William Sherard

William Sherard ( born February 27, 1659 † August 11, 1728 ) was an English botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Sherard ".

Life and work

Sherard was born in Bushby, Leicestershire and studied at St John 's College, Oxford from 1677 to 1683. He studied botany from 1686 to 1688 in Paris under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, and was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave in Leiden from 1688 to 1689. 1690 he was in Ireland a private tutor to the family of Sir Arthur Rawdon Moira ( County Down ). He worked with John Ray Stirpium, which appeared in 1694. He gave Paul Hermann's Paradisus Batavus ( 1698 ) out. In 1700 he began a continuation of Caspar Bauhins Pinax botanici, but which he did not graduate.

From 1703 to 1716, Sherard was British consul in Smyrna; During this time he came to wealth. After his return to England he became mentor other naturalists, including Johann Jacob Dillen, Pier Antonio Micheli, Paolo Boccone and Mark Catesby. He also supported the publication of Sébastien Vaillant Botanicon parisiense ( 1727). At Oxford University he established the Department of Botany and bequeathed his valuable library and his herbarium.

William Sherard was the older brother of Jacob Sherard. Dillens famous Hortus Elthamensis, which was often quoted by Carl Linnaeus, was a description of rare plants from Jacob Sherard's garden in Eltham (Kent, now Greater London). According to title page and foreword by William Sherard Dillens work contributed enormously to the taxonomic part of the work.

Ehrentaxon

Johann Jacob Dillen named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Rubiaceae Sherardia ( Rubiaceae ). Linnaeus later took the name.