George Forrest (botanist)

George Forrest ( born March 13, 1873 in Falkirk, Scotland, † January 5, 1932 in Tengyueh, Yunnan, China) was a Scottish botanist and plant collector. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Forrest ".

Life and work

Forrest worked in a pharmacy in Kilmarnock. As soon as he had saved enough money, he traveled to Australia to visit relatives. He returned to Scotland in 1902.

His botanical work he began at the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. However, it was not a city person and longed for working outdoors. His first botanical expedition he could for AK Bulley from Neston in Cheshire, make the founder of the " Bee Seeds". Bulley Forrest sent to China to collect plants. Many of the data collected by Forrest plants bear forrestii the specific epithet, which is an indication of the success of his travels.

Forrest undertook five expeditions to China; he gathered there not only plants, but also birds and butterflies. He sat in China also his pharmaceutical knowledge and treated with local Chinese various diseases. Forrest himself was very ill in China and died in Tengyueh in the southwestern Yunnan, near the border with Myanmar.

Information collected by him in Europe and newly introduced plants belong the of fir Abies Georgei, species of maple (Acer), Adenophera, asters, Dracocephalum, Hemerocallis, Iris, Primula and Rhododendron Rhododendron forrestii.