John Gilbert Baker

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John Gilbert Baker around 1893 after a painting by Joseph W. Forster
John Gilbert Baker in the summer of 1906

John Gilbert Baker (born January 13, 1834 in Guisborough , Yorkshire , † August 16, 1920 in Kew , London ) was a British botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Baker ".

Live and act

John Gilbert Baker was a son of John Baker, a cloth and grocer, and his wife Mary (née Gilbert). In August 1834 his parents moved with him to Thirsk in Yorkshire and opened a shop there. In 1843 Baker became a student at the Quaker School in Ackworth and three years later at the Quaker School in Bootham ( York ). He finished his school education at the end of 1847 and then helped his father in the family business. In August 1860 he married Hannah Unthank († 1902). The botanist Edmund Gilbert Baker (1864-1949) was his son.

Baker began collecting plants at the age of twelve and was briefly responsible for the school herbarium in Bootham. Three years later, in 1849, the Phytologist published a short article on a species of sedges that he wrote . His first more extensive botanical work was in 1854 a supplement to Henry Baines (1793-1878) published in 1840 Flora of Yorkshire together with John Nowell (1802-1867) . When the Botanical Society of London closed the national plant swap, Baker suggested that the Thirsk Natural History Society continue this service. On the basis of this proposal, Baker became curator and secretary of the Thirsk Botanical Exchange Club in 1859 . His first major work was a pioneering ecological study, comprising over 1100 flowering plants and ferns, published in 1863 under the title North Yorkshire: Studies of its Botany, Geology, Climate and Physical Geography . In 1864, Baker's library and herbarium were destroyed by fire. In the same year his Review of the British Roses appeared in The Naturalist magazine . A year later, the monograph On the English Mints followed on the plant genus of mint ( Mentha ), which he published in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign .

From 1866 to 1890 Baker worked at the library and as an assistant at the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London (Kew). He was then promoted to curator there and held the post until 1899. Baker was very versatile and knew a lot about botany. From 1882, Baker gave lectures and experiments at the Apothecaries' Company (trading company for many of London's pharmacies ) .

Baker has written several handbooks, including on the plant families of the amaryllis family (Amaryllidaceae), the bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae), the iridaceae , the lily family (Liliaceae) and ferns (Filicinophyta).

Honors

In 1866, Baker was accepted into the Linnean Society of London , of which he was Vice President from 1889 to 1891 and from 1893 to 1894, and which awarded him the Linné Medal in 1899 . On June 6, 1878, Baker was elected a member of the Royal Society . The Royal Horticultural Society made him an honorary member and honored Baker with the Victoria Medal of Honor in 1897 and the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1907 . From the University of Leeds he received his honorary doctorate in science in 1919 .

In his honor the plant genera Bakerantha L.B.Sm. (1934), Bakerella Tiegh. (1895), Bakeria André (1889), Bakeria Seem. (1864), Bakeriella Dubard (1911), Bakerisideroxylon (Engl.) Engl. (1904), Bakerophyton (J.Léonard) Hutch. (1964, probably also dedicated to his son Edmund Gilbert Baker), Bakeropteris Kuntze (1891) and Neobakeria Schltr. (1924) named.

Fonts (selection)

Books
  • A supplement to Baines' Flora of Yorkshire. Pamplin, London 1854.
  • The flowering plants and ferns of Great Britain. Cashs, London 1855.
  • North Yorkshire: Studies of its Botany, Geology, Climate and Physical Geography . London 1863 ( online ).
  • A new flora of Northumberland and Durham. Williams & Norgate , London 1868.
  • Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles. Reeve, London 1877 ( online ).
  • A flora of the English Lake District. Bell, London 1885 ( online ).
  • Handbook of the fern-allies. Bell & Sons, London 1887 ( online ).
  • Handbook of the Amaryllideae, including the Alstroemerieae and Agaveae. Bell & Sons, London 1888 ( online ).
  • Handbook of the Bromeliaceae. Bell & Sons, London 1889 ( online ).
  • Handbook of the Irideae. Bell & Sons, London 1892 ( online ).
  • The Leguminosae of tropical Africa. Erasmus, Gent 1926-1930 (post mortem).
Magazine articles

Baker wrote about 400 articles which appeared primarily in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign , Journal of the Linnean Society, and the Kew Bulletin .

  • Occurrence of Carex Persoonii in an unrecorded locality in Yorkshire . In: The Phytologist: A popular botanical miscellany . Volume 3, 1849, pp. 738-739 ( online ).
  • Review of the British Roses. Especially Those of the North of England . In: The Naturalist . Volume 1, London 1864, pp. 14-24 , pp. 33-38 , pp. 60-67 , pp. 93-103 , pp. 141-144 .
  • On the English Mints . In: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign . Volume 3, London 1865, pp. 233-256 ( online ).
  • Revision of the genera and species of Asparagaceae . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 14, London 1875, pp. 508-632 ( online ).
  • A Synopsis of Aloineae and Yuccoideae . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 18, London 1881, pp. 148-241 ( online ).
  • Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar. - Part I. Polypetalæ . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 20, Number 126, March 1883, pp. 87-158 ( online ).
  • Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar. - Part II. Monopetalæ . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 20, Number 127, April 1883, pp. 159-236 ( online ).
  • Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar. - Part III. Incompletæ, Monocotyledons, and Filices . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 20, Number 128, June 1883, pp. 237-304 ( online ).
  • Further Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 22, 1886, pp. 441-536 ( online ).
  • Further Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar . In: Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany . Volume 25, Number 171/172, 1889/1890, pp. 294-350 ( online ).

literature

Modern
  • WJ de Kock, DW Krüger (Ed.): Dictionary of South African Biography . Volume 3, 1977, ISBN 0624008495 , p. 42.
  • Ray Desmond: Baker, John Gilbert (1834-1920). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 3: Avranches-Barnewall. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861353-9 , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), As of 2004, accessed January 12, 2013.
  • RGC Desmond: Baker, John Gilbert . In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography . Volume 1, Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008. pp. 412-413 (on-line) .
Contemporary
  • Obituaries. Baker, John Gilbert . In: Report of the Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles . Volume 6, 1921, pp. 93-100 ( PDF ).
  • Obituary. John Gilbert Baker . In: The Gardeners' Chronicle . 3rd episode, Volume 68, August 21, 1920, p. 102 ( online ).
  • James Britten: John Gilbert Baker (1834-1920) . In: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign . Volume 58, 1920, pp. 233-238 ( online ).
  • [BDJ] : Obituary Notices . In: Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London . Volume 133, 1921, pp. 41-44 ( online ).
  • Thomas Sheppard: Prominent Yorkshire Workers. II. John Gilbert Baker, FRS, FLS, MRIA, VMH In: The Naturalist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History for the North of England . London 1907, pp. 5-8 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
  2. ^ Frans Antonie Stafleu , Richard Sumner Cowan: Taxonomic literature. A selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. Volume 1: A – G, 2nd edition. Utrecht 1976, ISBN 90-313-0225-2 , p. 105 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : John Gilbert Baker  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Baker, John Gilbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British botanist, taxonomist and ecologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Guisborough , Yorks
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1920
Place of death Kew , London