Charles Baron Clarke (17 June 1832 – 25 August 1906) was a British

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

. He was born at

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia * Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Ando ...

, the eldest son of Turner Poulter Clarke. He was educated at

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and at

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

and Queens' Colleges,

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 bec ...

. He began the study of law at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1856 and was called to the bar in 1860. He lectured in mathematics at Presidency College,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, from 1857 to 1865. Clarke was Inspector of Schools in

Eastern Bengal Eastern Bengal may refer to: * East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British ...

and later of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden from 1869 to 1871. Richmond Cemetery, grave of Charles Baron Clarke

He retired from the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

in 1887. He was president 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 ...

from 1894 to 1896, and 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 ...

in 1882. He worked at

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

until his death in 1906. He is buried in

Richmond Cemetery Richmond Cemetery is a cemetery on Lower Grove Road in Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England. The cemetery opened in 1786 on a plot of land granted by an Act of Parliament the previous year. The cemetery has been expande ...

. There are number of plants with specific name ''clarkei'', including '' Iris clarkei'', ''

Clarkella ''Clarkella'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus contains only one species, viz. ''Clarkella nana'', which is native to India, China, Uttarakhand, the Western Himalayas, Burma and Thailand Thai ...

'',which is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

. and also ''

Clarkeinda ''Clarkeinda'' is a genus of fungi in the family Agaricaceae. According to the ''Dictionary of the Fungi'', the widespread genus contains five species. Species in this genus, especially '' Clarkeinda trachodes'', are only distributed in south Asi ...

'', which is a genus of

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

in the family

Agaricaceae The Agaricaceae are a family of basidiomycete fungi and include the genus ''Agaricus'', as well as basidiomycetes previously classified in the families Tulostomataceae, Lepiotaceae, and Lycoperdaceae. Taxonomy The family Agaricaceae was publishe ...

Bibliography

Clarke wrote several books, including: * ''The

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...

of Costa Rica'' * ''On the Indian species of Cyperus: with remarks on some others that specially illustrate the sub-divisions of the genus'' * ''Illustrations of Cyperaceae'' * ''Cyperaceae of the Philippines: a list of the species in the Kew Herbarium'' * ''Philippine Acanthaceae'' * ''The Subsubareas of British India'' * ''Speculations From Political Economy'' * ''A list of the flowering plants, ferns, and mosses collected in the immediate neighbourhood of Andover''

References

External links

* * 1832 births 1906 deaths British botanists Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Burials at Richmond Cemetery {{UK-botanist-stub