William Botting Hemsley (29 December 1843, in East Hoathly – 7 October 1924, in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

) was an English botanist and 1909

Victoria Medal of Honour The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...

recipient. He was born in East Hoathly, Sussex and in 1860 started work at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

as an Improver, then Assistant for India in the Herbarium, finally Keeper of Herbarium and Library. He wrote a number of botanical works. In 1888, a 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 from south-east Asia, belonging to the family

Cucurbitaceae The Cucurbitaceae (), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family (biology), family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera.

was named ''

Hemsleya ''Hemsleya'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae. Its native range is Eastern Himalayas to southern China and Papuasia. It is native to the countries of Assam (in India), Bismarck Archipelago (island group, par ...

'' in his honour. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in June 1889.

Publications

* * ''Biologica Centrali-Americana Botany. Vol. I '', 1879–1888 *
Biologica Centrali-Americana Botany. Vol. III
', 1882–1886 * ''Botany of the Bermudas and various other Islands of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans'', 1885 * ''Botany of Juan Fernandez, South-eastern Molluccas, and the Admiralty Islands'', 1885 * ''An Enumeration of All the Plants Known from China Proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the Luchu Archipelago, and the Island of Hong Kong.'' with Francis B. Forbes, 1887

References

External links

William Botting Hemsley finding aid
collection held at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew archives. English botanists Botanists active in China 1843 births 1924 deaths People from East Hoathly Fellows of the Royal Society 19th-century English people 19th-century British botanists {{UK-botanist-stub