Alfred Barton Rendle FRS (19 January 1865 – 11 January 1938) was an English

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. Rendle was born in

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

to John Samuel and Jane Wilson Rendle. He was educated in Lewisham where he first became interested in plants, St Olave's Grammar School, Southwark and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cambridge and Bachelor of Science from University of London in 1887. He was awarded Master of Arts degree from Cambridge in 1891 and D.Sc. degree from London in 1898. He won scholarships from his school and universities that covered most of the cost of his education and his move from Cambridge to London was prompted by a vacancy for a salaried position as an assistant in the Botanical Department of the British Museum. This made him focus on systematic botany for his career, focusing on gymnosperms, monocotyledons, and the Apetalae. In 1894 he obtained a lectureship at The Birkbeck Institute, teaching during the evenings. He was Keeper of Botany at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

from 1906 to 1930, in succession to George Robert Milne Murray. In 1905, Rendle attended the

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of Botany, botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the locatio ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he was appointed on to the editorial committee for the ''International Rules of

Botanical Nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; Botany, botanical nomenclature then provides na ...

'' (now superseded by the

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

and the International Code of Nomenclature for Bacteria) a role which he continued in until 1935. Rendle published a number of books. Perhaps the best known of these was ''The Classification of Flowering Plants'', which saw a gap of over 20 years between the publication of its two volumes – the first was published in 1904, but readers had to wait until 1925 for volume two. This long gap was attributed by Rendle to his "increasing official and non-official duties". These included acting as botany editor for the

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. So ...

, published in 1911, editor of the '' Journal of Botany'' (1924–1938), and revising the 7th edition ''Handbook of British Flora'' (1924, author G. Bentham). Rendle was president of the Quekett Microscopical Club from 1916 to 1921 and president of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collec ...

from 1923 to 1927. he had been a Fellow of the Linnean Society since 1888, and was its secretary in 1916–1923. His contemporaries considered that he had a keen sense of duty which he brought to his roles at the British Museum and contribution to the scientific community. His teaching focused on delivering fundamental knowledge to undergraduates rather than advanced study.

References

Bibliography

*Stearn, William T.,''The Natural History Museum at South Kensington''
Books by A.B. Rendle at the Biodiversity Library
including ''Flora of Jamaica'' coauthored with William Fawcett. 19th-century British botanists 20th-century British botanists 1865 births 1938 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Employees of the Natural History Museum, London English botanists Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at St Olave's Grammar School Presidents of the Linnean Society of London Veitch Memorial Medal recipients {{UK-botanist-stub