Alexander Morrison (botanist)

Alexander Morrison (born March 15, 1849; † December 7, 1913 ) was the first government botanist of Western Australia. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Morrison ".

Life and work

Born in the western Dalmeny, Scotland, he began his medical studies in Edinburgh. His ill health caused him to abandon the study and to travel to Australia. He spent two years in Melbourne, before he returned to Edinburgh and graduated caught up. He then continued his studies still continuing in Glasgow, Würzburg and Vienna.

In 1877 he returned as a staff physician on a migrant ship to Australia, where he spent 15 years working as a doctor in Melbourne, his poor health, however, caused him a second time to travel. He attended the Southern Oceans and spent some time on the new Hebrides, now Vanuatu, where he collected plants in 1896 for Ferdinand von Mueller.

After his return to Australia, he was appointed in 1897 to the first state botanist of Western Australia, a position he held until 1906. He wrote only a few scientific papers, however, this high quality. The release of his plant taxa include, among others densiflora Acacia, Acacia longispinea, Angianthus acrohyalinus, Calandrinia creethae, Calandrinia schistorhiza, bulbigena Drosera, Drosera occidentalis, Indigofera and boviperda. He collected many specimens and cultured them, including Eucalyptus ebbanoensis and E. platycorys.

Morrison retired in 1906 to practice as a doctor again. In 1912 he was appointed assistant botanist at the National Herbarium of Alfred Ewart of Victoria. He died at Cheltenham in the following year. His herbarium he bequeathed to Edinburgh University, his library of the University of Tasmania and grounds of the University of Melbourne.

The Alexander Morrison National Park is named after him.

Evidence

• Norman Hall: Botanists of the Eucalypts. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia 1978, ISBN 0-643-00271-5.
• Morrison, Alexander (1849 - 1913). In: International Plant Names Index ( IPNI ). Retrieved on 30 March 2007.
• Morrison, Alexander (1849 - 1913). Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved on 30 March 2007.