George Bentham

George Bentham (Stoke, Plymouth, England, September 22, 1800 - London, September 10, 1884) was an English botanist, pteridologist and mycologist.

Biography

Bentham was born in Stoke, next to Plymouth. His father, Sir Samuel Bentham, was Jeremy Bentham's only sibling to survive to adulthood. George did not have a school education or higher education, but from an early age he acquired the ability to keep his attention focused on any subject or topic that interested him. He also displayed outstanding language skills. At the age of seven he could speak French, German and Russian, and he learned Swedish during the short period in which he resided in Sweden, when he was a little older. Shortly before the war with France, the Bentham family made a long journey through this country, staying two years in Montauban, where George Bentham studied Hebrew and mathematics at the Protestant theology school. In the end they settled near Montpellier, where Sir Samuel bought a farm.

George was attracted to botanical studies, applying the logical methods of his uncle, and not by a special interest in natural history. While he was studying in Angouleme he came across a copy of Augustin Pyrame de Candolle's work Flore française, and he became interested in the analytical tables of plant identification. He immediately proceeded to do a test to verify them with the first plant he found. The result was satisfactory, and he continued applying them to every plant he found. On a visit to London in 1823, he came into contact with the circle of English botanists. In 1826, and under pressure from his uncle, he agreed to work as his secretary. In 1832 Jeremy Bentham died, leaving his property to his nephew. His father's inheritance had passed into his hands the previous year. He was now in a position of modest independence, having the ability to pursue his favorite studies without distraction. For a time these were Botany, Jurisprudence and Logic, in addition to editing his father's professional papers.

George Bentham's first publication was his Catalogue des plantes indigènes des Pyrénées et du Bas Languedoc (Paris, 1826), the result of a careful exploration of the Pyrenees in the company of G. A. Walker Arnott (1799–1868), later Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow. It is interesting to note that George Bentham adopted the principle that he never made second-hand quotations. This was followed by articles on various legal issues: on codification, in which he disagreed with his uncle, on the laws affecting theft, and on the laws of beneficial ownership. But the most important work of this period was the Outline of a New System of Logic, with a Critical Examination of Dr. Whately’s Elements of Logic (1827). In this work, the principle of predicate quantification was explicitly stated for the first time. For this reason William Stanley Jevons declared that it was undoubtedly the most fruitful discovery made in the science of abstract logic since the time of Aristotle. Before about sixty copies had been sold, the publisher had declared bankruptcy, and what was stored remained as abandoned paper. The book was forgotten, and it was not until 1873 that George Bentham's priority over that of Sir William Hamilton was claimed by Herbert Spencer. In 1836 he published his Labiatarum genera et species. As part of the preparations for this work, between 1830 and 1834 he visited each of the European Herbaria, some on more than one occasion. The following winter he spent in Vienna, where he produced his Commentationes de Leguminosarum generibus, published in the annals of the Vienna Museum. In 1842 he moved to Pontrilas in Herefordshire. His main occupation in the next few years was his contributions to Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, which was being prepared by his friend, A. P. de Candolle. In all this stuff he studied about 4730 species.

In 1854 Bentham concluded that the maintenance of his herbarium and library was too expensive for him, so he offered it to the government, with the condition that they should form part of the core support for research in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. At the same time he thought about abandoning his work in Botany. Fortunately he was persuaded by Sir William Jackson Hooker, John Lindley and other scientific friends to continue. In 1855 he took up residence in London and worked at Kew for five days a week, with a brief summer holiday, until the end of his life.

In 1857 the government approved a project to prepare a series of descriptions of the flora of the British colonies in English. George Bentham began Flora Hongkongensis in 1861, which was the first comprehensive work anywhere on the little-known flora of China. This was followed by the seven-volume Flora Australiensis (1863–1878), the first treatise on the flora of a continent that had been completed. His greatest work was the Genera Plantarum, begun in 1862 and completed in 1883 in collaboration with Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker.

Work

• Catalogue des plantes indigènes des Pyrénées et du Bas-Languedoc. Paris, 1826

• Outline of a New System of Logic, with a Critical Examination of Dr Whately’s Elements of Logic. 1827

• Labiatarum generates et species. 1836

• Scrophularineae indicae. 1835

• Commentationes de Leguminosarum generibus. Anales at the Vienna Museum. 1835

• Plants Hartwegianas printis Mexicanas. 1839–1857

• Handbook of the British Flora. 1858–1865

• Flora Hongkongensis. 1861

• Flora AustraliensisSeven volumes. With Ferdinand von Mueller, 1863-1878

• Genera Plantarum ad Exemplari a Imprimis in Herbariis Kewensinus Servatawith Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1862-1883

Honors

Eponymy

Gender

• (Boraginaceae) Benthamia Lindl.

• (Cornaceae) Benthamia Lindl.

• (Orchidaceae) Benthamia A.Rich.

• (Orchidaceae) Neobenthamia Rolfe

• (Solanaceae) Benthamiella Speg. ex Wettst.

Species

more than 590.

• The abbreviation "Benth" is used to indicate George Bentham as an authority in the scientific description and classification of vegetables.