deputy director of the museum from 1947 to 1950, retiring in 1956.
His work includes the investigation on the parts associated with Oxalidaceae, Rutaceae, Burseraceae, Hamamelidaceae, Haloragaceae, Callitrichaceae, Rhizophoraceae, Mehistomaceae and Crypteroniaceae
in Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine (Flowers of Indo-China; 1910, 1911, 1912, 1920, 1921), Arbres et arbrisseaux utiles ou ornementaux (Useful and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs; 1928) and Les Fleurs de jardins (The Flowers for Gardens; 4 volumes, 1929 to 1936). In 1928 he published a posthumous book by Léon Diguet, Les Cactacées utiles du Mexique (Useful Cacti of Mexico). Despite limited resources, Guillaumin made significant contributions to the museum, and was the creator of several gardens, including the winter, or alpine garden.
William Bertram Turrill (Turrill)
William Bertram Turrill (14 June 1890 – 15 December 1961) was an English botanist. He was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire to William Banbury and Thirza Mary (née Homan) Turrill and educated at the Woodstock National School. Turrill worked in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and was responsible for many innovations including a mathematical classification of leaf shapes. Turrill received the Order of the British Empire in 1955 and the gold medal of the Linnean Society in 1958. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1958 as someone:
“Distinguished for his work on plant taxonomy, particularly for his experimental and genetical approach to problems among British plant species and for his exceptional knowledge of the floras of the Near East”.
Richard Eric Holttum (Holttum)
Richard Eric Holttum (20 July 1895 – 18 September 1990) was an English botanist and author. Having received botanical training, Holttum was given the role of assistant director at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in 1922, with the guidance of Isaac Henry Burkill. In Singapore, he performed some exhaustive studies, and was promoted to director in 1925, following the retirement of Burkill. His areas of expertise were the growth and cultivation of orchids. He continued working at the Singapore Botanical Gardens even during the Japanese occupation of the country. Returning from Great Britain, where he departed to in 1925, Holttum continued his job as the Garden's director, until he moved to the University of Malaya in Singapore to serve as its first Professor of Botany. Holttum penned many books during his tenure at the educational institution, including Gardening at the lowlands of the Malays (which is credited as the first book on Singaporean gardening) and Plant Life in Malaya. He was also the first head of department for Botany at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore. He founded the Malayan Orchid Society (now Orchid Society of South East Asia) in 1928. He went back to England later in 1954.
Holttum's area of interest was pteridology, such as that of Malayan ferns. Spending some time at the Kew Gardens to work, Holttum died 18 September 1990 in Roehampton, London, aged 95.
Tsin Tang (Tang)
Tsin Tang (1897-1984), was a Chinese botanist.
Fa Tsuan Wang (F.T.Wang)
Fa Tsuan Wang (1899-1985), was a Chinese botanist.
Edgar W. Denison
Edgar W. Denison (August 31, 1904 – August 14, 1993) was a conservationist, amateur botanist and naturalist who was an early proponent of the value of the use of native plants in cultivated landscapes and in preserving and restoring biodiversity in natural and disturbed habitats. He provided text as well as many photographs and illustrations for the handbook, Missouri Wildflowers, published by Missouri Department of Conservation in 1972, and now in its 6th edition.
Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through the course of his career he authored nearly 500 publications, described approximately 3,000 new plant species, and amassed over one million herbarium specimens. In addition to his scientific work he was an accomplished administrator, college dean, university professor and editor of scientific journals. In 1924 Merrill returned to the United States to join the University of California, Berkeley. There he was appointed Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. At Berkeley he led a reorganization of the faculty, revised the curriculum, emphasized academic training of staff, added buildings and equipment, and stressed fundamental research. In 1925, Merrill established the journal Hilgardia, named for Eugene W. Hilgard who organized the Agriculture Department and was the founding director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. During his spare time, Merrill continued to work on systematic botany of the Asia-Pacific flora and added more than 100,000 specimens from that region to the University herbarium.
In 1926 a proposal was developed to establish the California Botanic Garden in Los Angeles. Merrill took part-time leave from the College to become director of the Garden Foundation. The plan involved the purchase of 4,500 acres at Mandeville Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. About 800 acres in the center of the tract were to be developed as a botanical garden financed by the sale of surrounding property for residential homes. During his short tenure as director Merrill built administrative offices and greenhouses, started a library, established an herbarium of 180,000 specimens and planted 1,200 species in the gardens. Unfortunately, not long after Merrill left, the plans collapsed when property prices plummeted as a result of the Great Depression. The herbarium was transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles and the gardens were subdivided and sold for housing.
In 1929 Merrill accepted dual appointments as Director of the New York Botanic Garden and Professor of Botany at Columbia University. He started his new job at the onset of the Great Depression and the Garden was facing severe financial constraints. Despite these difficulties, he was able to continue many of the programs by taking advantage of personnel provided by the Works Progress Administration. Up to 300 personnel were employed building walks, roads, fences and other infrastructure in the gardens; or they worked in the herbarium as mounters, artists, secretaries, librarians, clerks and technicians.
The herbarium collection was completely rearranged, operations were improved, and specimens inventoried for the first time. Once the substantial backlog of unmounted material was complete, specimens were mounted for other institutions including the Arnold Arboretum and the Gray Herbarium. In 1931 Merrill established a new journal focused on systematic botany and plant geography, named Brittonia after Nathaniel Lord Britton, a co-founder of the Garden.
n 1935 Merrill left the Botanic Garden and took a job as Administrator of Botanical Collections at Harvard University, a new position created to consolidate the supervision of eight separate Harvard botanical units. A year after his arrival Merrill also became the Arnold Professor of Botany, and in 1937 the Director of the Arnold Arboretum. In his new roles Merrill devoted significant time to expanding the herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum and to research on Asiatic plants. Over the next ten years 220,000 plant specimens were acquired from all parts of Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Merrill continued to publish numerous papers on Asia flora as well as articles dealing with the cultivation and dispersion of domesticated plants. During the Second World War he consulted with the United States War Department and wrote a handbook, Emergency Food Plants and Poisonous Plants of the Islands of the Pacific.
In 1946, at the age of seventy Merrill retired from his administrative duties and became Professor Emeritus in 1948. He continued with his research at Harvard and traveled as much as his age and health would allow. One of his last major contributions was The Botany of Cook's Voyages and it's Unexpected Significance in Relation to Anthropology, Biogeography and History, published in 1952.
Merrill died on February 25, 1956 at Forest Hills, Massachusetts. His library of 2,600 titles was donated to the New York Botanical Garden and a fund was established to award an annual medal to “that individual within the entire field of botany irrespective of race, creed or nationality who was considered worthy of such an award”.
André Guillaumin (Guillaumin)
André Louis Joseph Edmond Armand Guillaumin (21 June 1885 in Arrou – 29 May 1974 in Athis-Mons), was a French botanist.
He obtained his license in natural sciences in 1906 and began work in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris in 1909 as a preparer. He obtained a doctorate in science in 1910 and became assistant to the chair of botany and plant physiology. In 1932 he succeeded Désiré Georges Jean Marie Bois (1856-1946) as head of the department of horticulture at the museum. He became the deputy director of the museum from 1947 to 1950, retiring in 1956.
His work includes the investigation on the parts associated with Oxalidaceae, Rutaceae, Burseraceae, Hamamelidaceae, Haloragaceae, Callitrichaceae, Rhizophoraceae, Mehistomaceae and Crypteroniaceae
in Flore générale de l'Indo-Chine (Flowers of Indo-China; 1910, 1911, 1912, 1920, 1921), Arbres et arbrisseaux utiles ou ornementaux (Useful and Ornamental Trees and Shrubs; 1928) and Les Fleurs de jardins (The Flowers for Gardens; 4 volumes, 1929 to 1936). In 1928 he published a posthumous book by Léon Diguet, Les Cactacées utiles du Mexique (Useful Cacti of Mexico). Despite limited resources, Guillaumin made significant contributions to the museum, and was the creator of several gardens, including the winter, or alpine garden.
William Bertram Turrill (Turrill)
William Bertram Turrill (14 June 1890 – 15 December 1961) was an English botanist. He was born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire to William Banbury and Thirza Mary (née Homan) Turrill and educated at the Woodstock National School. Turrill worked in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and was responsible for many innovations including a mathematical classification of leaf shapes. Turrill received the Order of the British Empire in 1955 and the gold medal of the Linnean Society in 1958. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March 1958 as someone:
“Distinguished for his work on plant taxonomy, particularly for his experimental and genetical approach to problems among British plant species and for his exceptional knowledge of the floras of the Near East”.
Richard Eric Holttum (Holttum)
Richard Eric Holttum (20 July 1895 – 18 September 1990) was an English botanist and author. Having received botanical training, Holttum was given the role of assistant director at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in 1922, with the guidance of Isaac Henry Burkill. In Singapore, he performed some exhaustive studies, and was promoted to director in 1925, following the retirement of Burkill. His areas of expertise were the growth and cultivation of orchids. He continued working at the Singapore Botanical Gardens even during the Japanese occupation of the country. Returning from Great Britain, where he departed to in 1925, Holttum continued his job as the Garden's director, until he moved to the University of Malaya in Singapore to serve as its first Professor of Botany. Holttum penned many books during his tenure at the educational institution, including Gardening at the lowlands of the Malays (which is credited as the first book on Singaporean gardening) and Plant Life in Malaya. He was also the first head of department for Botany at the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore. He founded the Malayan Orchid Society (now Orchid Society of South East Asia) in 1928. He went back to England later in 1954.
Holttum's area of interest was pteridology, such as that of Malayan ferns. Spending some time at the Kew Gardens to work, Holttum died 18 September 1990 in Roehampton, London, aged 95.
Tsin Tang (Tang)
Tsin Tang (1897-1984), was a Chinese botanist.
Fa Tsuan Wang (F.T.Wang)
Fa Tsuan Wang (1899-1985), was a Chinese botanist.
Edgar W. Denison
Edgar W. Denison (August 31, 1904 – August 14, 1993) was a conservationist, amateur botanist and naturalist who was an early proponent of the value of the use of native plants in cultivated landscapes and in preserving and restoring biodiversity in natural and disturbed habitats. He provided text as well as many photographs and illustrations for the handbook, Missouri Wildflowers, published by Missouri Department of Conservation in 1972, and now in its 6th edition.
Gunnar Seidenfaden (Seidenf.)
Gunnar Seidenfaden (1908 – February 9, 2001) was a Danish diplomat and botanist. He was Danish ambassador in Thailand 1955-1959, and in the U.S.S.R. 1959-1961. He was an expert on Southeast Asia Orchidaceae. He published several multi-volume works on orchids, e.g. The Orchids of Thailand – A Preliminary List (with T. Smitinand) and Orchid Genera in Thailand vol. I- XIV.
Herman Roydon Sweet (H.R.Sweet)
Herman Roydon Sweet (1909-1992) was a American botanist.
Andrew Benson (Benson)
Andrew Alm Benson (September 24, 1917 – January 16, 2015) was an American biologist and a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, until his retirement in 1989. He is known for his work in understanding the carbon cycle in plants.
Tem Smitinand (Smitinand)
Dr. Smitinand (1920 – 18 March 1995) was associated with the Forest Herbarium (BKF) in Thailand, and a specialist in the taxonomy of the Cycadaceae, Dipterocarpaeae, and the Orchidaceae. From 1947-1977 Smitinand organized a group of collectors to document the flora of various regions of Thailand. These collectors included Dee Bunpheng, Din Nakkan, Chit Nuphakdee, Ploenchit Suvarnakoset, Bunnak Sangkhachand, Bunchu Nimanong, Sanan Phengnaren, Damrongsak Praphat, Sanoh Phengnaren, Sanan Thaworn, Sinchai Phusomsaeng, and Kanthachai Bunchai.
Leslie Andrew Garay (Garay)
Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 - August 19, 2016) was an American botanist. He is the retired curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded Charles Schweinfurth in 1958. In 1957 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Garay was born in Hungary, and after the Second World War he emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States. He was a taxonomist with his specialty in the Spermatophytes. Not only was he an orchid taxonomist, he was also an orchid collector. He was particularly interested in the orchids of tropical America and Southeast Asia.
His ideas were influential in orchid taxonomy, and he reorganized several genera, including the Oncidium. In addition to reclassification of various species into different genera, he defined a number of new genera including the Chaubardiella in 1969 and the Amesiella in 1972.
Sing Chi Chen (S.C.Chen)
Sing Chi Chen (born 1931), is a Chinese botanist.
Marpha Telepova-Texier (Telepova)
Marpha Telepova-Texier is a Russian expert in Orchid Taxonomy. She's working for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.
André Schuiteman (Schuit.)
André Schuiteman (1960, Amsterdam) is a Dutch botanist in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, United Kingdom, where he is the Research Leader for Asia in Plant Identification and Naming.
Johannes Christian Vogel (de Vogel)
Johannes Christian Vogel (born 15 May 1963) is a German botanist, who since 1 February 2012 has been Director General of the Museum für Naturkunde and Professor of Biodiversity and Public Science at Humboldt University, both in Berlin..
Alexander Kocyan (Kocyan)
Alexander Kocyan (1965), is a German botanist. He is specialist in systematic botany, at the University of Munich, Germany.
Govaerts Rafaël (Govaerts)
Rafaël Herman Anna Govaerts (born 1968) is a Belgian botanist. He is particularly noted for his work on plant taxonomy. He has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since the 1990s, and is the principal contributor to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.
Gunnar Seidenfaden (1908 – February 9, 2001) was a Danish diplomat and botanist. He was Danish ambassador in Thailand 1955-1959, and in the U.S.S.R. 1959-1961. He was an expert on Southeast Asia Orchidaceae. He published several multi-volume works on orchids, e.g. The Orchids of Thailand – A Preliminary List (with T. Smitinand) and Orchid Genera in Thailand vol. I- XIV.
Herman Roydon Sweet (H.R.Sweet)
Herman Roydon Sweet (1909-1992) was a American botanist.
Andrew Benson (Benson)
Andrew Alm Benson (September 24, 1917 – January 16, 2015) was an American biologist and a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, until his retirement in 1989. He is known for his work in understanding the carbon cycle in plants.
Tem Smitinand (Smitinand)
Dr. Smitinand (1920 – 18 March 1995) was associated with the Forest Herbarium (BKF) in Thailand, and a specialist in the taxonomy of the Cycadaceae, Dipterocarpaeae, and the Orchidaceae. From 1947-1977 Smitinand organized a group of collectors to document the flora of various regions of Thailand. These collectors included Dee Bunpheng, Din Nakkan, Chit Nuphakdee, Ploenchit Suvarnakoset, Bunnak Sangkhachand, Bunchu Nimanong, Sanan Phengnaren, Damrongsak Praphat, Sanoh Phengnaren, Sanan Thaworn, Sinchai Phusomsaeng, and Kanthachai Bunchai.
Leslie Andrew Garay (Garay)
Leslie Andrew Garay (August 6, 1924 - August 19, 2016) was an American botanist. He is the retired curator of the Oakes Ames Orchid Herbarium at Harvard University, where he succeeded Charles Schweinfurth in 1958. In 1957 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Garay was born in Hungary, and after the Second World War he emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States. He was a taxonomist with his specialty in the Spermatophytes. Not only was he an orchid taxonomist, he was also an orchid collector. He was particularly interested in the orchids of tropical America and Southeast Asia.
His ideas were influential in orchid taxonomy, and he reorganized several genera, including the Oncidium. In addition to reclassification of various species into different genera, he defined a number of new genera including the Chaubardiella in 1969 and the Amesiella in 1972.
Sing Chi Chen (S.C.Chen)
Sing Chi Chen (born 1931), is a Chinese botanist.
Marpha Telepova-Texier (Telepova)
Marpha Telepova-Texier is a Russian expert in Orchid Taxonomy. She's working for the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.
André Schuiteman (Schuit.)
André Schuiteman (1960, Amsterdam) is a Dutch botanist in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London, United Kingdom, where he is the Research Leader for Asia in Plant Identification and Naming.
Johannes Christian Vogel (de Vogel)
Johannes Christian Vogel (born 15 May 1963) is a German botanist, who since 1 February 2012 has been Director General of the Museum für Naturkunde and Professor of Biodiversity and Public Science at Humboldt University, both in Berlin..
Alexander Kocyan (Kocyan)
Alexander Kocyan (1965), is a German botanist. He is specialist in systematic botany, at the University of Munich, Germany.
Govaerts Rafaël (Govaerts)
Rafaël Herman Anna Govaerts (born 1968) is a Belgian botanist. He is particularly noted for his work on plant taxonomy. He has worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since the 1990s, and is the principal contributor to the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families.
