John Percival (botanist)

John Percival (born April 3, 1863 in Carperby, Wensleydale , Yorkshire , England , † January 26, 1949 in Mortimer , Berkshire , England) was a British agricultural botanist . His main interest was wheat , about which he published the monograph The Wheat Plant in 1921 , which is one of the standard works of agricultural botany. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Percival ".

Life

Percival was born the son of a farm laborer in the village of Carperby in the Wensleydale countryside in Yorkshire. After graduating from village school, he worked for a few years at Spence's Glassworks in York . 1884 Percival was given the opportunity at St John's College of the University of Cambridge to study, where he botanist Sydney Howard Vines met (1849-1934), who exerted a strong influence on him. In 1887 he completed part 1 of the scientific tripo with special distinction, in 1888 the second part, with which he obtained the Master of Arts. In his senior year of college, Percival published an article for The Flora of Wensleydale in which he listed 653 species and subspecies. All but ten taxa were collected and herbarized by himself .

In 1891 Percival became a demonstrator at the chemistry laboratories of the University of Cambridge. For three years he lectured on agricultural subjects, including plant diseases, and chemistry and botany related to farming for breeders in Surrey and Sussex . In 1893 he was elected a member of the Linnean Society of London (FLS). In 1894 he was appointed professor of botany at the South-Eastern Agricultural College in Wye , where he remained until 1902. He then became head of the agricultural department at University College, Reading . In 1907 he was appointed professor of agriculture. From 1912 to 1932 he was the first professor in the chair of agricultural botany at University College, Reading. At Reading he founded a living museum in which he cultivated nearly 2,000 varieties of wheat from around the world. He sowed the seeds every other year. From 1926 to 1927 he was Vice President of the Linnean Society of London.

Percival was a prolific writer who published articles in many academic journals. In 1900 the first volume of his work Agricultural Botany appeared , of which seven more followed. It is considered the first English-language textbook in the field of agricultural botany and has been translated into several languages. In 1902, Percival published a paper on the physiology of calcium oxalate formation in Swedish clover seedlings, as well as a brief scientific paper on the causal link between purple cartilage and silver leaf disease, a problem that was later discussed by Frederick Tom Brooks (1882-1952 ) has been successfully treated.

Percival's most important work is The Wheat Plant from 1921, which was one of the standard works of agricultural literature in the 20th century. For this book, which is divided into two parts, he studied a collection of many thousands of different types of wheat from around the world.

Other works published by Percival include Agricultural Bacteriology and Wheat in Great Britain . He dealt with seeds and germination until a few months before his death.

literature

• William B. Brierley : Obituary John Percival In: Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1948-1949, pp. 248-251
• William B. Brierley: Obituary John Percival In: Nature, vol. 136, No. 4138, February 19, 1949, p. 275
• Ray Desmond: Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists: Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers , CRC Press, 1994. ISBN 0-85066-843-3 , p. 546
• Peter DS Caligari, PE Brandham: Wheat Taxonomy: The Legacy of John Percival , The Linnean Special Issue No. 3, Linnean Society of London, Academic Press, 1998

Web links

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for John Percival (botanist) at the IPNI
• JSTOR Global Plants: John Percival