John Hutchinson (7 April 1884 Blindburn, Northumberland – 2 September 1972

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) 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 ...

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

and author.''A Botanist in Southern Africa'' John Hutchinson (London, 1946)

Life and career

Born in Blindburn, Wark on Tyne,

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England, he received his horticultural training in Northumberland and Durham and was appointed a student gardener at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

in 1904. His taxonomic and drawing skills were soon noticed and resulted in his being appointed to the Herbarium in 1905. He moved from assistant in the Indian section to assistant for Tropical Africa, returning to Indian botany from 1915 to 1919, and from then on was in charge of the African section until 1936 when he was appointed Keeper of the Museums of Botany at Kew. He retired in 1948 but continued working on the

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

of flowering plants and publishing two parts of ''The Genera of Flowering Plants''. John Hutchinson proposed a radical revision of the angiosperm classification systems devised by

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

and that of

Adolf Engler Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with K ...

and Karl Anton Eugen Prantl which had become widely accepted during the 20th century. At its simplest, his system suggested two main divisions of

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. T ...

, herbaceous and woody. Hutchinson made two extended collecting trips to South Africa, which were recounted in great detail in ''A Botanist in Southern Africa''. His first visit was from August 1928 to April 1929, and the second from June 1930 to September 1930 on which occasion the expedition travelled north as far as

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

Awards

* He was awarded an honorary degree of LL.D. by

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

in 1934. * Awarded Veitch Memorial Medal in 1937. * Awarded the Victoria Medal (horticulture) in 1944 for outstanding contributions to horticulture. * Awarded Linnaean Gold Medal in 1968. * He was awarded the

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

's Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. * He was elected Honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) in 1965 * He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

(FRS) in 1947 * Awarded O.B.E. shortly before his death * Commemorated in the genus '' Hutchinsonia'' Robyns.

Personal life

Hutchinson was married and had two sons and three daughters, one of whom lived in South Africa. He spent his leisure time roaming the English countryside with his wife in a caravan drawing wild flowers. At his funeral a wreath largely made of South African flowers was sent by his colleagues at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

First Southern Africa trip August 1928 – April 1929

Hutchinson arrived in

Table Bay Table Bay (Afrikaans: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named because it is dominated by the fl ...

and spent the first few weeks collecting in and around

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

and

Table Mountain Table Mountain (; ) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, cableway or hik ...

, with short trips further afield. His first lengthy trip was to

Namaqualand Namaqualand ( Khoikhoi: "Nama-kwa" meaning Nama Khoi people's land) is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of . It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River int ...

and Bushmanland with fellow botanist and succulent specialist, Neville Stuart Pillans. Back in Cape Town he purchased a small Citroën car and set off on 30 October in the company of

Rudolf Marloth Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth (28 December 1855 Lübben, Germany – 15 May 1931 Caledon, Cape Province) was a German-born South African botanist, pharmacist and analytical chemist, best known for his ''Flora of South Africa'' which appeared i ...

, who left them at

Barrydale Barrydale is a village on the border of the Overberg and Klein Karoo regions of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. It was named after Joseph Barry, a merchant of the 19th century. It is situated at the northern end of the Tradouws Pass wh ...

, and Jan Gillett, the son of Arthur Gillett at the University of Oxford (one of the founders of

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

). On this occasion their route followed the southern Cape coast as far as

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

. Here Gillett's place was taken by Robert Allen Dyer and the route veered inland to

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

and Katberg, then back to the coast, visiting Butterworth, Port St Johns, Kokstad,

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

and

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

. From here Hutchinson travelled on his own and in

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

joined up with General Smuts, who was a keen and knowledgeable botanist, to the far northern Transvaal to explore Lake Fundudzi, sacred to the

Venda Venda ( ), officially the Republic of Venda (; ), was a Bantustan in northern South Africa. It was fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while, to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black hom ...

people. *16–22 August 1928

Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...

*25 August

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

*31 August Matjesfontein *4 September

Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...

to Darling *5 September Hopefield to Vredenburg *6 September coast north of

Saldanha Bay Saldanha Bay () is a natural harbour on the south-western coast of South Africa. The town that developed on the northern shore of the bay, also called Saldanha, Western Cape, Saldanha, was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay ...

*10 September Hottentots Holland Mountains *16 September above

Tulbagh Tulbagh (), previously named Roodezand, then Land van Waveren later in 1804 named after Cape of Good Hope Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Cape Winelands ...

Waterfall *21 September

Sir Lowry's Pass Sir Lowry's Pass is a mountain pass on the N2 national road in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It crosses the Hottentots Holland Mountains between Somerset West and the Elgin valley, on the main route between Cape Town and the G ...

*30 September gorge west of Ceres *5 October lighthouse at

Sea Point Sea Point (Afrikaans: ''Seepunt'') is an affluent and densely populated suburb of Cape Town, situated in the Western Cape, between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's Central Business District (CBD). M ...

*9 October

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

to Middlepost *10 October near Elandsfontein *11 October near Nieuwoudtville *13 October near Bitterfontein *13 October Garies to Kamieskroon *15 October O'okiep to Steinkopf *16 October poort between Concordia and Pella *16 October Pella to Pofadder *18 October Kenhardt *27 October Bain's Kloof *29 October

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

*30 October Robertson *31 October Montagu to

*1 November Waterkloof, Ladismith *1 November Seweweekspoort *2 November Calitzdorp to Cango *3 November southern side of Swartberg Pass *4 November Oudtshoorn to Montagu Pass *5 November Pacaltsdorp *5 November Touws River near George *5 November Phantom Pass near

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

*7 November Belvedere near

*8 November

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. According to the census of 2001, the town had a population of 29,149. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("Be ...

*8 November Bitou River *9 November Keurbooms River *9 November Grootrivier Pass *10 November Witelsbos *12 November Kareedouw Pass *12 November Kareedouw to Humansdorp *13 November Jeffreys Bay *14 November Gamtoos River Pass *16 November

Uitenhage Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port El ...

*16 November near Addo *17 November Howieson's Poort near

*18 November Bathurst *19 November Fish River Valley *19 November Pluto's Vale *20 November Botha's Hill *26 November Grahamstown to

Fort Beaufort Fort Beaufort ( Xhosa: iBhofolo), officially renamed KwaMaqoma in March 2023, is a town in the Amatole District of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and had a population of 25,668 in 2011. The town was established in 1837 and became a mun ...

*26 November hills above Balfour *27 November top of Katberg *28 November Seymour to

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

*28 November

King William's Town Qonce, formerly King William's Town, is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River. The town is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London, South Africa, ...

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

*29 November Mooiplaats to Komgha *1 December Libode *1 December mountain forest near Port St Johns *3 December Port St Johns to Lusikisiki *3 December Flagstaff *4 December Flagstaff to Kokstad *5 December Mt Currie *6 December

Botanical Garden *6 December Umgeni *10 December Howick, Mooi River *11 December Ladysmith, Natal *14 December

Warmbaths Bela-Bela (Tswana language, Tswana/Pedi for "the pot that boils") - formerly known as Warmbaths, Afrikaans: Warmbad- is a town in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Deriving its name from the geothermic hot springs around which the town was b ...

*15 December near Potgietersrust *16 December Louis Trichardt to Wylliespoort *18 December Limpopo River near

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

*19 December Dongola *21 December Thomson's Store to Lake Fundudzi *23 December Witvlag *23 December Woodbush near Tzaneen *24 December Moorddrift *28 December koppie at Fountains Valley near

*31 December Hartebeespoort in the

Magaliesberg The Magaliesberg (historically also known as ''Macalisberg'' or ''Cashan Mountains'') of northern South Africa, is a modest but well-defined mountain range composed mainly of quartzites. It rises at a point south of the Pilanesberg (and the ...

*2 January 1929 Doornkloof near

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

*5 January Louw's Creek to Maid of the Mist Mountain *7 January Barberton to Louw's Creek *7 January Barberton to Lomati Falls *8 January Impala Siding near Barberton *9 January Komatipoort *9 January western slopes of

Lebombo Mountains The Lebombo Mountains, also called Lubombo Mountains, Rivombo Mountains (), are an , narrow range of mountains in Southern Africa. They stretch from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa ...

Portuguese East Africa Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

*15 January Horn's Nek, Magaliesberg *22 January between Potgietersrust and Swerwerskraal *23 January Magalakwin River Bridge *24 January north of Blaauwberg *29 January

Premier Mine The Premier Mine is an underground diamond mine owned by Petra Diamonds in the town of Cullinan, Gauteng, Cullinan, east of Pretoria, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Established in 1902, it was renamed the Cullinan Diamond Mine in November ...

near Pretoria *30 January between Arnot and

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

*2 February

Machadodorp Machadodorp, also known by its official name eNtokozweni, is a small town situated on the N4 national highway, near the edge of the escarpment in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The Elands River runs through the town. There is a natural ...

*3 February Maskew's farm Suikerboskop near Belfast *6 February Magatosnek near

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a town at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West (South African province), North West province, South Africa (549 ...

*7 February Rustenburg to

Zeerust Zeerust is a commercial town situated in the Ngaka Modiri Molema district of North West Province, South Africa. It lies in the Marico valley, approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. It lies on the N4, the main road link betwee ...

*8 February hills north of Zeerust *9 February 15 miles west of Mafeking *10 February Vryburg to

Schweizer-Reneke Schweizer-Reneke, sometimes referred to as Schweizer, is a town in the North West Province of South Africa. It is the administrative centre of Mamusa Local Municipality.

*11 February Wolmaransstad and

Klerksdorp Klerksdorp ( ) is located in the North West Province (South Africa), North West Province, South Africa. Klerksdorp is located southeast of Mahikeng, the provincial capital. Klerksdorp was also the first capital of the then Transvaal Republic and u ...

*15 February near Parys, Orange Free State *18 February Christiana to Warrenton *19 February koppies near

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

*20 February Kimberley to Riverton *21 February Baviaanskrantz near Kaap Plateau *22 February hills between Papkuil and Postmasburg *23 February hills east of

Asbestos Mountains The Asbestos Mountains is a range of hills in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, stretching south-southwest from Kuruman, where the range is known as the ''Kuruman Hills'', to Prieska. It passes Boetsap, Danielskuil, Lime Acres, Douglas ...

*24 February near Campbell *28 February Kaffir River to Edenburg, Orange Free State *1 March Fauresmith Reserve *3 March near Colesberg *4 March Kikvorsch Mountains near Noupoort *6 March near Tafelberg, Middelburg, Cape Province *8 March Roode Hoogte Pass *8 March Naude's Pass *9 March Groote River to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

*10 March Meiringspoort *13 March George *15 March

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay () is a harbour town of about 170,000 people on the Garden Route of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the country's seat of parliament, Ca ...

*24 March Robinson Pass *25 March

Riviersonderend Riviersonderend is a village in the Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, about east of Cape Town. It is located on a loop of the Sonderend River, from which it takes its name. In the census of 2011 it was recorded as having a popul ...

*26 March Caledon to

Hermanus Hermanus (; originally called ''Hermanuspietersfontein'', but shortened in 1902 as the name was too long for the postal service

*5 April

*9 April Zeekoevlei

Second African trip June 1930 – September 1930

Having met Hutchinson on his previous visit to South Africa, General Smuts invited him to join a party consisting of Margaret Clark Gillett with two of her sons, Jan and Anthony, on a trip to

. They set off from

on 28 June 1930 in a convoy of seven vehicles and were joined at

Beit Bridge Beitbridge is a border town in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. The name also refers to the border post and bridge spanning the Limpopo River, which forms the political border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The border on the ...

by Illtyd Buller Pole-Evans. They collected all the way to Lake Tanganyika and then retraced their route to Broken Hill, where Hutchinson boarded a goods train to Elizabethville (

Lubumbashi Lubumbashi ( , ; former ; former ) is the second-largest Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital ...

). On his return to Pretoria, and with time in hand, he set off on a trip to the Soutpansberg with Jan Gillett. Then followed a week in the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

, climbing to the top of Mont-aux-Sources with two fellow botanists, Ms. Verdoorn and Ms. Forbes. A final flurry of collecting at Botha's Hill near

, and

, saw the end of a fruitful visit.

List of selected publications

Books

* volume II, 1928. * Volume 1:

Dicotyledon The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...

ae 1926, Volume 2:

Monocotyledon Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks ...

ae 1934. * Volume 1
Dicotyledonae
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

, Volume 2
Monocotyledonae
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

br>Available to borrow: 2 vols
* * ''The Genera of Flowering Plants'' (Oxford, Vol.1 (1964), Vol.2 (1967), Vol. 3 (posthumously)) a
* ''Common Wild Flowers'' (1945) * ''More Common Wild Flowers'' (1948) * ''Uncommon Wild Flowers'' (1950) * ''British Wild Flowers'' (1955) * ''The Story of Plants'' with R. Melville * ''A Botanist in Southern Africa'' (London, 1946) * ''Flora of West Tropical Africa'' with Dr John McEwen Dalziel /keytofamiliesoff00hutc/page/n5 Internet Archive
* ''Evolution and Phylogeny of Flowering Plants'' (1969)

Articles

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, John 1884 births 1972 deaths English botanists English taxonomists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Officers of the Order of the British Empire Veitch Memorial Medal recipients Victoria Medal of Honour recipients Linnean Medallists Botanists active in Kew Gardens