Bentham, George (1800 - 1884)

Summary

George Bentham was the author of the seven-volume Flora australiensis (1863-1878). The work on this mammoth project was conducted at the Herbarium at Kew, England, where he had lodged his large private collection in 1854. In this work, he catalogued and described more than 7000 species, including 89 taxa of Eucalyptus. Some of these names are still considered valid. Although he never visited Australia, this work is considered as a major contribution to Australian botany. Together with Sir Joseph Hooker, he created the Genera plantarum, which was completed in 1883 after a 21-year collaboration. This work, now known as the Bentham-Hooker classification system, was adopted as the system used in the Herbarium at Kew Gardens. Numerous species are named in his honour.

Details

Born Stoke, Hampshire, England, 22 September 1800. Died 10 September 1884. CMG 1878. Educated Faculté de Theologie, Mantauban. Managed his father's estate near Montpellier for some years; went to London and met several important botanists 1825; later moved to England, where he assisted his uncle, Jeremy Bentham, edited his father's papers on naval administration and then entered Lincoln's Inn; called to the Bar 1831, but never practised; produced Labiatarum genera et species (1832-36); lived in Pontrilas in Herefordshire 1835-54; donated his herbarium and library to Kew 1854 and moved to London to work on them; wrote Flora australiensis 1863-78. Fellow, Royal Society 1862; Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales 1879. President, Linnean Society 1861-74.

Chronology

1826

Award - Elected Fellow of the Linnean Society

1829 - 1840

Career position - Honorary Secretary, Royal Horticultural Society

1861 - 1874

Career position - President, Linnean Society, London

1866

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus pachyloma Benth.

1866

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus annulata Benth.

1867

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus caesia Benth.)

1867

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus loxophleba Benth.

1867

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus leptopoda Benth.)

1867

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus peltata Benth.

1879

Award - Clarke Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1914

Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden & Cambage was named for Bentham

Related entries

Archival resources

National Herbarium, Melbourne

• George Bentham - Records, 1858 - 1877, MSS M4; National Herbarium, Melbourne. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Bentham, George, Labiatarum genera et species: a description of the genera and species of plants of the order labiatae, with their general history, characters, affinities, and geographical distribution (London: J. Ridgway and sons, 1836). Details
• Bentham, George, Flora hongkongensis: a description of the flowering plants and ferns of the island of Hongkong (London: L. Reeve, 1861), 482 pp. Details
• Bentham, George and Hooker, Joseph Dalton, Genera plantarum ad exemplaria imprimis in herbariis kewensibus servata definata, 3 vols (London: Reeve & Co., 1862-83). Details
• Bentham, George, assisted by Mueller, Ferdinand, Flora australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian territory, 7 vols (London: Lovell-Reeve, 1863-78). Details
• Wrigley, J.; and Fagg, M., Eucalypts: a Celebration (Crows Nest Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2010), 344 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Burbidge, N. T., 'Bentham, George (1800-1884), botanist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 3: 1851 - 1890 A-C, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 146-147. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030138b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Blake, S. T., 'Some Pioneers in Plant Exploration Classification', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of Queensland, lxvi (1) (1954), 1-19. Details
• Britten, J., 'Review of 'George Bentham' by B. D. Jackson', Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 44 (1906). Details
• Daley, Charles, 'The History of Flora Australiensis', The Victorian naturalist, 47 (November) (1930), 113-115. Details
• George, Alex, 'Another example of illustrating an unillustrated work: Bentham's Flora australiensis', Archives of Natural History, 33 (2) (2006), 351-3. Details
• Hooker, J. D., 'George Bentham, FRS', Annals of Botany, 12 (1898). Details
• Hooker, J. D., 'Review of 'George Bentham'', Kew Bulletin (1906), 106. Details
• Jackson, B. D., 'Obituary and Bibliography [Bentham George]', Proceedings of the Linnean Society (London) (1884), 90. Details
• Lucas, A. M., 'Assistance at a Distance: George Bentham, Ferdinand von Mueller and the Production of the Flora australiensis', Archives of Natural History, 30 (2003), 255-281. Details
• Stafleu, F. A., 'The Flora Australiensis', Taxonomist, 16 (1967). Details
• Stevens, P.F., 'J.D. Hooker, George Bentham, Asa Gray and Ferdinand Mueller on Species Limits in Theory and Practice: a Mid-Nineteenth-Century Debate and its Repercussions', Historical Records of Australian Science, 11 (3) (1997), 335-344. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9971130345. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q731808. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/56714582. Details
• 'Bentham, George (1800-1884)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-792071. Details

See also

• Hall, Norman, Botanists of the Eucalypts: short biographies of people who have named eucalypts, whose names have been given to species or who have collected type material (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'A century of botanical endeavour in South Australia', Report of the eleventh meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 11 (1908), 158-199, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14539732. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Australian botanists:- (a) general; (b) New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 42 (1908), 60-132. Details