James William Helenus Trail

James William Helenus Trail (born March 4, 1851 in Birsay on Orkney , † September 18, 1919 ) was a Scottish biologist and university professor. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Trail ".

Life

childhood

Trail was the youngest of the five children of Samuel Trail, pastor of the United Parishes of Harray and Birsay (1844–1866). Trail's mother was the sister of Professor Hercules Scott in Aberdeen. Since the older children could no longer be educated at home, they were sent to Aberdeen for education. This condemned James to a lonely childhood in the nature of the Orkneys, since his siblings were significantly older than himself. His school education he received from his father, who taught him Latin from the age of six . According to his own statements, he learned Latin grammar for three years before it dawned on him that it was a previously spoken language. Later, Trails would show his talent for languages, which would enable him to learn the major languages ​​of Europe to experience botanical textbooks first hand. At the age of eleven, Trail, like his older siblings, was sent to Aberdeen to attend school.

Education

His wish to study almost failed due to the family's lack of money. But the death of Robert Macpherson, Professor of Systematic Theology in 1867, gave Trail's father the opportunity to reapply for a chair at the university to which Macpherson had been preferred a few years earlier. This time his application was successful and the family moved to Aberdeen in 1868.

In 1870, Trail successfully completed his studies in natural history with an MA. Despite his father's contradiction, Trail then studied medicine because his main interest, natural history, would offer him little opportunity to make a living. Although he hated medicine, he also considered it one of the skills that would enable him to take part in expeditions. In 1872 he was offered a position in an expedition of the Amazon Steam Navigation Company to the Amazon due to the encouragement of his professors . He accepted and traveled with the expedition to South America. The report of the expedition was published in 1878 by Charles Barrington Brown and William Lidstone under the title "Fifteen Thousand Miles on the Amazon".

Expedition to the Amazon

In the seventeen months of his stay, Trail covered approximately 24,000 km, examining areas west of Belém to the Peruvian border that no one had explored before. Trail kept a detailed diary of the expedition, which he sent in portions to his mother back home. He also sent prepared plants and insects with the broadcasts and when he returned home in 1875 he had built a solid reputation for himself through the friendship of the curator of Kew Gardens , Joseph Dalton Hooker . In recognition of his achievements, his acclaimed collection resulted in 34 new taxa bearing his name. In Brazil, Trail met the botanist João Barbosa Rodrigues (1842–1909), who made him aware of the large number of palm trees. Trail was so intrigued by the subject that he described twenty new species and later wrote his first major scientific publication on the subject. Trail's claim to part of the initial descriptions was challenged by Rodrigues. Trail's collection from Amazonia comprised approximately 1,800 plants and 2,100 insects . This makes it an essential, but often overlooked, collection in research into the region.

Trail returned to the university and resumed his medical studies. In December 1875 he was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London . Despite these promising signs, he completed his medical studies in 1876 with the highest honors as a Medical Doctor. In the same year he accepted a job as a botanist in British Guiana .

Professorship in Aberdeen

Before he boarded the ship to Guiana as planned, Professor Dickie had to give up the Regius Chair of Botany in 1877 due to poor health . In his place, Trail was called, so he gave up his plans in Guiana. The certificate of appointment signed by Queen Victoria is dated March 31, 1877. A 25-year-old would have been appointed professor in Aberdeen four weeks earlier. Trail gave his first lecture on May 8, 1877. In the years that followed, despite his indigestion and debilitating headache, he would only miss two lectures when his father's death prevented him from doing so. In 1877/78 he stepped in for Professor Nichols because he was too ill to hold his lectures in natural history.

In 1877 he was elected curator of the university library and was confirmed in office again and again until his death. He made many improvements, including the employment of women to organize the library. When Professors Pirie and Nicholson gave up their joint leadership of the Science Committee, Trail was elected leader. Here, too, he was re-elected and when the Science Committee became the Science Faculty , he became its dean . He fulfilled this role until 1917. He was interested in education for women and welcomed the opening of the university to female students from 1892 on. Unlike other universities of the time, Aberdeen did so without restriction and did not set any limits on admission.

On June 1, 1893, Trail was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1897 he was elected to the University Court and served there until 1905.

Cruickshank Gardens

In 1901 the Cruickshank Gardens were founded. It was a wonderful opportunity for Trail to plant the plants he was teaching about in a garden for the students. Together with the then curator of Kew Gardens, George Nicolson , he worked out a layout. To stimulate the students' enthusiasm for natural history, he introduced prizes in 1902, which he named Nicol Price (zoology) and Dickie Price (botany) in honor of his teachers.

Research and Teaching

Trail's scientific work began when he was still a student when he rearranged the university's insect and plant collection and added his own collection of local fauna and flora. After his appointment as Regius Professor, he would set up a university herbarium based on his personal collection. The collection was complemented by that of Trail's personal friend George Nicolson, the curator of Kew Gardens. The two were also responsible for the first design of the Cruickshank Botanic Gardens for the university.

Trail's first scientific publication dealt with the palm trees of Brazil in the Journal of Botany (1876/77). This work was followed by more on Scottish flora in the Annals of Scottish Natural History . In his later years he studied changes in local flora and neophytes and recorded their distribution. He thus created a database on the distribution of flowering plants and some mushrooms in Scotland at that time. His report on the plant distribution in the City Parish of Aberdeen detailed the change mainly under human influence.

Trail held his lectures from 8.00 a.m. - in the morning for the professors of his time - and he supplemented them with excursions on Saturdays, on which he himself could accurately identify fragments of plants for students or other interested parties. He not only supported his students professionally, but also donated for various purposes, the library, scholarships and others.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak} KE Trail: James William Helenus Trail: A memorial volume . Biographical Sketch. Aberdeen University Press, 1923, pp. 1–32 ( archive.org [accessed July 17, 2020]).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} unknown: James William Helenus Trail (1851-1919) Professor of Botany. In: University of Aberdeen website. University of Aberdeen, accessed July 17, 2020 .  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} M. S .: James William Helenus Trail, MA, MD, FRS, FLS (PDF) In: New Phytologist, Vol. 19, Issue 1-2. New Phytologist Trust, January 1920, pp. 46-48 , accessed July 19, 2020 .  
4. ↑ IPNI (2020): Trail, James William Helenus (1851-1919). In: Website of the International Plant Names Index. Published on the Internet http: //www.ipni.org,/ The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries and Australian National Botanic Gardens., Accessed on July 22, 2020 (English).  
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Magali Romero Sá: James William Helenus Trail: A British Naturalist In Nineteenth-Century Amazonia . A Dissertation Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Durham, United Kingdom. Ed .: University of Durham. Durham 1996 (English, core.ac.uk [PDF; accessed July 19, 2020]).
6. ^ Linnean Society of London: Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Ed .: From November 1875 to June 1880. Printer to the Linnean Society, London, p. ii ( archive.org ).