John Bellenden Ker Gawler
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by Sydenham Edwards 1805
Charles Henry Bellenden Ker, originally John Gawler was an English botanist born about 1764 in Ramridge, Andover, Hampshire and died in June 1842 in the same town. On 5 November 1804 he changed his name to Ker Bellenden, but continued to sign his name as Bellenden Ker until his death.
He is noted for having written Recensio Plantarum (1801), Select Orchideae (c.1816) and Iridearum Genera (1827). He edited Edward's Botanical Register from 1815 to 1824 and was famous as a wit and botanist as well as being the author of Archaeology of Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes (1837). Robert Brown (1773-1858) named the genus Bellendena of the Proteaceae in his honour in 1810. The state of Queensland in Australia has named its second highest peak Mount Bellenden Ker - it is also the wettest known locality in Australia.
The Siberian lily which occurs in eastern Siberia and Asia was named Lilium pensylvanicum by Ker Gawler who had mistaken its origins. A few years later, realising his error, he renamed it L. dauricum, after a region in Siberia. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, however, is inflexible in these matters and the prior name stood.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ MBG: Research: Russia: Ornamental plants from Russia
- ^ Brummitt, R. K.; C. E. Powell (1992). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ISBN 1-84246-085-4.
[edit] Source
- Ray Desmond (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists includins Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers. Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum (London).
- Dictionary of National Biography
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