Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Liberty Hyde Bailey (born March 15, 1858 in South Haven (Michigan) , USA , † December 15, 1954 in Ithaca ) was an American botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " LHBailey ".

Live and act

Liberty Hyde Bailey was born in 1858 in South Haven, Michigan, the third son of the farmer Liberty Hyde Bailey Senior and his wife Sarah Harrison Bailey. His mother died of scarlet fever in 1862, and his father subsequently married Maria Bridges for the second time. His father was a very innovative farmer and ran one of the first commercial orchards in the area. He won several prizes for the outstanding management of his acreage and cultivated more than 300 apple varieties. Liberty Hyde Bailey Jr. learned to graft fruit trees as a teenager. He and his father were members of the South Haven Pomological Society.

His stepmother and his hometown pastor encouraged his education so after graduating from local school in 1877 he could leave the farm to study agriculture at Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University ). Due to an illness he had to interrupt his studies for a year in the academic year 1880/81. He heard lectures from William James Beal (1833–1924), who was one of the first botanists to use live plants and practical exercises as illustrative material for his lectures. As a result, Bailey developed a special interest in botany during his studies.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1882, he worked briefly as a reporter for the Morning Monitor in Springfield, Illinois, before he in February in 1883 by Recommendation William Beals a job as assistant to the noted botanist Asa Gray at Harvard University . He worked for Gray for two years, for whom he systematically organized and botanically classified the pressed plants of a large collection from Kew Garden in London. For his studies in systematic botany, he primarily used the Arnold Arboretum and the botanical collection of the Bussey Institute.

In 1884 he returned to the Michigan Agricultural College to accept a professorship in horticulture and landscaping. In 1885 he published his first book Talks afield about plants and the science of plants. , in which he imparted basic knowledge to botanical laypeople for the identification of common plants. In the same year Michigan State College awarded him a Master of Science degree.

In the winter of 1887 he held a series of lectures at Cornell University , which in 1888 offered him a professorship in horticulture. Bailey accepted this on the condition that the university financed a botanical research trip to Europe for him. From August 1888 to the beginning of 1889 he traveled with his family to several European countries and visited the internationally important herbaria in Prague, Vienna and Uppsala.

On his return from Europe, he took up the professorship for practical and experimental horticulture at Cornell University.

At the turn of the century, Bailey campaigned for the establishment of an independent State College of Agriculture at Cornell, which was approved in 1904 and whose dean and director he was appointed. At the same time he was head of the experimental station attached to the college and professor of agricultural economics. During his tenure as dean, he established institutes for plant pathology, plant cultivation, poultry farming, agricultural economics, farm management, as well as agricultural engineering and household economics at the college. The Institute for Plant Breeding later emerged from the Institute for Experimental Plant Biology founded by Bailey in 1907.

In 1903 he founded the American Society for Horticultural Science with SA Beach , of which he was president for the first four years.

Bailey retired in 1913, but continued to work intensively on botanical systematics and taxonomy. Between 1923 and 1943 he published more than 100 scientific articles, including taxonomic revisions of various genera.

Until his death on December 25, 1954, he led a very active life and undertook numerous botanical research trips, sometimes accompanied by his daughter Ethel Zoe.

Scientific work

Liberty Hyde Bailey was interested in the botanical systematics of garden plants and agricultural crops from an early age. Contemporary botanists devoted very little interest to these plants. 1885 Bailey gave a provocative speech entitled The Garden Fence ( The fence ), in which he described the contemporary botanists to jump over the fence calling to the-conceived at the time as a purely artistic discipline horticulture penetrate scientific. Despite extensive criticism, also from his former mentor Asa Gray, he stuck to his view that it is particularly important to understand the botanical systematics of garden plants and agricultural crops, as these are in particularly close contact with human civilization. Today he is considered one of the founders of modern horticulture.

In the course of his scientific work, he dealt intensively with the botanical systematics of various plant species.In addition to sedges ( Carex ) and tropical palms, his main interests were also cultivated plants such as blackberries ( Rubus ), cabbage family ( Brassica ) and vines ( Vitis ) and the cucurbits ( Curcubita ).

Liberty Hyde Bailey coined the technical terms cultigen and cultivar commonly used in botanical systems today .

Bailey conducted experiments on targeted cross-breeding and hybridization of plants and published Cross-breeding and hybridization in 1892 . the first American book on controlled experimental plant breeding.

Since he had observed that plants under street lamps grew particularly vigorously, he also undertook attempts to stimulate plant growth through artificial lighting.

He founded the specialist journal Gentes Herbarum , published from 1920 to 1984 .

With the transfer of his private library and herbarium to Cornell University in 1935, he founded the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium as the American center for the systematics of cultivated plants. After merging with the estate of the botanist Karl McKay Wiegand (* 1873; † 1942) in 1977, the library of the Bailey Hortorium comprises more than 30,000 volumes. The herbarium of the Hortorium contains approximately 860,000 specimens of algae, lichens and vascular plants.

Honors

In 1894, Liberty Hyde Bailey was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the British Royal Horticultural Society . Since 1896 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1900 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1917 to the National Academy of Sciences . The Michigan State University awarded him in 1907 the honorary doctorate .

The plant genus Liberbaileya from the palm family (Arecaceae) was named in his honor. The journal for horticultural taxonomy Baileya , founded in 1953 by the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, was named in his honor. In contrast, the plant genus Baileya from the sunflower family (Asteraceae) is not named after him, but after the algologist Jacob Whitman Bailey (1811-1857).

Liberty Hyde Bailey and Gregor Mendel were inducted as the first two members to the Hall of Fame for Horticulture established by the American Society for Horticultural Science during the opening ceremony on November 5, 1990.

family

Liberty Hyde Bailey with his wife Annette and two daughters Sara May and Ethel Zoe (1896)

On June 6, 1883, Bailey married his former classmate Annette Smith, the daughter of a Michigan cattle farmer. The couple had two daughters: Sara May (born June 29, 1887, † 1936) and Ethel Zoe (born November 17, 1889 in Ithaca, New York, † 1983). His wife died in 1938. His daughter Ethel Zoe worked closely with her father and often accompanied him on botanical expeditions. She was co-editor of Gentes Herbarum , co-author of the Hortus and from 1938 to 1957 curator of the Bailey Hortorium .

Books

In addition to numerous articles in scientific journals, Liberty Hyde Bailey published more than 65 non-fiction books on the subjects of horticulture, agriculture and botany, which appeared in a total of over 200 editions. He also published two volumes of poetry.

As an author

• Talks afield about plants and the science of plants. Houghton, Mifflin and company, Boston 1885
• The nursery book, a complete guide to the multiplication and pollination of plants.
  • 1st edition, The Rural Publishing Company, New York 1891
  • 19th edition, The Macmillan company, New York 1914
• The horticulturist's rule-book: a compendium of useful information for fruit-growers, truck-gardeners, florists, and others. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1885
  • 3rd revised and expanded edition 1895
  • 4th edition 1896
  • New and revised edition 1899
  • New and revised edition 1907
• Cross-breeding and hybridization; the philosophy of the crossing of plants, considered with reference to their improvement under cultivation; with a brief bibliography of the subject. Rural library, Volume 1, No. 6, 1892
• American grape training. An account of the leading forms now in use of training the American grapes. The Rural publishing company, New York 1893
• Plant breeding; being five lectures upon the amelioration of domestic plants. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1895
  • 2nd edition 1897
  • 4th edition 1897
• Field notes on apple culture. Orange Judd Company, New York 1895
• The forcing book: a manual of the cultivation of vegetables in glass houses. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1896
  • 6th edition 1906
  • 11th edition 1914
• The survival of the unlike: a collection of evolution essays suggested by the study of domestic plants. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1896
  • 5th edition 1906
• Garden-making: suggestions for the utilizing of home grounds. , The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1896
  • 4th revised edition 1901
  • 5th revised edition 1901
  • 6th revised edition 1902
• The principles of fruit growing, with applications to practice. , The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1897
  • 20th edition 1915
• The pruning book. A monograph of the pruning and training of plants as applied to American conditions. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1898
  • 5th edition 1903
  • 12th edition 1911
• The principles of agriculture, a text-book for schools and rural societies. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1898
  • 19th edition 1913
  • 18th edition under the title Thw pruning manual.
• Sketch of the evolution of our native fruits. The Macmillan company, New York 1898
• Lessons with plants: suggestions for seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of vegetation. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 2nd edition 1899
• First lessons with plants: being an abridgement of "Lessons with plants: suggestions for seeing and interpreting some of the common forms of vegetation. The Macmillan company, New York 1898
• Botany: an elementary text for schools. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1900
  • 4th edition 1901
• The principles of vegetable gardening. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1901
  • 18th edition 1921
• The nature study idea - being an interpretation of the new school movement to put the child in sympathy with nature. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York 1903
• Poems. Cornell Countryman, Ithaca 1906
• Plant breeding; being six lectures upon the amelioration of domestic plants. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 4th edition 1906
• The training of farmers. The Century Co., New York 1909
• Beginners' botany. The Macmillan company, New York 1909
• Botany: an elementary text for schools. The Macmillan company, New York 1909
• Manual of gardening; a practical guide to the making of home grounds and the growing of flowers, fruits, and vegetables for home use. 1910
• The outlook to nature. The Macmillan company, New York 1911
• The state and the farmer. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1908
  • 2nd edition 1911
• Farm and garden rule book. The Macmillan company, New York 1911
• The country-life movement in the United States. , The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1911
  • 2nd edition 1915
• Manual of gardening; a practical guide to the making of home grounds and the growing of flowers, fruits, and vegetables for home use. The Macmillan company, New York
  • 2nd edition 1912
  • New and revised edition 1917
• The Practical Garden Book. 1913
• Botany for secondary schools; a guide to the knowledge of the vegetation of the neighborhood. The Macmillan company, New York 1913
• The holy earth. C. Scribner's sons, New York 1916
• Wind and weather. C. Scribner's sons, New York 1916
• The standard cyclopedia of horticulture; a discussion, for the amateur, and the professional and commercial grower, of the kinds, characteristics and methods of cultivation of the species of plants grown in the regions of the United States and Canada for ornament, for fancy, for fruit and for vegetables; with keys to the natural families and genera, descriptions of the horticultural capabilities of the states and provinces and dependent islands, and sketches of eminent horticulturists. 6th volumes, The Macmillan company, New York
  • 1st edition 1916
  • 3rd edition 1919
• The school-book of farming: a text for the elementary schools, homes and clubs. The Macmillan company, New York 1920
• The apple tree. The Macmillan company, New York 1922

As editor

• Cyclopedia of American agriculture: a popular survey of agricultural conditions, practices and ideals in the United States and Canada. The Macmillan company, New York 1909
  • I. Farms
  • II. Crops
  • III. Animals
  • IV. Farm and community
• The principles of agriculture, a text-book for schools and rural societies. The Macmillan company, New York 1914
• RUS: A Register of Rural Leadership in the United States and Canada. Ithaca, 1920
• The cultivated evergreens; a handbook of the coniferous and most important broad-leaved evergreens planted for ornament in the United States and Canada. The Macmillan company, New York 1923

Web links

Commons : Liberty Hyde Bailey  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Liberty Hyde Bailey at the IPNI

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography. on the Cornell University homepage for the exhibition Liberty Hyde Bailey - a man of all seasons. , accessed June 1, 2015
2. ^ About Bailey. Biography of Liberty Hyde Bailey on the home page of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum, South Haven, accessed May 31, 2015
3. ↑ Liberty Hyde Bailey Jr. (1858-1954) biography on the Harvard University Herbaria home page, accessed June 1, 2015
4. ↑ Biography. on the Cornell University homepage for the exhibition Liberty Hyde Bailey - a man of all seasons. , accessed June 1, 2015
5. ↑ Botany. on the Cornell University homepage for the exhibition Liberty Hyde Bailey - a man of all seasons. , accessed June 1, 2015
6. ↑ Harlan P. Banks: Liberty Hyde Bailey 1858-1954 - A biographical Memoir. National Academy of Science, Washington DC 1994, p. 3
7. ↑ Harlan P. Banks: Liberty Hyde Bailey 1858-1954 - A biographical Memoir. National Academy of Science, Washington DC 1994, p. 7
8. ↑ Liberty Hyde Bailey: The Indigen and Cultigen. Science ser. 2 47, 1918, pp. 306-308. doi : 10.1126 / science.47.1213.306 .
9. ↑ Liberty Hyde Bailey: "Various Cultigens, and Transfers in Nomenclature". Gentes Herbarum 1, 1923, pp. 113-136
10. ↑ ^{a b} Harlan P. Banks: Liberty Hyde Bailey 1858-1954 - A biographical Memoir. National Academy of Science, Washington DC 1994, p. 9
11. ^ Liberty Hide Bailey: Some preliminary studies on the influence of the electric arc lamp upon greenhouse plants. In: Annual Report of the Agricultural Experimental Station, NY (Cornell), 1891, pp. 81-122
12. ^ Homepage of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium , accessed on June 27, 2015
13. ^ Homepage of the LH Bailey Hortorium Library , accessed June 27, 2015
14. ↑ Homepage of the LH Bailey Hortorium Herbarium , accessed on June 27, 2015
15. ^ Member History: Liberty H. Bailey. American Philosophical Society, accessed April 16, 2018 . 
16. ↑ List of Honorary Doctorates from Michigan State University
17. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
18. ↑ Harlan P. Banks: Liberty Hyde Bailey 1858-1954 - A biographical Memoir. National Academy of Science, Washington DC 1994, p. 3
19. ↑ Ethel Z. Bailey (1889-1983) on the Cornell University homepage, accessed June 1, 2015
20. ^ About Bailey. Biography of Liberty Hyde Bailey on the home page of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum, South Haven, accessed May 31, 2015