George Edward Post (1838–1909) was an American surgeon, academic and botanist.

Biography

George Edward Post was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on December 17, 1838, the son of Alfred Charles Post. He was a Professor of Surgery at the

Syrian Protestant College The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs lead ...

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, which became the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

(AUB). He had originally graduated from University College of New York.Mounir(Munir) E Nassar, M.D., FACP During 1860, he worked as a missionary doctor in Syria. He later published 18 articles in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, including ''Arabic Dictionary of the Holy Bible'', ''Classification and Study of Principles of Plant Physiology and Function'' and ''Rules of How to Succeed'' and translated two texts from Arabic into English. Post published broadly in the areas of natural history, medicine, and theology. Post formally described 221 taxa, and published an extensive volume on the Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai in 1896. He was also one of the contributors to ''

Smith's Bible Dictionary ''Smith's Bible Dictionary'', originally named ''A Dictionary of the Bible'', is a 19th-century Bible dictionary containing upwards of four thousand entries that became named after its editor, William Smith. Its popularity was such that conden ...

'', in 1893. Later, a new and revised edition of Post's seminal work was published posthumously in 1932–1933 by

John Edward Dinsmore John Edward Dinsmore (1862–1951) was a botanist and educator, born in Maine, United States. He is best known for his role as the director of the herbarium of the American Colony, Jerusalem and as the honorary curator at the herbarium of Georg ...

, entitled ''Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Sinai: Volume 1: A Handbook of The Flowering Plants and Ferns, Native and Naturalized From The Taurus to Ras Muhammad And From the Mediterranean Sea to The Syrian Desert, Vol I and II'', and which includes a description of many new plants, including '' Iris hermona''. In 1875,

Pierre Edmond Boissier Pierre Edmond Boissier (25 May 1810 Geneva – 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss prominent botanist, explorer and mathematician. He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Caroline Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pierr ...

and Charles Isidore Blanche published ''Postia'' (in the

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

family), it is now a synonym of ''

Rhanteriopsis lanuginosa ''Rhanteriopsis'' is a genus of Middle Eastern plants in the tribe Inuleae within the family Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera wi ...

''. Then in 1985, botanist Evgeniy Vasilyevich Kljuykov published '' Postiella'', which is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s belonging to the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

and named in Post's honour. For his work as a surgeon and missionary, he received the

Order of the Red Eagle The Order of the Red Eagle () was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom, o ...

from the Kingdom of Prussia. He died in Beirut on September 30, 1909.

Biography

References

Further reading