Thomas Archibald Sprague

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Thomas Archibald Sprague (born October 7, 1877 in Edinburgh , † October 22, 1958 in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire ) was an English botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Sprague ".

Live and act

He was one of the eleven children of Thomas Bond Sprague (1830-1920) and his wife Margaret Vaughan (nee Steains). His father was a respected actuary. Thomas Archibald Sprague attended the University of Edinburgh , where he also received his doctorate. Between 1898 and 1900 he took part in Captain HW Dowding's expedition to Venezuela and Colombia . After his return he found employment as a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew in 1900 . In 1913 he visited the Canary Islands .

The focus of his approximately 280 published works was on the field of botanical nomenclature. For the work “Flora of Tropical Africa” started by Daniel Oliver , he edited “Bignoniaceae” (in volume 4, no. 2) as well as “Hernandiaceae” and “Loranthaceae” (in volume 6, no. 1). From 1908 he worked on the creation of the Index Kewensis and was significantly involved in the supplementary volumes 4 to 10 published between 1913 and 1947.

Honors

The plant genus Spragueanella Balle from the belt flower family (Loranthaceae) is named after him. In contrast, the plant genus Spraguea honors Torr. the American botanist and plant draftsman Isaac Sprague (1811–1895).

Fonts (selection)

  • The herbal of Valerius Cordus ... : In: Journal of the Linnean Society, London, Botany, Volume 52, pp. 1-113, 1939
  • Add. with Ernest Nelmes: The herbal of Leonhart Fuchs ... In: Journal of the Linnean Society, London, Botany, Volume 48, pages 545-642, 1931

swell

  • Robert Zander : Zander concise dictionary of plant names . Ed .: Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .
  • AA Bullock: Dr. Thomas Archibald Sprague, 1877–1958 . In: Taxon . tape 9 , 4, April – May, 1960, pp. 93-102 , JSTOR : 1216242 (only the first page available online is evaluated).

Web links

Single references

  1. ↑ Sprague biography. Groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk, accessed July 7, 2010 .
  2. ^ Index Kewensis chronology. on the homepage of the International Plant Names Index (IPNI), accessed on April 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Sprague, Thomas Archibald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English botanist
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1958
Place of death Cheltenham , Gloucestershire