Nathaniel Lord Britton

Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859–1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York.^[1] His parents wanted him to study religion, but he was attracted to nature study at an early age.

He was a graduate of the Columbia University School of Mines and afterwards taught geology and botany at Columbia. Britton was the first director of the New York Botanical Garden. He engendered substantial financial support for the botanical garden by naming plants after wealthy contributors.

He married Elizabeth Gertrude Knight, a bryologist and fellow member of the Torrey Botanical Club. They were lifelong collaborators in botanical research.

Much of his field work was done in the Caribbean, where he visited frequently when the winter weather in New York City became too severe. His contributions to the study of Caribbean flora are undisputed.

He wrote Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British Possessions (1896) with Addison Brown, and The Cactaceae with Joseph Nelson Rose.

The house he lived and worked in, The Britton Cottage, is preserved at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island, New York.

Britton retired as director of the New York Botanical Garden in 1929, but continued his research of Caribbean flora.

Britton is also remembered as one of the signatories of the American Code of Botanical Nomenclature^[2] that proposed such radical changes to the rules governing nomenclature that a compromise was not reached (and some or the principal American provisions adopted) until nearly 30 years later.

References

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Britton_%26_Brown,_Illustrated_flora_of_the_northern_states_and_Canada Britton & Brown, Illustrated flora of the northern states and Canada] at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Nathaniel Lord Britton at Wikispecies

• "Nathaniel Lord Britton Cornelius Amory Pugsley Silver Medal Award, 1929". Pugsley Medals. Texas A&M University. http://www.rpts.tamu.edu/pugsley/Britton.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
• Britton, Nathaniel; Addison Brown (1896). An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Volume I, Ophioglossaceae to Aizoaceae. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 612. http://books.google.com/books?id=dvMKAAAAIAAJ. 
• Britton, Nathaniel; Addison Brown (1898). An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Volume III, Apocynacea to Compositae; Dogbane to Thistle. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 643 pages. http://books.google.com/books?id=3YgCAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 
• Britton, Nathaniel; Addison Brown (1913). An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Volume II, Amaranthaceae to Loganiaceae. Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 2052 pages. http://books.google.com/books?id=RZUCAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
• Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Addison Brown (1913). An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Volume III Gentianaceae to Compositae -- Gentian to Thistle (Second Edition -- Revised and Enlarged ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. http://books.google.com/books?id=-YgCAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-06-17. 
• Britton, Nathaniel; Joseph Nelson Rose (1922). The Cactaceae: Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family. Carnegie Institution for Science. p. 263 pages. http://books.google.co.za/books?id=fewCAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
• Biographical information and picture

Additional Britton works online

• A preliminary catalogue of the flora of New Jersey (1881) Et al.
• An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic ocean westward to the 102d meridian 3 volumes. (1896–98) With Addison Brown.
• Contributions to the botany of the Yukon Territory (1901) Et al.
• Manual of the flora of the northern states and Canada (1901)
• The sedges of Jamaica (1907)
• Studies in West Indian plants (1908–26)
• Rhipsalis in the West Indies (1909)
• An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions (Vol. 1-3, 1913) With Addison Brown.
• The vegetation of Mona Island (1915)
• Flora of Bermuda (1918)
• The flora of the American Virgin Islands (1918)
• Descriptions of Cuban plants new to science (1920)
• The Bahama flora (1920) With Charles Frederick Millspaugh.
• Neoabbottia, a new cactus genus from Hispaniola (1921)