John Smith (botanist)
John Smith (born October 5, 1798 in Aberdour , Fifeshire , † February 12, 1888 in Kew (London) ) was a British botanist. He was the first curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " J.Sm. "
Smith was the son of a gardener and apprenticed to his father. He also trained himself in botany while he was a gardener on various country estates in Scotland. In 1818 he came to the Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, where he was promoted by its curator William McNab. In 1820 he came to the Royal Gardens at Kensington Palace. He was at the Botanical Garden in Kew from 1822, when it was still private property of the Crown. At that time he was in charge of William Aiton . As one of the young gardeners, one of his tasks was to heat the greenhouses. In the following year he rose to the position of overseer for the greenhouses, in which newly delivered plants from overseas were raised. In addition, he soon took over the de facto management of the garden, as Aiton was mainly occupied with Windsor Park as head of the royal gardens. After the change of throne in 1830, Aiton was only responsible for Kew, whose financial resources were reduced. Smith was instrumental in maintaining the garden during these difficult times, the future of which was uncertain at the time. In 1840 it became state property and in 1841 Smith became its first curator. The director of the garden was William Jackson Hooker . Due to increasing visual impairment, he had to give up his post as curator in 1864. He was highly respected as a scientific gardener in Kew, but unpopular for his strict adherence to the rules (his nickname was Old Jock).
He himself dealt mainly with ferns, which he multiplied strongly, from around 40 species when he entered the garden to 1084 species (according to Smith's catalog from 1866) when he retired.
In 1853 he became a member of the Leopoldina , in 1878 of the Italian Cryptogam Society and in 1837 of the Linnean Society of London . His herbarium (especially that of the ferns) was bought by the Natural History Museum.
Fonts
- Catalog of Ferns in the Royal Gardens at Kew. HMSO, London, 1856.
- Cultivated Ferns: Or a Catalog of Exotic and indigenous Ferns Cultivated in British Gardens, with Characters of General Principal, Definitions, etc., London: William Pamplin 1857
- Ferns: British and Foreign, Their History, Geography, Classification and Enumeration of the Species of Garden Ferns with a Treatise on Their Cultivation, etc., London: Robert Hardwicke, 1866, 3rd edition 1879, Archives
- Historia Filicum: an exposition of the nature, number and organography of ferns, and review of the principles upon which genera are founded, and the systems of classification of the principal authors, with a new general arrangement; characters of the genera; remarks on their relationship to one another; their species; reference to authors; geographical distribution; etc., etc., London: MacMillan 1875
- Domestic Botany 1871
- Bible Plants, their history, 1877
- Record of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew 1880
- Dictionary of popular names of economic plants 1882
Web links
- John Smith, Kew's first curator, Kew Guild, pdf
- Author entry and list of the plant names described for John Smith (botanist) at the IPNI
Individual evidence
- ^ Member entry by John Smith at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 23, 2015.
- ↑ A first list appeared in Botanical Magazine in 1846 and was the first list of plants in the garden after Aiton's Hortus Kewensis from 1813
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smith, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 5, 1798 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aberdour |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 12, 1888 |
| Place of death | Kew (London) |