Person
St John, Percival Reginald Harry (1872 - 1944)
- Born
- 11 May 1872
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 12 August 1944
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- Botanical collector and Botanist
- Alternative Names
- Saint John, P.R.H. (Also known as)
Summary
Percy St John joined the staff of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1883 as Assistant Label Writer and progressed to become Storekeeper, Seedsman and Classifier in 1924. As Classifier he had charge of the Economic Botany Museum in the Gardens and added many specimens to the Museum. St John was noted for his wide knowledge on the flora and fauna of Victoria and his expertise in Eucalyptus. He was President of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria from 1929 to 1930. Over 3,600 specimens collected by St John are in the National Herbarium of Victoria.
Details
Chronology
- 1883 - 1900
- Career position - Assistant Label Writer, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
- 1900 - 1917
- Career position - Painter and Writer, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
- 1913
- Taxonomy event - St John was commemorated in Eucalyptus stjohnii R.T.Bak.
- 1917 - 1924
- Career position - Head Gardener, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
- 1924 - 1937
- Career position - Storekeeper, Seedsman and Classifier, Melbourne Botanic Gardens
- 1929
- Taxonomy event - Eucalyptus langii Maiden & Blakely. St John collected the type
- 1929 - 1930
- Career position - President, Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
- 1937
- Life event - Retired
Related entries
Archival resources
Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science
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
- Kellow, A.; Bayly, M.; and Ladiges, P. Y., Report on the Grimwade plant collection of Percival St John and botanical exploration of Mt Buffalo National Park (Victoria, Australia) (Carlton, Vic.: School of Botany, University of Melbourne, 2007), 52 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- Fletcher, R.J., 'Mount Buffalo and Percival R.H. St. John', The Victorian naturalist, 115 (5) (1998), 192-200. Details
Resources
- 'St John, Percival Reginald Harry (18720511-19440812)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1476954. Details
See also
- Aitken, Richard and Looker, Michael eds, The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2002), 700 pp. Details
- 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
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
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