Richard Relhan (1754–1823) was a botanist, a fellow of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, and author of a renowned book about the plants around

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

. Relhan, the son of Dr. Anthony Relhan, was born at

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

in 1754. He was elected a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's Schoo ...

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It derives from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the 1066 Norman Conquest, as d ...

in 1767, and was admitted a scholar of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, on 7 May 1773. He graduated B.A. in 1776 and M.A. in 1779, and, having taken holy orders, was chosen in 1781 fellow and conduct (or chaplain) of King's College, Cambridge. In 1783 Professor

Thomas Martyn Thomas Martyn (23 September 1735 – 3 June 1825) was an English botanist and Professor of Botany at Cambridge University. He is sometimes confused with the conchologist and entomologist of the same name. Life Thomas Martyn was the son of th ...

(1735–1825) gave Relhan all the manuscript notes he had made on Cambridge plants since the publication of his ''Plantae Cantabrigienses'' in 1763. With this assistance Relhan published his chief work, the ''Flora Cantabrigiensis'' in 1785, de scribing several new plants and including seven plates engraved by James Sowerby. It appears from his letters that he proposed to issue a Flora Anglica'', but did not meet with sufficient encouragement. He published supplements to the ''Flora Cantabrigiensis'' in 1787, 1788, and 1793, and second and third editions of the whole in 1802 and 1820, the last edition being greatly amplified. In 1787 he printed ''Heads of Lectures on Botany read in the University of Cambridge''. Relhan was made 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, r ...

on 12 June 1787, and in 1788 became one of the original fellows of the

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

. In 1791 he accepted the college rectory of

Hemingby Hemingby is a dispersed village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately north from the market town of Horncastle and just west from the junction of the B1225 and A158 roads. It is s ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...

. Living in retirement there, he devoted himself to the study of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

. In 1809 he published an edition of ''Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum et de Vita Agricolse''; and in 1819 an edition of the ''Historia''. His annotations were largely based upon those of the French Jesuit scholar,

Gabriel Brotier In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek language, Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin language, Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic language, Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, transli ...

. Relhan died on 28 March 1823. As a botanist he showed most originality in dealing with the

Cryptogam A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...

ia. His name was commemorated by L'Heritier in a genus,

Relhania ''Oedera'' is a genus of African flowering plants in the tribe Gnaphalieae within the family Asteraceae. The genus is named in honor of the Danish botanist Georg Christian Oeder. The species have yellow central and ray florets in their flower- ...

, comprising a few species of South African Composite. Many fungi were named by Richard Relhan. Relhan was also a talented painter. There is a watercolor painted by him of the Barnwell Leper Chapel, the oldest complete building in Cambridge.Barnwell Leper Chapel
web page, retrieved 16 August 2007.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Relhan, Richard 1754 births 1823 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London British botanists