Biographies of scientists and explorers
honored in the names of plants 
shown on this web site 

Last names beginning with G-M on this page.   A-F   N-Z

Gambel, William, 1821-1849: Western explorer, ornithologist, and naturalist. When 18, trained under and assisted Thomas Nuttall and continued collecting with Nuttall on and off over the next three years.  In 1841 Gambel joined a party on the Santa Fe Trail and became the first botanist to collect in the Santa Fe area where it is probable that he first collected the Southwest's ubiquitous Oak, Quercus gambelii -- which Nuttall named for him in 1848.  Gambel continued on from Santa Fe through Colorado and on to California collecting and eventually gaining employment under several Naval officers with whom he sailed along the California coast, collecting -- especially birds -- as he went.  Sailing around the Horn, he returned to Philadelphia in 1845, studied medicine for the next three years and received his medical degree,  and was made Assistant Curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science.  He married, left the Academy because of conflicts with his supervisor, John Cassin, and headed to California.  On crossing the Sierras he stopped to aid some sick miners, contracted typhoid fever, and died at the age of 28.  Quercus gambelii

Geyer, Charles Andreas, 1809-1853: Came to the U.S. in 1834 to collect. George Engelmann became his friend and benefactor. Botanized on the Missouri plains.  Traveled with Fremont to Iowa in 1841. In 1843 and 1844 he botanized from Missouri to Vancouver collecting 10,000 specimens.  On this trip he was particularly interested in Indian uses of plants.  Kept a detailed journal which W. J. Hooker published for him.  He sailed to England after the two year trip and studied his collections at Kew Gardens with Hooker.  John Torrey and Hooker described and published his collection.  Allium geyeri

Gilii, Filippo Luigi, 1756-1821: Italian naturalist, clergyman, and Director of the Vatican Observatory. For twenty-one years Gilii made twice daily meteorological readings at the Observatory, and it was Gilii who had the meridian line and obelisk placed in front of St. Peter's for readings of the seasons.  With the first Argentinean botanist, Gaspar Xuarez (1731-1804), Gilli co-authored the three volumes of Observazioni Fitologiche (1789, 1790, 1792) a work on the value of American (primarily South American) cultivated plants, their sexuality, form of reproduction, anatomy, etc. Most of the plants had been cultivated by the natives before the discovery of America and some were grown in the Vatican gardens.

As the following information shows, it was Filippo Luigi Gilii's co-authoring of Observazioni Fitologiche that brought him to the attention of Ruiz and Pavon and earned him such respect in their eyes that they dedicated the genus Gilia to him. 

Gilii met Xuarez in Italy:  When he was seventeen, Xuarez became a member of the Company of Jesus which among other pursuits gathered information about the flora of Argentina.  When the Company of Jesus was expelled from Argentina by King Carlos III of Spain, Xuarez went to Faenza, Italy until 1773 when the Company of Jesus was dissolved.  Xuarez then moved to Rome where he founded the Vatican Orchard which cultivated exotic plants from the Americas.  Either in Argentina or Italy (probably Argentina), Xuarez met and learned from Spanish botanists Ruiz Lopez and Jose Pavon who had been sent to Argentina by King Carlos.  Ruiz and Pavon named the genus Gilia for Xuarez's friend, fellow botanist, and co-author, Filippo Luigi Gilii.  

Lopez and Pavon were Spanish and their dedication of the Gilia genus reads:

"The genus is dedicated to Felipe Gil, who with his co-worker Gaspar Xuarez of Rome, published (in Italian), Botanical Observations, about many exotic plants introduced [from South America] in Rome."
   
(The above reproduction is from the original Ruiz and Pavon 1794 publication, Prodromus Florae Peruvianal et Chilensis (A Preliminary Treatise on the Flora of Peru and Chile) (abbreviated for botanical classification as: Prod. Fl. Peruv.) as reproduced in Gallica of the Bibliotheque nationale de France.  To view the dedication, click on the Gallica link above and when the page opens, type 25 in the top box after "Aller Page" and then click the ">>".  The second to the last paragraph on page 25 has the genus dedication.)

Until I received an email from David Hollombe of California, I had assumed that such expert sources as Weber, Cronquist, and Jepson were correct in stating that the Gilia genus was named for a Spanish botanist, Felipe Luis Gil.  Hollombe indicated to me that the genus was named for Gilii and my further on-line research summarized above proved Hollombe correct. 

I think that it is clear that botanist Felipe Luis Gil never existed.  It was assumed by later botanical researchers that since Ruiz and Pavon were Spanish and the dedication states that Gilia honors Felipe Gil, a quite Spanish sounding name, Gil must have been Spanish.  But what later botanist researchers overlooked was that the book Observazioni Fitologiche was co-authored not by a Spaniard named Felipe Gil but by an Italian named Filippo Luigi Gilii.   Ruiz and Pavon could have averted the confusion by using the proper Italian spelling of Gilii's name.  Instead they used the Spanish spelling.

(A further confusion exists over Ruiz Lopez.  His name is variously given as Hipolito Ruiz, Ruiz Lopez, and Hipolito Ruiz Lopez.  Today all botanical names credited to him and Pavon are written as "Ruiz and Pavon".) 

It is generally accepted that we should try to stick with the correct pronunciation of a person's name when we use it as part of a botanical plant name.  Gilii's name is pronounced with an Italian soft "g", as in "gee whiz":  gee lee ee, with the accent on the second syllable.  The genus name Gilia would then be pronounced:  "Gee lee ee-uh" with the accent on the "lee".  Probably most of us won't pronounce the genus name this way so let's settle on "Gee lee uh" with the accent on the first syllable.

Several of the many beautiful Gilias that grow in the Four Corners area are shown on this web site:  Gilia spp

Goodyer, John, (1592-1664): Managed a British estate and botanized continually in his work and travels. Grew and described numerous plants sent to him and discovered and described many new British plants. So widely known and respected in his time that during the 1640's English Civil War troops were ordered "... on all occasions to defend and protect John Goodyer, his house, servants, family, goods, chattels and estates of all sorts from all damages, disturbances and oppressions whatever". In 1621 he revised the widely known and respected 1597 Gerard's Herbal, (1600 pages describing edible and medicinal plants) and in 1655 he translated Dioscorides'  De Materia Medica (c. 64 A.D.), the foundation for Gerard's Herbal. Goodyera oblongifolia

Gray, Asa, 1810-1888: Physician, botanist, Professor.  John Torrey's student, friend, and life-long collaborator.  In 1838 Gray became the first faculty member of the University of Michigan (which still honors his progressive thinking in the "Asa Gray Society"). He visited European botanists, the first time in 1838-1839 buying books for the University of Michigan, and he continued to serve as a bridge between the known European botany and botanical concepts and the relatively unknown botany of the New World.

Photo, Gray Herbarium Archives, Harvard

He was Professor of Botany at Harvard from 1842 until his retirement from teaching in 1873; from 1842 on he worked to form the Harvard Botanic Garden and Harvard Herbarium; in 1864 he donated his 200,000 plant specimens and 2,200 books to Harvard with the stipulation that a garden and herbarium building be constructed.  The present Gray  Herbarium has 2,000,000 specimens and a library of 63,000 volumes.  While at Harvard he described 7,000 plants brought to him by innumerable plant collectors he befriended, mentored, and supported.  He championed what came to be called a "natural system of classification", i.e., one based on the entire structure and geographical range of the plant rather than on one aspect such as the Linnean flower-based system of classification.  He was and is the most respected American botanist of the entire 19th century. 

Asa Gray and Charles Darwin       Gray championed Darwinism in the United States.  Gray wrote Hooker on January 5, 1860:     "Well, [The Origin of Species] has reached me, and I finished its careful perusal four days ago; and I freely say that your laudation is not out of place.  It is done in a masterly way. [I can understand that it took twenty years] to produce it.  It is crammed full of most interesting matter...."     After being shown Gray's letter, Darwin replied (January 28, 1860) to Gray: "I cannot express how deeply ... [your laudatory praise about The Origin of Species] has gratified me.  To receive the approval of a man whom one has long sincerely respected, and whose judgment and knowledge are most universally admitted, is the highest reward an author can possibly wish for..."      On January 23, 1860 Gray wrote to Darwin, "I am free to say that I never learnt so much from one book as I have from yours."    Also see Joseph Hooker.

Gray twice visited Colorado briefly, first in 1872 when he climbed (in the company of Parry, Greene, and eighteen others) Gray's Peak, named for him by Parry and dedicated to him on this memorable climb.  The result of his second visit to Colorado in 1877 (in the company of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of England's Royal Botanic Garden, and in the company of the Hayden Survey), was the 1881 publication with Hooker (in the U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin) of The Vegetation of the Rocky Mountain Region and a Comparison with that of Other Parts of the World, a seminal work in comparative botany. 

Gray and Torrey published two volumes of their planned multi-volume Flora of North America (1838-1843), but because both Gray and Torrey were so involved in the organizing and describing of collections of many American botanists, further volumes were not published.  Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, published in 1847 is considered a classic and is still on bookstore shelves (even at Amazon.com!!).  Gray was a founding member of the National Academy of Sciences.  Angelica grayi

Greene, Edward Lee, 1843-1915: Moved to Colorado in 1870 after contacting Engelmann and Gray, both of whom encouraged him to collect.  He botanized non-stop there for the next four years and then split his time for the next eight years between botanizing, teaching, and preaching (while in Denver he had studied at Jarvis Hall Seminary in Golden and was ordained an Episcopal Priest in 1873).  In 1872 he met Asa Gray and Charles Parry on their climb of Gray's Peak. For the next eight years he moved often from Colorado to California to New Mexico and also moved in his religion and botany:  By the early 1880s he had become a Catholic Priest, and he began doing his own describing of his collections (and the collections of other western botanists who admired him) rather than sending collections to Asa Gray. He wrote hundreds of botanical articles and was widely sought out by all botanists with an interest in Western flora. In 1882 he began his association with the University of California at Berkeley, first lecturing, then becoming Curator of the Herbarium at the California Academy of Sciences, then rising in 1891 to Professor and Chair of the new Botany Department.  He moved to Washington, D.C. where at first he taught at the Catholic University and then became an Associate of the Smithsonian where, among other pursuits he worked on a history of botany.  Greene was always strong in his views which brought him friends as well as quite a few detractors.  He was the pre-eminent taxonomic splitter proposing around 3000 new specific names during his life. 

William A. Weber considers Greene "one of the most knowledgeable persons of his time as to the Colorado flora".  See The New Mexico Botanist for a nice botanical biography of Greene.

Grindel, David Hieronymus, 1776-1836.  Russian Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Rector at Tartu University and later medical doctor.  Since 1995 the JSC Grindeks Company, the largest pharmaceutical company in the Baltic states, has awarded the Grindel Prize to honor David Grindel, considered the first natural scientist, doctor, and pharmacist of Latvian origin.  Grindelia arizonica, Grindelia fastigiata, Grindelia squarrosa

Gunnison, Captain John Williams, 1812-1853: Served 14 years as a highly regarded and well-liked topographical surveyor in the area of the Great Lakes and to the Great Salt Lake and for the route of the railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific. He was a surveying member of the 1849-1850 Stansbury Expedition to find a route for the transcontinental railroad, chart the waters of the Great Salt Lake, detail the resources of the land, etc. In Stansbury's "Introduction" to his report on this expedition he said of Gunnison, he has "high professional skill...energy, judgment, and untiring devotion to the interests of the expedition".  The Expedition spent the winter with the Mormons and in addition to writing up his survey report, Gunnison wrote the observant, sympathetic, and prescient, The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. The book (available on-line) describes the religion and life of the Mormons and provoked some considerable controversy and even hostility toward Gunnison from some Mormons. In 1853 Gunnison was given command of an expedition to further explore a northern transcontinental rail route.  He made his way to Utah, found the best route, wrote up his report, but before he could file the report and return East, he and seven other surveying companions were ambushed and murdered while in camp near Delta, Utah. Varying accounts accuse the Mormons, local Indians (probably a band of Utes), or both of killing Gunnison and his men.

The names of the Gunnison Grouse, Gunnison River, and the town of Gunnison, Colorado honor John Gunnison.  Calochortus gunnisonii

Gutierrez, Pedro, 19th century botanist with the Botanical Garden, the Real Jardin Botanico, of Madrid.  The gardens, next to the Prado, are still a haven of beauty and quiet in the midst of Madrid city life.  The Garden was founded by King Carlos III (see Gilii) and was constructed by Juan de Villanueva in 1761.  Gutierrezia sarothrae

Hall, Elihu, 1820-1882: Farmer, sometimes botanist, one of organizers of Illinois Natural History Society.  He and Jared Patterson Harbour apparently contacted or contracted with Parry to lead them, accompany them, and/or collect with them in the Idaho Springs, Colorado area.  It was common for multiple sets of plants to be collected and sold to pay for expenses and finance more collecting trips.  The Hall-Harbour-Parry summer trip of 1862 seems to have had finances as a (the?) key motivation, for Hall wanted money for a new house and was willing to sell sets of plants quickly and cheaply after the trip (according to Ewan in Biographical Dictionary...).  Whatever the motivation and details, the collection was described by Gray and Torrey and they considered it to be quite good, indicating that Hall and Harbour already knew how to collect or received good training from someone, probably Parry. See Harbour and Parry.

Harbour, Jared Patterson (1831-1917): Little is known of Harbour.  He was a first cousin of Elihu Hall and the two of them somehow knew or heard about Parry.  They either contracted with or accompanied Parry on a collecting expedition in Colorado in the summer of 1862.  Asa Gray described and named the collected plants.  Gray indicated that Harbour collected the beautiful Penstemon harbourii on the 1862 trip. See Hall and Parry.

Harriman, Edward H., 1848-1909: School drop out, office boy, then stockbroker, then small railroad owner, then owner of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southern Pacific Railroads.  Conceived of and financed the 1899 summer Harriman Expedition to Alaska.  He put the trip together quickly and expertly and assembled an outstanding group of scientists, including John Muir, John Burroughs, Charles Keeler, and G. K. Gilbert and the artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes and photographer Edwin Curtis. The scientific results of the Expedition filled 12 volumes and took 12 years to complete.  Although an extremely wealthy man, Harriman said (to John Muir) "I never cared for money except as power for work....  What I most enjoy is the power of creation, getting into partnership with nature in doing good, helping to feed man and beast, and making everybody and everything a little better and happier."  John Muir said to Harriman, "I don't think Mr. Harriman is very rich.  He has not as much money as I have.  I have all I want and Mr. Harriman has not."  (As quoted on the on-line version of the PBS program about the 2001 expedition which retraced the path of the Harriman Expedition and on the Sierra Club web site about Muir.)  Harriman was a strong supporter of John Muir, gave him free passage on his ships, and had a secretary record Muir's words to produce Muir's autobiography.  Edward Harriman's son was W. Averell Harriman, Secretary of Commerce, Governor of New York, and many times U.S. Ambassador.   Yucca harrimaniae

Harrington, Harold David, 1903-1981: Professor at Colorado State, Colorado plant collector, author of a number of articles and books including the first major Colorado flora, The Manual of the Plants of Colorado (1954) and Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains (1967).

Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer, 1829-1887: Physician, surgeon, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Pennsylvania, participant in Western expeditions beginning in 1853, and leader of the widely acclaimed "Hayden Survey", the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 1867-1879. Studied under John Strong Newberry. In the 1850's Hayden participated in four major surveys (primarily in the Dakotas and Nebraska) mapping, collecting fossils, studying not only geological layers, but also timber, water resources, coal, etc. He served as a surgeon during the entire Civil War and returned to his love of surveying with a major Nebraska survey from 1867-1868.

Photo, George Eastman House

His accomplishments were so highly regarded that in 1869 his budget was increased and he headed a survey that cataloged the resources of Colorado's Front Range and San Luis Valley. His 1869 report of this survey again was so well regarded that he received an even larger Congressional appropriation for an 1870 survey across northern Wyoming into Utah and back through Montana. This led to one of his two most famous Surveys, the 1871 Yellowstone Survey which included the West's most famous photographer, William Henry Jackson (see Jackson and Fielder's photographs: Then and Now) and the eminent landscape painter, Thomas Moran. Jackson's photographs, Moran's paintings, and Hayden's glowing words about Yellowstone were greatly responsible for the 1872 Congressional action designating Yellowstone as the first United States National Park.

In 1872, botanist John Merle Coulter was asked to join the survey party of sixty-one in the Yellowstone/Teton area. 1873-1874 were spent in Colorado and late in 1874 Jackson and a small party from the Survey visited, and were the first ever to photograph, Mesa Verde. Hayden was so impressed by the Mesa Verde area that he sent Jackson, the botanist Townshend Brandegee, and several others to it again in 1875 and 1876 and then on to explore Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and many other ancient ruins of the Colorado Plateau. Unfortunately action in declaring Mesa Verde a National Park was not as swift as that for Yellowstone and it lost many of its treasures to visitors until it was finally made a part of the National Park system in 1906.

Click to see the map of the Four Corners area that the 1875-1876 Survey produced.

For more information on all the Surveys see the USGS site The Four Great Surveys of the West.

Overall the Hayden Survey mapped, collected fossils, studied coal and mineral deposits, made major geological studies (showing, for instance, that the region of the Rockies had formerly been an ocean, that a period of upheavals formed the Rockies, that stratigraphic maps could be made showing rock layers over hundreds of millions of years), botanized (see Townshend Brandegee, Thomas Porter, John Coulter, Asa Gray, and Joseph Hooker), made ethnology studies, charted lands suitable for irrigating, grazing, logging, etc. Hayden made all this information readily available to Congress and the American public, for he felt his life mission was to help open the vast treasures of the West to settlement; he hoped his work would lead all these areas to becoming states in the Union.

Hayden was well known and popular and many species of plants and animals were named to honor him. On this web site, two plants are named for him: Gilia haydenii and Castilleja haydenii.

Heucher, Johann Heinrich von, 1677-1747: German physician and Professor of Botany at Wittenberg.  Heuchera parvifolia

Hippio, Carl,  In William Weber's words, Carl Hippio was "a revered colleague of Johann Lehmann" (1792-1860).  Lehmann was a Hamburg botanist, Professor of Physics and Natural History, and co-founder of the Hamburg Botanical Garden.  Potentilla hippiana

Holm, Herman Theodor, 1854-1932: Born in Copenhagen, served on three Norwegian polar expeditions specializing in fauna. PhD in U.S.  Became Assistant Botanist of the USDA, 1893-1897. Collected in Colorado in late 1800's and published "Vegetation of the Alpine Regions of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado".  His arctic experience led him to see similarities of Rocky Mountain alpine vegetation and Eurasian arctic vegetation. Known for his quality flora and fauna sketches and his occasionally erratic behavior. Left his personal herbarium to the Catholic University of America.   Ligularia holmii

Hood, Robert, 1797?-1821: Map maker, artist, and diarist aboard Sir Franklin's Canadian/ Arctic Expedition of 1819-1822.  His diaries were edited and published in 1994 as, To the Arctic By Canoe: The Journal and Paintings of Robert Hood, Midshipman with the Franklin Expedition, 1819 - 1821.  Hood was a major contributor to the map work of the Expedition and showed the world that the aurora was electrical and affected the compass.  In its second year the Expedition was beset by starvation.  John Richardson (see his entry) nursed the weakened Hood, but while Richardson was away from camp, Hood was murdered, perhaps to be eaten.  Richardson shot the murderer and continued on to rescue Franklin, the Expedition leader.  Of Hood's character and starvation suffering, Richardson wrote, "The loss of a young officer, of such distinguished and varied talents and application, may be felt and duly appreciated by the eminent characters under whose command he had served; but the calmness with which he contemplated the probable termination of a life of uncommon promise; and the patience and fortitude with which he sustained, I may venture to say, unparalleled bodily sufferings, can only be known to the companions of his distress." Click to see one of Hood's paintings.  Phlox hoodii

Hooker, Joseph Dalton, 1817-1911: Considered the most important botanist of the 19th century, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens (1865-1885), Son of William Jackson Hooker (see below), President of the Royal Society. Made botanical travels to the South Seas and Antarctica (with Ross), the Himalayas, the Middle East, and the Americas. Wrote many botanical books and papers drawn from his journeys and the collections of other scientists.

Hooker visited Colorado in 1877 in the company of Asa Gray and Ferdinand Hayden (see Gray and Hayden) and was there, according to William A. Weber, the first to notice "the strong Asiatic element in ... [Colorado] flora".  In 1881 he published "Notes on the Botany of the Rocky Mountains" in Nature and he and Gray published "The Vegetation of the Rocky Mountain Region and a Comparison with that of Other Parts of the World", in the U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin  --  both the results of studies with the Hayden Survey. 

See also William A. Weber's 2003 article, "The Middle Asian Element in the Southern Rocky Mountain Flora of the western United States". 

For more on Joseph Dalton Hooker see Jim Endersby's fantastic web site on Hooker.

Hooker, William Jackson, 1785-1865: Professor of Botany at Glasgow University (1820-1841), first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Kew Gardens (1841-1865), father of Joseph Dalton Hooker (see above). Made the Kew Gardens into a world leading botanical garden; published widely on algae, lichens, fungi, mosses, and flowering plants; wrote several floras on the British Isles; received and described many collections from Western America botanists see, for instance, David Townsend); wrote the multi-volume Flora Boreali-Americana published in parts from 1829-1840.  The latter was based, in Hooker's words, "principally [on] the plants collected by Dr. Richardson & Mr. Drummond on the late northern expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. To which are added (by permission of the Horticultural society of London,) those of Mr. Douglas, from north-west America, and of other naturalists". 

Photo, Encyclopedia Britannica

According to William A. Weber, most species bearing the Hooker name refer to and honor William Jackson Hooker, not his son Joseph Dalton Hooker.

Hoopes, Thomas S Jr., 1834-1925: Farmer, businessman, civic leader in Chester County, Pennsylvania (population 4,357 in 1857).  From 1857-1862 Thomas traveled and worked his way west from Pennsylvania: A 1925 newspaper article states that Hoopes "decided to make a short tour of the western States of the Union".  He was in Rock Island, Illinois for one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in September of 1857, in Iowa he was in the lumber business, in Colorado in gold prospecting, "general business", exploring, and plant collecting.

In 1861 he was a member of Captain Edward Berthoud's exploring party looking for a rail route between Denver and Salt Lake; they discovered Berthoud Pass.  (Berthoud was Secretary and Chief Engineer for the Colorado Central and Pacific Railroad for sixteen years, Colorado pioneer, mayor, and member of the territorial legislature that authorized the establishment of the Colorado School of Mines).  Berthoud thought so highly of Hoopes that he named a creek on the way to Berthoud Pass for him: the creek name is now spelled "Hoops".

In 1862 Thomas Hoopes returned to Chester County for six years of farming and in 1868 formed "Hoopes, Brother & Darlington, West Chester Wheel Works" -- a highly successful business that made Hoopes a multimillionaire.  

Thomas Hoopes' mother was a Darlington and the Darlington family, especially William Darlington, as well as many others in West Chester (see David Townsend), were avid and highly accomplished amateur botanists.  In 1853 Josiah Hoopes (1832-1904), a cousin (Thomas was third cousin to Josiah's father) started a plant nursery in West Chester.  This nursery became not only a very successful business, but also a botanically well known business and the largest nursery (300 acres) in the United States.  Botany was a West Chester passion and I think it is safe to assume that Thomas Hoopes was botanically literate. 

We do know for sure that Thomas collected plant seeds and perhaps also plant specimens in Colorado: in 1858 just west of Pikes Peak he collected seeds from what he must have thought was an unusual plant.  He sent the seeds to his brother-in-law, Halliday Jackson, in West Chester.  Halliday was an amateur botanist and one of numerous West Chester disciples of the highly accomplished amateur botanist, William Darlington.  Jackson grew the plants from the seeds Thomas Hoopes had sent him and forwarded the plants to Asa Gray in 1861 with a note (now in the files of the Harvard Botanical Library) asking Gray to name the plant for Hoopes if the plant turned out to be a new species.  It did, and in 1864 Gray named this conspicuous and wide-spread high mountain Sunflower, Helenium hoopesii.  The USDA Plants Database now refers to this plant as Hymenoxys hoopesii and William Weber and this web site accept Rydberg's 1900 name of Dugaldia hoopesii.

The present day Hoopes families in West Chester, Pennsylvania indicate that their last name is not pronounced "hoops", as in "hula hoop".  The families pronounce the "oo" of Hoopes as the "oo" in took is pronounced. The species name should be pronounced the same.

(I obtained information for the Thomas Hoopes entry from a number of sources on the Internet, from Diane Rofini of the Chester County Historical Society Library, from Kanchi Gandhi, the Nomenclatural Editor of the Flora of North America, and from several relatives of Thomas Hoopes living in West Chester, Pennsylvania.)

Hornemann, Jens, 1770-1841: Danish botanist. Published with several others Flora Danica, a major illustrated work on the fungi of Denmark.  Epilobium hornemannii

Ives, J. C. (Joseph Christmas), 1829-1868: As a Lieutenant in the U. S. Corps of Topographical Engineers he served as an Assistant Surveyor to Whipple for a southern rail route in 1853-1854, led an 1857-1858 survey 400 miles up the Colorado to determine the feasibility of navigation and was then the first white man to see the Grand Canyon, of which he famously said: "It looks like the Gates of Hell.  The region ... is ... altogether valueless.  Ours has been the first and will undoubtedly be the last, party of whites to visit the locality.  It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River ... shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed."  His iron steamboat was destroyed on rocks in the Colorado.  Read the Report Upon the Colorado River of the West.  Ives resigned from the Union Army and joined the confederacy. Tetraneuris ivesiana

James, Edwin, 1797-1861: Student of Amos Eaton (grandfather of Daniel Cady Eaton) and John Torrey.  Botanist, geologist, and surgeon with the Long Expedition in 1819-1820 and thus the first Caucasian plant collector in Colorado and the central Rockies.  Torrey used James' collections as the basis for the first botanical paper on Rocky Mountain flora.  Pikes Peak at first was named James Peak. See American Journeys for excerpts from James' journal.  Pseudostellaria jamesiana, Chionophila jamesii

Jones, Marcus Eugene, 1852-1934: Botanist, engineer, and, according to William A. Weber, "probably the greatest collector the West has known".  He collected extensively and taught for over fifty years.  Wrote an eighteen part paper entitled, "Contributions to Western Botany".

King, Clarence, 1842-1901: Geologist and mining engineer.  King was a major 19th century scientific figure, he traveled widely throughout the U.S., Cuba, and Europe, and his views were solicited and respected.

After graduating Yale in 1862, King traveled to the West where he found work with Whitney and other survey parties.  From about 1870-1878 he headed a massive federal survey of the 40th parallel through the unknown Sierras; after being in the party that discovered the highest point in the United States (now known as Mount Whitney), King made four attempts to be the first to climb it.  On his fourth attempt he succeeded, but by then others had already climbed it.  

In the Sierras he found the first U. S. glacier; with John Muir he wrote about the erosive effects of glaciers; he popularized the unknown Sierras with many articles in the Atlantic Magazine; and he was the first to use contour lines in mapping.  In 1876 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (becoming its youngest member).  In 1879 he became the first Director of the United States Geological Survey, but quit after serving two years to go into private engineering and geological work. His years after resigning his Geological Survey Directorship were fraught with economic, physical, and mental difficulties.

His book, Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, covering 1864-1870, can be read on-line.  He also wrote Systematic Geology in 1878.  King is honored in a number of plant names, including one shown on this web site: Eremogone kingii

Knowlton, Frank, 1860-1926: PhD Columbia, paleobotanist, ornithologist, botanist. Assistant to Lester Ward, geologist and paleontologist with the United States Geological Survey. Collected fossils and living plants from Montana to Arizona. Wrote botanical papers: "Flora of the Denver and Associated Formations of Colorado", "Flora of Montana Formations", and various other papers on geological and paleontological subjects. In 1889 Knowlton discovered Ostrya knowltonii growing below the rim of the Grand Canyon. It was named for him by USDA botanist, Frederick Coville.

Krascheninnikov, Stephan Petrovich, 1713-1755: Russian botanist who was on  The Great Nordic Expedition, the second expedition led by Vitus Bering exploring eastern Siberia with 10,000 men, many of whom died with Bering in their explorations. From 1735-41 Krascheninnikov and the German botanist George Wilhelm Steller explored and gathered data on the Kamtchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands. Steller died in 1745 and Krascheninnikov compiled his and Steller's observations on geography, geology, natural history, and the inhabitants.  These observations were published shortly after Krascheninnikov's death in his, History of Kamtchatka and the Kurilski Islands, with the Countries Adjacent.  Krascheninnikovia lanata

Lesquereux, Leo, 1806-1889: Lesquereux (pronounced "le crew) was a naturalist, paleontologist, paleobotanist, and bryologist. He was born in Switzerland, was injured severely in a fall when young while plant collecting, remained frail, became totally deaf.  Made himself an expert on peat bogs.  Became friends in Switzerland with Louis Agassiz.  Came to America in 1848 and became intrepid collector.  Published several books on mosses with William Sullivant in 1856 and 1885.  He became a leading authority on coal deposits and in 1858 presented to the first Pennsylvania Geological Survey a “Catalogue of the Fossil Plants Which Have Been Named or Described from the Coal Measures of North America”.  In 1884 he published Description of the Coal Flora of the Carboniferous Formation in Pennsylvania and the United States.  These works were standards for carboniferous plants in the United States. Lesquereux accompanied Hayden on the 1874 Survey and wrote the "Paleontology" section of the 1876 Hayden report. Lesquereux is considered America's first paleobotanist.  The Brassicaceae genus "Lesquerella" (Bladderpods) is named for him, but most of the members of this genus have been moved to the Physaria genus.  Lesquerella rectipes  Lesquerella fendleri

Lewis, Meriwether, 1774-1809: Thomas Jefferson's Secretary, explorer, scientist, and revered and acclaimed leader of the famed Lewis and Clark Expedition which, among many other remarkable accomplishments, gathered extensive scientific (including botanical) information.

In 1803 Jefferson asked Benjamin Barton, famous botanist, University of Pennsylvania Professor, and author of the first United States botany textbook, The Elements of Botany, to train Meriwether Lewis in botany for the 1804-1806 Expedition.  On the Expedition Lewis carried a copy of the Elements which he returned to Barton inscribed with a note of thanks after the Expedition.  Lewis was not only a receptive student under Barton but one who had already learned many elements of botany from his mother and his own studies.  In the words of Earle Spamer and Richard M. McCourt on The Lewis and Clark Herbarium CD produced by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (click to see details about the CD):

Meriwether Lewis had the soul of a plantsman. A typical day on the trail found him looking for plants along the Missouri River and in the surrounding Great Plains. Or near a campsite in a mountain meadow of the Rocky Mountains. Or at the salty mouth of the Columbia River where it drained into the Pacific Ocean. In dangerous places and at inopportune times, Lewis collected plants. So long as circumstances permitted, even in improbable situations, he collected. It was not only his duty to collect, it was his passion. Equally remarkable, he wrote with enthusiasm about them in the voluminous journals and in numerous notes on the blotting papers used to dry the plants.

Lewis's descriptions could be brief but were often quite detailed. The following is from his account of a plant that botanist Frederick Pursh would later name in honor of expedition co-leader, Captain William Clark (Moulton, 1991: 323-324).

We can imagine how Lewis worked. He clipped or pruned plant parts or uprooted entire specimens, and placed them in a dry oilskin bag. Later, laying the plants flat on a specimen page, Lewis sandwiched them between pages made of blotting material. He recorded the collection locality, date, and habitat on the blotter paper itself, along with occasional comments on how the Native Americans ate or used the plants. Lewis then stacked the plants between two boards and tied the plant press together with straps. Lewis probably placed the plant press near the evening fire, where warm air helped dry the collection. Over the course of several days, water was squeezed from the plants, and, once dry, specimens were kept flat and dry in another press. Much later, other botanists glued the specimens to high-rag content herbarium sheets and stored them in protective cabinets in a museum. Those from the Aylmer Lambert Herbarium in London were mounted in or after 1812. The sheets bear a distinctive watermark (illustrated by Cutright, 1967: 82). The unmounted specimens found in the American Philosophical Society were mounted in the Academy in 1921 by John M. Fogg, Jr. (Fogg, 1982). If kept dry and free from insects and physical damage, such specimens last for centuries, as Lewis's specimens have for the last 200 years.

Unfortunately much of the botanical collection from the Lewis and Clark Expedition was lost in varying places and varying ways.  For instance, early in the Expedition, Lewis sent Jefferson about 60 specimens; Jefferson in turn sent these for analysis to Barton, who Jefferson had asked to do the botanical descriptions of the Expedition collections, but about half of the sixty specimens disappeared and have never been found.  A far larger loss came with the destruction of the plant collection that Lewis made on the way up the Missouri River in the spring of 1805.  Hundreds of these specimens were stored in a cache to be retrieved on the way downriver, but the cache was flooded in the spring of 1806 and by the time Lewis opened the cache on July 13th, 1806, fungus had destroyed countless hours of his work on hundreds of specimens.  Lewis must have been shattered by the loss. 

Two hundred twenty-six specimens from the Lewis and Clark Expedition now remain in the United States at The Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia and another eleven are in Britain.  An exhibit including some original specimens is showing in the United States through 2006 as part of the 200th anniversary tribute to Lewis and Clark.  Click to see the Philadelphia Academy's original specimens that Lewis collected and click to see James Reveal's color photographs of the plants that Lewis collected.

Barton, who had been considered for the Expedition but not asked to participate because of his age (37) and his questionable health, was not able to work on the returned collections -- apparently because of his health and a predisposition to procrastination.  Bernard McMahon, renowned horticulturalist, respected scientist, and friend of Jefferson, Barton, and Frederick Pursh, suggested Pursh to Jefferson for the job of organizing and describing the collection.  It would then fall to Lewis to put everything into an organized narrative.  In 1807 Lewis met Pursh, was very impressed, and paid Pursh about $70 to begin the work.  Pursh completed it in a little more than a year, returned most of the collection to McMahon, took some of the collection to England, and there published the collection (along with many other plants from other collectors) in his 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis.

All but a few of the Expedition specimens which Pursh had taken with him were bought at auction years later and returned to the United States.  The total number of Expedition plants known now is 237, all but eleven (those in the Kew Garden Herbarium in London) are in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia  --  where both Lewis and Pursh began their Expedition botanical work.

Tragically, Lewis had been feeling increasingly troubled, pressured, and distraught in the years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition and he was unable to fulfill his own and Jefferson's expectations for publishing the results of the Expedition.  He completed almost no work on the Expedition narrative. In 1809 he committed suicide.

Three plants on this web site honor Lewis in their names: Lewisia nevadensis,  Lewisia pygmaea, and Adenolinum lewisii .  Many more plants on this web site were first found for science by Lewis.

There are many books and many on-line sources about Lewis and Clark; three excellent on-line starting points are The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia web site,  Stuart Wier's Guide to Sources of Information on Lewis and Clark, and Discovering Lewis and Clark.   For the most extensive collection of on-line Lewis and Clark documents see the American Journal.

Some of the biographical information about Lewis, Pursh, Barton, and  Douglas on my web site comes from the above sources.

Lid, Johannes, 1886-1971: Norwegian botanist. Lid was a major contributor to the Nordic Herbarium at the University of Oslo Botanical Museum.  Lidia obtusiloba

Lister, Martin, 1638-1712: Doctor, naturalist. Published on meteorology, mineralogy, zoology, botany, and medicine.  Acquaintance of and botanical collaborator with John Ray. Fellow of the Royal Society. Perhaps the first to suggest the need for and usefulness of geologic surveys.  Listera cordata

Lloyd, Edward, 1660-1709: Well-liked, scholarly antiquarian, linguist, geologist, botanist; traveled, observed, and collected throughout British Isles. Friend of Isaac Newton. John Ray used some of Lloyd's botanical collections in his floral publications.  From 1690 Lloyd was Keeper of the Ashmoleum Museum of Art and Archaeology, Britain's oldest public museum. Fellow of the Royal Society. Wrote the first book on British fossils. Began a natural history of Celtic Great Britain but published only one volume before his early death. Showed that a distinct alpine flora existed in  Snowdonia (a mountainous area of northwest Wales, now home to Snowdonia National Park.) Discovered Lloydia serotina in Welsh mountains: Click to see Lloydia, called the "Snowdon Lily", in its Welsh home.)

Malcolm, William Sr. and William Malcolm Jr., father's dates unknown, son lived 1768-1835: British nurserymen.  Malcomia africana

Matsudo, Sadahisa, 1857-1921: Japanese botanist Sadahisa Matsudo wrote one of the first floras of China and systematically described the plants of the country.   Salix matsudana

McCauley, Charles Adam Hoke, 1843-1913: Soldier, naturalist. 1876 was ornithologist with Red River Expedition. In charge of military survey of Southwest Colorado in the vicinity of Pagosa Springs.  His report was "The San Juan Reconnoissance in Colorado and New Mexico in 1877".  Also wrote "Pagasa Springs, Colorado, its Geology and Botany" in 1879. Was first to introduce the use of signaling mirrors to Army. In 1879 Asa Gray named Ranunculus macauleyi for him.

McMahon, Bernard, 1775-1816: Nurseryman widely respected for his horticultural knowledge. McMahon is credited with publishing the first seed catalog in the U.S. and the first information about landscape design.  Some of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was planned in his home, he was instrumental in getting Pursh to work on the Expedition's botanical collection, and he germinated and distributed seeds collected on the Expedition.  In 1806, he wrote The American Gardener’s Calendar, which became the standard gardening authority in America, going through eleven editions until 1857. It is still available.  McMahon and Jefferson corresponded regularly,  McMahon forwarded the newest vegetable and flower varieties to Jefferson, and Jefferson considered McMahon's Calendar his horticultural "Bible". Nuttall honored McMahon in the genus name "Mahonia", a genus collected by Lewis. Mahonia fremontii, Mahonia repens

There are many books and many on-line sources about Lewis and Clark; an excellent on-line starting point is http://www.lewis-clark.org .

Menzies, Archibald, 1754-1842, Physician, Scottish botanist, protégé of England's great explorer/botanist/philanthropist, Joseph Banks. (See Larry Blakely's Who's In a Name? for a biography of Banks who among other things was the naturalist aboard Captain Cook's first round the world voyage and promoted and financed Captain Bligh.)  As a naturalist aboard the "Prince of Wales" (which was outfitted for fur trading), Menzies sailed around the world from 1786-1789, and gathered plants for Joseph Banks who then recommended Menzies to George Vancouver as his surgeon-naturalist on the HMS Discovery Expedition of 1790-1795.  Menzies was the first scientist to explore the Pacific Northwest.  During the Discovery Expedition, probably in 1791, Menzies collected the first specimens of what came to be known as the Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii.  Menzies was elected a member and later president of the Linnean Society. Anotites menziesii

For an enlightening, intriguing, eye-opening, mind-boggling view into the complexities and vagaries of the naming of plants, see James Reveal's excellent discussion of "Douglas Fir" on the Lewis and Clark web site.  Also see the comples story of the naming of  Picea pungens on this Four Corners Wildflowers web site.

Click for details about Menzies explorations along the Pacific coast and for a more detailed biography.

Last names beginning with G-M on this page.   A-F   N-Z