Charles Budd Robinson, Jr. (October 26, 1871 – December 5, 1913) was a Canadian
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
and explorer.
The standard
author abbreviation C.B.Rob. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.
Early life
Born in
Nova Scotia to Charles Budd and Frances Robinson, Robinson gained his degree from
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...
in 1891 before taking up teaching posts in Kentville and Pictou. He received his doctorate from
Columbia University in 1906. Robinson worked with the
New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) from 1903 to 1908, leaving to become an economic botanist with the Bureau of Science in
Manila. After a brief return to NYBG in 1911, he went back to Manila to continue his research.
Death
Robinson never returned after leaving on a botanical expedition to the
Maluku Islands on December 5, 1913. He was reported as missing on December 11, with the assistant resident of Amboina (now
Ambon
Ambon may refer to:
Places
* Ambon Island, an island in Indonesia
** Ambon, Maluku, a city on Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province
** Governorate of Ambon, a colony of the Dutch East India Company from 1605 to 1796
* Ambon, Morbihan, a co ...
in
Indonesia) writing about the nature of his disappearance. He concluded that Robinson had been murdered. The report states that Robinson had encountered a native boy who had climbed a coconut tree, startling the boy who was not used to seeing a "European". The boy hurried to his village whereupon the locals feared that Robinson intended to do them harm, possibly believing him to be a
head-hunter. Six people from the village killed him and sank his body into the sea.
The natives from the village have been described as "binongkos", a band of
Sea Gypsies who lived in the Maluku Islands.
In Robinson's obituary it was written that he was "struck down by the hands of ignorant and savage natives" while "in the peaceful pursuit of his profession and in his zealous endeavors to augment the sum of human knowledge".
Robinson's death may have been caused by linguistic confusion, as he was known to speak the local language quite poorly. The
Malay word for coconut, "kelapa" may have been confused with "kepala", the word for "head". If Robinson asked the boy to cut, "potong", down a coconut it may have been mispronounced and heard as a threat to cut off someone's head.
There was a local myth of a werewolf-like decapitator called a "potong kepala" and it is speculated Robinson was mistaken for one.
See also
*
Lists of unsolved murders
Noted publications
*1903 ''Contributions to a flora of Nova Scotia''
*1906 ''The Chareae of North America''
*1909 ''Philippine Boraginaceae''
*1910 ''Philippine Urticaceae''. The Philippine journal of science. C. Botany
*1911 ''Alabastra Philippinensia''
*1912 ''Polycodium''. Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden
References
External links
*
Harvard University Herbaria - Charles Budd Robinson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Charles Budd
1871 births
1913 deaths
People from Nova Scotia
20th-century Canadian botanists
Dalhousie University alumni
Columbia University alumni
Botanists with author abbreviations
Unsolved murders in Indonesia