Henry Nicholas Ridley
CMG (1911),
MA (Oxon),
FRS,
FLS, F.R.H.S. (10 December 1855 – 24 October 1956) 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 ...
, geologist and
naturalist
Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
who lived much of his life in Singapore. He was instrumental in promoting
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds.
Types of polyisoprene ...
trees in the
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...
that led to a level of rapid deforestation, instrumental in the 1926 Great Flood. For the fervour with which he pursued this work he came to be known as "Mad Ridley".
Life
Henry Ridley was the second son and third child born to Louisa Pole Stuart and Oliver Matthew Ridley in
West Harling in Norfolk, where his father was the Rector. At the age of three his mother died and his father moved to Cobham in Kent. He studied at
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...
and then went to
Haileybury where his brother Stuart also studied. At Cobham, he had taken to the idea of collecting insects and he continued this at Haileybury where the school encouraged him to publish a "List of the Mammals and Coleoptera of Haileybury". The two brothers left Haileybury and Henry went to a private tutor at
Medmenham
Medmenham () is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the River Thames, about southwest of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Marlow and east of Henley-on-Thames. The parish also includes Danesfield, a housing estate ...
near Henley who encouraged him in Zoology and then went to
Exeter College, Oxford where he studied under
Edwin Ray Lankester and
George Rolleston
George Rolleston (30 July 1829 – 16 June 1881) was an English physician and zoologist. He was the first Linacre Professor of Anatomy and Physiology to be appointed at the University of Oxford, a post he held from 1860 until his death in 1881. ...
while also taking an interest in botany and geology under the influence of
Marmaduke Lawson and
Joseph Prestwich. He graduated in 1878 and received a Burdett-Coutts scholarship that let him conduct research on fossils from quarries near Oxford. He then joined the British Museum in the botany department to replace
Henry Trimen
Henry Trimen (26 October 1843 – 16 October 1896) was a British botanist who worked in Sri Lanka. He named several plants in the family Dipterocarpaceae.
Life
Trimen was born in Park Place, Paddington, London, England, the son of Richard and ...
who had moved to Ceylon. He specialised in the
monocotyledons and also began to travel around Europe. In 1887 he joined the Royal Society expedition with George Ramage to the island of
Fernando de Noronha off Brazil, and published on the collections on returning. In 1888 he applied and was selected for the post of director of Gardens and Forests in the Straits Settlements. He was to meet
Odoardo Beccari
Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia.
Life
Youth and education (18 ...
at Florence for information and to meet Trimen at Peradeniya to learn about rubber cultivation along the route.
Reaching Singapore, he was the first scientific director in charge of the botanical gardens and in charge of introducing new plants of economical value.
Ridley established the methods for harvesting latex from Pará rubber plants which had been introduced ten years earlier by Sir
Hugh Low apart from starting a zoological section in the gardens in 1870. Ridley explored the regions around including
Penang
Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...
and
Malacca
Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...
. In 1894 his post was abolished as the expenditure was found to exceed the revenues obtained. Ridley returned briefly to England but the removal of the post was however objected to by
William Turner Thiselton-Dyer and Ridley went back to Selangor to advise on forest reservation.
Ridley spent many years promoting rubber as a commercial product, which he was known for being passionate; therefore, he was nicknamed "Mad Ridley". In 1895, he discovered a means of tapping which did not seriously damage the rubber trees.
[ Ridley was also largely responsible for establishing the rubber industry on the ]Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...
, where he resided for twenty years. The area under Pará rubber slowly increased after 1898 when a Chinese landowner, Tan Chay Yan, grew 40 acres successfully, leading to more people taking to rubber cultivation.
Ridley was also working on the botany of the region, collecting widely. He then returned to England in 1911 and stayed at Kew to work on a botanical treatise of the region. This five-volume Flora was published from 1922 to 1925. In 1930, he published a seminal and comprehensive work on plant dispersal. This work was the culmination of his own observations over several years, and a review of widely scattered literature on the subject. On his 100th birthday in 1955 he received a visit from the High Commissioner of the soon-to-be independent Malaya.[
He married Lily Eliza Doran when he was 83 years old. Ridley died in Kew, short of his 101st birthday on 24 October 1956.]
Publications
A near-complete list of publications can be found in the 80th birthday dedication issue of the ''Gardens' Bulletin'' (1935). The following are a few selected publications.
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Eponymous species
Several species are named after Henry Ridley, including '' Diospyros ridleyi'', '' Stenolepis ridleyi'', and '' Amphisbaena ridleyi''.[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Ridley", p. 221).] It has been claimed that the olive ridley sea turtle
The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in t ...
is named after him, but this has been questioned as there is insufficient evidence. It is more likely that the turtle's common name comes from the word "riddle".
In 1913, botanist Rudolf Schlechter published ''Ridleyella
''Ridleyella'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. The sole species is ''Ridleyella paniculata'', which is endemic to New Guinea.
The genus name of ''Ridleyella'' is in honour of Henry Nicholas Ridley ( ...
'', 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 from the orchid family, Orchidaceae
Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...
. The sole species is ''Ridleyella paniculata'', which is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
.[Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families](_blank)
/ref>
Then in 1998, botanists A.Weber & B.L.Burtt published '' Ridleyandra'', a genus of about 30 species 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 Borneo, Malay and Thailand, belonging to the family Gesneriaceae
Gesneriaceae, the gesneriad family, is a family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of about 152 genera and ca. 3,540 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World (almost all Didymocarpoideae) and the New World (most Ges ...
and it also was named in Ridley's honour.
See also
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References
External links
Henry Nicholas Ridley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridley, Henry Nicholas
1855 births
1956 deaths
Administrators in British Malaya
Administrators in British Singapore
Botanists with author abbreviations
British mycologists
British pteridologists
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
English botanists
English geologists
English men centenarians
Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Harling, Norfolk