Frederick William Burbidge | |
---|---|
Born |
Wymeswold,
Leicestershire, England |
Died |
Dublin, Ireland |
Occupation(s) | Explorer; plant collector |
Known for | Victorian Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society |
Frederick William Thomas Burbidge (1847–1905) was a British explorer who collected many rare tropical plants for the famous Veitch Nurseries.
Burbidge was born at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, on 21 March 1847, was son of Thomas Burbidge, a farmer and fruit-grower. [1]
Burbridge entered the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick as a student in 1868, and proceeded in the same year to the Royal Gardens, Kew. Here he showed skill as a draughtsman and was partly employed in making drawings of plants in the herbarium. Leaving Kew in 1870, he was on the staff of the Garden from that year until 1877. [2]
In 1877 Burbidge was sent by Messrs. Veitch as a collector to Borneo. He was absent two years, during which he also visited Johore, Brunei, and the Sulu Islands. He brought back to Great Britain many remarkable plants, especially: [3]
The first set of the dried specimens brought back by Burbidge numbered nearly a thousand species, and was presented by Messrs. Veitch to the Kew herbarium. [2]
Sir Joseph Hooker in describing the Scitamineous "Burbidgea nitida" names it:
in recognition of Burbidge's eminent services to horticulture, whether as a collector in Borneo, or as author of Cultivated Plants, their Propagation and Improvement, a work which should be in every gardener's library. [4]
In 1880 Burbidge was appointed curator of the botanical gardens of Trinity College, Dublin, at Glasnevin. There he did much to encourage gardening in Ireland. [5] In 1889 Dublin University conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A., and in 1894 he became keeper of the college park as well as curator of the botanical gardens. [2]
On the establishment of the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society, in 1897, Burbidge was one of the first recipients, and he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He died from heart-disease on Christmas Eve 1905, and was buried in Dublin. [2]
Burbidge is commemorated in the name of the genus Burbidgea ( Hook.f.) and several species including Globba burbidgei ( Ridl.). Nepenthes burbidgeae ( Hook.f. ex Burb.) is thought to be named after his wife.[ citation needed]
In the opinion of Frederick Corder the author of his biography in the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) "Although no scientific botanist, nor very skilful as a cultivator, Burbidge did admirable service as a horticultural writer". [2]
Burbidge married in 1876 Mary Wade, who died, six months before him. They had no children.
During his period at Kew and working on the Gardener Burbidge published: [3]
After the 1877–79 Borneo, Johore, Brunei, and the Sulu Islands expedition, the chronicle of his journey was published: [3]
While at Dublin he published two books: [3]
Attribution