Harold St. John (July 24/25 1892 – December 12, 1991) was a professor of
botany at the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa from 1929 to 1958. A prolific specialist in field botany and
systematics, he is credited with naming about 500 new
species of Pandanus, along with many other species, especially in the
Pacific Islands.
Life
Born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was educated at
Harvard University, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy in 1917. After service in Europe during
World War I, he taught botany at the State College of Washington (now
Washington State University) (1920–1929), where he also became the curator of its
herbarium. In 1929, he joined the faculty of the University of Hawaiʻi, where he served as longtime chair of the botany department (1929–1940, 1943–1954), then as director of the university's
Lyon Arboretum.[1] The St. John Plant Science Laboratory building on the Mānoa campus, which houses the botany department, is named after him.[2]
Not long after his arrival in Hawaii, he joined the
Bernice P. Bishop Museum's
Mangarevan Expedition of 1934, which returned with perhaps the richest collection of Polynesian plants ever made.[3] During
World War II he took a leave of absence to lead a scientific team to the rainforests of Colombia in search of Cinchona trees in order to provide additional sources of the
malaria drug
quinine, which was in short supply. His team reported a harvest of 60,000 tons of bark. After the war he investigated the effects of
radiation on vegetation in the
Marshall Islands for the
United States Atomic Energy Commission.[2]
1915. Elymus arenarius and its American representatives. Rhodora 17: pages 98–103.
1916. A revision of the North American species of Potamogeton of the section Coleophylli. Rhodora 18: pages 121–138.
1922. A botanical exploration of the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence including an annotated list of the species of vascular plants. Mem. Victoria Memorial Mus., Can. Deptartment of Mines 126(Biol. Ser. 4): pages i-iii, 1-30, 6 pl., 2 maps.
1928. A revision of the loco-weeds of Washington. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 41: pages 97–106.
1931. Additions to the flora of Niihau. B. P. Bishop Mus. Occ. Pap. 9(14): pages 1–11, 3 pl.
1933. The sausage tree. Paradise Pac. 46: pages 5–6, 3 pl.
1935. Hawaiian Panicum, Metrosideros, Sanicula, Lobelia and Rollandia. B. P. Bishop Mus., Occ. Pap. 11(13): pages 1–18, 6 figs., 3 pl.
1937. Flora of southeastern Washington and of adjacent Idaho. Students' Book Corporation. Pullman, Washington. 531 pp.[4]
1941. Revision of the genus Swertia (Gentianaceae) of the Americas and the reduction of Frasera. Amer. Midl. Nat. 26: 1-29.
1946. Endemism in the Hawaiian flora, and a revision of the Hawaiian species of Gunnera (Haloragidaceae). Hawaiian Plant Stud. 11. California. Acad. Sci., Proc. IV 25: 377–420, pl. 37–46.
1948. Report on the flora of Pingelap Atoll, Caroline Islands, Micronesia, and observations on the vocabulary of the native inhabitants. Pac. Plant Stud. 7. Pac. Sci. 2(2): pages 96–113, 9 figs.
1951. Plant records from Aur Atoll and Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, Micronesia. Pac. Plant Stud. 9. Pac. Sci. 5(3): 279–286, fig. 1.
1952. Monograph of the genus Isodendrion (Violaceae). Hawaiian Plant Stud. 21. Pac. Sci. 6(3): pages 213–255, figs. 1–15.
1954. Ferns of Rotuma Island, a descriptive manual. B. P. Bishop Mus., ace. Pap. 21(9): pages 161–208, figs. 1–11.
1955. Biography of Wilhelm Nikolaus Suksdorf (1850–1932), pioneer botanist of the state of Washington. Res. Stud., State College Wash. 23(4): pages 225–278, 13 pl.
1958. Nomenclature of plants. A text for the application by the case method of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Ronald Press, New York. i-vii, 157 pages.
1959. Botanical novelties on the Island of Niihau, Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiian Plant Stud. 25. Pac. Sci. 13(2): pages 156–190, 11 figs.
1962. Monograph of the genus Elodea (Hydrocharitaceae). Part 1. The species found in the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific states and provinces of North America. Res. Stud., Washington State University 30(2): pages 19–44, 5 figs.
1963. Monograph of the genus Elodea (Hydrocharitaceae). Part 3. The species found in northern and eastern South America. Darwiniana 12(4): pages 639–652, figs. 1–3, tab. 1.
1969. Monograph of the genus Brighamia (Lobeliaceae). Hawaiian Plant Stud. 29. Linn. Soc., London, Bot. J. 61: pages 187–204, 18 pages, 7 figs., 2 pl.
1970. The career of Harold L. Lyon, founder of the Lyon Arboretum. University of Hawaiʻi, Harold L. Lyon Arboretum Lecture No. I: pages ii-iv, portrait.
1971. The vascular plants of the Horne and Wallis Islands. Pac. Sci. 25(3): pages 313–348, figs. 1–2.
1973. List and summary of the flowering plants in the Hawaiian Islands. Pac. Trop. Bot. Gard., Mem. 1: 1–519.
1974. The vascular flora of Fanning Island, Line Islands, Pacific Ocean. Pac. Sci. 28(3): pages 339–355, figs. 1–7.
1977. Revision of the genus Pandanus Stickman. Part 40. The Fijian species of the section Pandanus. Pac. Sci. 30(3): pages 249–315, figs. 364–394.
1980 Two new species of Pandanus (Pandanaceae) from Rennell Island. Noona Dan Papers no. 137. Nat. Hist. Rennell Is., British Solomon Islands 8: pages 7–13, figs. 1–3.
^Constance, Lincoln (1937). "Reviewed work: Flora of southeastern Washington and of adjacent Idaho, Harold St. John". Madroño. 4 (4): 132–134.
JSTOR41423395.