William Wright Smith

Sir William Wright Smith (born February 2, 1875 in Parkend near Lochmaben , Dumfriesshire , † December 15, 1956 in Edinburgh ) was a Scottish botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " WWSm. "

Live and act

He was the son of James T. Smith. From 1922 to 1956 he was director of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Regius Professor of Botany . Extensive collecting trips took him to the Himalayas, among other places . He was a specialist in the genera Primula and Rhododendron . Smith published together with George Forrest and Harold Roy Fletcher "The genus Primula" (1929 to 1950). In 1932 he was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society , in 1935 in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He had been a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since 1919 .

Honors

The plant genera Smithiodendron Hu from the Moraceae family and Smithorchis Tang & FTWang from the orchid family (Orchidaceae) are named after William Wright Smith .

literature

• HR Fletcher: Sir William Wright Smith (1875-1956) . In: Taxon . tape 6 , no. 2 , March 1957, p. 55-56 .
• Alexander Nelson: Sir William Wright Smith, FRS In: Nature . tape 179 , no. 4551 , January 1957, p. 126-127 .
• 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 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 9, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous 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 .

Web links

• Author entry and list of described plant names for William Wright Smith at the IPNI