William Forsyth
William Forsyth (* 1737 in Oldmeldrum , Aberdeenshire , † July 25, 1804 ) was a British gardener and botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Forsyth ". His son William Forsyth Jr. (approx. 1772-1835) was also a botanist.
Life
William Forsyth, the son of John Forsyth, left Scotland for London at the age of 25 and worked as a gardener in the park of Syon House , which the garden architect Lancelot "Capability" Brown had designed for the Duke of Northumberland.
In 1763 Forsyth came to Chelsea to study under Philip Miller , director of the Chelsea Physic Garden . After Miller's death in 1770/71 he himself became director ("superintendent") of this traditional garden, the second oldest botanical garden in Great Britain . He designed new plantings, was responsible for the introduction of the international seed and plant exchange and looked after many plant collectors who were looking for attractive new garden plants in America or Asia. In 1774 he built the first large British rock garden . For this he had 40 tons of limestone and flint from the London Tower as well as lava stone that Sir Joseph Banks had brought with him from Iceland two years earlier .
In 1779 he moved to the Royal Gardens of St James and Kensington Palace as a master gardener and was in 1784 by King George III. appointed chief head of these gardens.
Before that, he had already started experimenting with wound dressings for injured and fungus-infected trees. He initially kept his recipe a secret. Since England was at war with France and high quality English oak was essential for shipbuilding, Forsyth received a success fee of £ 1,500 and a commendation from the British government when he published the composition of his Forsyth's Plaister . The mixture consisted of cow dung, urine, wood ash, sand and lime dust. Thomas Andrew Knight therefore accused Forsyth of fraud, a controversy that overshadowed the establishment of the Horticultural Society of London (from 1856 Royal Horticultural Society ) in 1804 . This association called Forsyth together with his friends and colleagues William Aiton , Sir Joseph Banks , James Dickson (1738-1822), Charles Francis Greville (1749-1809), Richard Anthony Salisbury and John Wedgwood (1766-1844) into being.
plant
Forsyth published books on woody diseases and proper tree care :
- William Forsyth: Observation on the Diseases, Defects, and Injuries in All Kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees . London, 1791.
- William Forsyth: A Treatise on the Culture and Management of Fruit Trees . London, 1802.
Honor taxon
The plant genus Forsythia was named by Martin Vahl in honor of William Forsyth. By the way, Forsyth never saw the ornamental shrub from China himself. He died almost 40 years before Robert Fortune brought the first living specimens to Europe.
swell
Web links
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for William Forsyth at the IPNI
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Forsyth, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English gardener and botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1737 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oldmeldrum , Aberdeenshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 25, 1804 |