Isaac Rand

Isaac Rand (* 1674 ; † May 1743 in Westminster ) was an English pharmacist and botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Rand ".

Life

Isaac Rand was believed to be the son of the London pharmacist James Rand. He owned a pharmacy on London's Haymarket .

He first appeared as a botanist when Leonard Plukenet mentioned him in his 1700 work Almagesti botanici mantissa as the discoverer of a plant from the London area. As early as February 22, 1704, Hans Sloane proposed him for admission to the Royal Society . However, it was only accepted on November 5, 1719.

In 1707 he, James Petiver , Joseph Miller († 1748) and others leased the Chelsea Physic Garden to support the work of the London Pharmacists ' Society. After the death of James Petiver, he was named demonstrator of the garden. He held this position until 1738. One of his duties was the annual submission of a catalog with 50 plants that grew in the Chelsea Physic Garden. These plant catalogs appeared regularly in the Philosophical Transactions . When Hans Sloane made part of his property available for the expansion of the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1722, he made these annual catalogs a condition. Since then, Philip Miller has also been employed there as a gardener.

In 1724, Rand became the first Praefectus Horti of the Chelsea Physic Garden. In his Index plantarum officinalium Horti Chelseiani of 1730, he described the medicinal use of 518 plants in the garden. During his time as garden director, Carl von Linné visited the garden in 1736 and was supported by Elizabeth Blackwell when she made the drawings for A Curious Herbal there .

Isaac Rand died in May 1743 in St. James Ward, Westminster.

Honor taxon

William Houstoun named in his honor the genre Randia the plant family of the redness plants (Rubiaceae). Carl von Linné later took over this name.

Fonts

• Index plantarum officinalium: quas ad materiae medicae scientiam doctorate in Horto Chelseiano ali ac demonstrati curavit Societas Pharmaceutica Londinensis . London, 1730
• Horti Medici Chelseiani index compendiarius: exhibens nomina plantarum quas ad rei herbariae praecipue Materiae Medicae scientiam promovendam ali curavit Societas Pharmacopoeorum Londinensium . London, 1737

proof

literature

• George Simonds Boulger :  Rand, Isaac . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 47:  Puckle - Reidfurd. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1896, pp 268 - 269 (English).
• Shirley Hibberd: Botanical Gardens, Chelsea . In: Notes and Queries . Volume s6-XII, No. 292, 1885, pp. 95-96

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gordon Godwin: Isaac Rand, FRS In: Notes and Queries . Volume s8-X, No. 245, 1886, p. 193.
2. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 523, (online) .
3. ↑ Carl von Linné: Species Plantarum . Stockholm 1753, Volume 2, p. 1192, (online) .

further reading

• Penelope Hunting: Isaac Rand and the Apothecaries Physic Garden at Chelsea . In: Garden History . Vol. 30, No. 1, 2002, pp. 1-23 (JSTOR) .
• Ruth Stungo: Rand, Isaac (1674-1743). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of May 2010 (not viewed).

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Isaac Rand at the IPNI
• Entry for Rand, Isaac (1674–1743) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
• Letter to Samuel Brewer (1669-1743)