Aylmer Bourke Lambert

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Aylmer Bourke Lambert (February 2, 1761 - January 10, 1842) was a British botanist, one of the first fellows of the Linnean Society.

He is best known for his work A description of the genus Pinus, issued in several parts 1803-1824, a sumptuously illustrated folio volume detailing all of the conifers then known. A second folio edition was produced between 1828-1837, and a third, smaller (octavo) edition in 1832. Individual books even of the same edition are often very different from one another, which causes problems when the illustrations have been used as types to fix the application of names. A full description of the publication history is given in: Renkema, H. W. & Ardagh, J. (1930). Aylmer Bourke Lambert and his 'Description of the Genus Pinus'. Journal of the Linnean Society of London - Botany 48: 439-466.

Many of the new conifers discovered by David Douglas and others, including the Coast Redwood, were described for the first time in Lambert's books; several of these were actually described by collaborating authors, notably David Don, who included their work in Lambert's book.

The standard botanical author abbreviation Lamb. is applied to species he described.

Lambert is honoured in the botanical name of the Sugar Pine Pinus lambertiana, and the name of the genus Lambertia.

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