Charles Lyell (botanist)

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Charles Lyell (born March 7, 1767 in Kinnordy , Forfarshire , † November 8, 1849 ibid) was a Scottish botanist and Dante translator. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Lyell ".

Live and act

Charles Lyell studied at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Cambridge . He collected British plants and especially studied mosses . He discovered many new species, but he did not describe them himself. In 1813 he became a member of the London Linnaeus Society . After his time in England, he returned to his parents' estate in Kirriemuir in 1826 .

Lyell dealt with the medieval literature of Italy , especially with the poetry of Dante Alighieri , whose works Vita Nova and Il Convito he translated into English.

On October 11, 1776, he married Francis Smyth, with whom he had three sons and seven daughters. One of her sons was the geologist Charles Lyell .

Dedication names

Robert Brown named the moss genus Lyellia of the Polytrichaceae plant family in his honor . The deciduous moss Orthotrichum lyellii and other mosses have also been named after him.

Fonts

  • The Canzoniere of Dante Alighieri: including the poems of the Vita nuova and Convito . John Murray, London 1835 ( online ).
  • The Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito of Dante Alighieri . CF Molini, London 1842 ( online )
  • The Lyrical Poems of Dante Alighieri: including the Poems of the Vita Nuova and Convito . William Smith, London 1845 ( online ).
  • Short remarks on the doubts of P. Hardouin . In: Jean Hardouin: Doutes proposés sur l'age du Dante par le PHJ Paris 1847 ( online ).

proof

  • James Britten, George Simonds Boulger: A Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists . West, Newman & Co, London 1893, p. 108 ( online ).
  • Thomas Humphry Ward: Men of the Reign: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Persons of British and Colonial Birth who Have Died during the Reign of Queen Victoria . Routledge, London 1885, pp. 565-566 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Characters and description of Lyellia, a new genus of mosses, with observations on the section of the order to which it belongs . In: Transactions of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 12, 1819
  2. ↑ Global Plants: Type of Orthotrichum lyellii Hook. & Taylor
  3. ↑ Cf. Dictionary of National Biography: Lyell, Charles (1767–1849) : “Lyell […] devoted himself mainly to botany, especially to the study of mosses. Several species of these plants bear his name ”, that means: Several species of mosses bear his name.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lyell, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish botanist and Dante translator
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Kinnordy , Forfarshire
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1849
Place of death Kinnordy