David Allardice Webb (12 August 1912 – 26 September 1994) was an Irish botanist and chair of botany at

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

from 1949 to 1966. He was son of George and Dr

Ella Webb Isabella ("Ella") Gertrude Amy Webb (16 October 1877 – 24 August 1946) was a pioneering Irish paediatrician and founder of the Children's Sunshine Home for Convalescents (now LauraLynn Ireland Children's Hospice) a convalescence home for chi ...

. In Ireland he had studied under

Henry Horatio Dixon Henry Horatio Dixon FRS (19 May 1869, Dublin – 20 December 1953, Dublin) was a plant biologist and professor at Trinity College Dublin. Along with John Joly, he put forward the cohesion-tension theory of water and mineral movement in plants. ...

and also studied in the United Kingdom. In addition to botany he edited a history of Trinity College with

R. B. McDowell Robert Brendan McDowell (14 September 1913 – 29 August 2011) was an Irish historian. He was a Fellow Emeritus and a former Associate Professor of History at Trinity College Dublin. He was born in Belfast. He was referred to colloquially as ...

and published a book on the history of art in Trinity College. In 1982 he received the Boyle Medal of the

Royal Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

. His botanical specialties included his work as a leading taxonomist of '' Saxifraga''. He died in a car accident on his way to the University of Reading's

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

. The eighth edition of ''An Irish Flora'' was renamed ''Webb's An Irish Flora'' in his honour.

Publications

*Webb, D.A. 1943. ''An Irish Flora''. 1st ed. W. Tempest, Dundalgan Press. Dundalk. *——— and Hart, A.V. 1945. Contributions towards an understanding of the calcicole and calcifuge habit in some Irish plants. ''Sci. Proc. Roy''. Dublin Soc. N.S. 25, 19 - 28. *——— 1952. The flora and vegetation of Ireland in Die Pflanzebwelt Irlands." ''Veroff. Geobot. Inst. Rubels,'' Zurich, 25 H, 46 - 84. *——— 1977. An Irish Flora 6th ed. Dundalgan Press (W.Tempest) Ltd, Dundalk. *——— 1954. Notes on four Irish heaths Part 1 ''Erica mackaiana''. ''Ir Nat, J.'' 11: 187 - 192. *——— 1955. Biological flora of the British Isles. ''Erica mackaiana'', ''Journal of Ecology''. 43: 319 - 330. *——— 1980. The flora of the Aran Islands. ''Journal Life Sciences, Royal Dublin Society''. 2: 51 - 83. *——— and Hodgson, J. 1968. The Flora of Inishbofin and Inishark. ''Proceedings of the Botanical Society of the British Isles''. 7: 345 - 363. *——— and Scannell, M.J.P. 1983. ''Flora of Connemara and the Burren.'' Royal Dublin Society & Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. *——— and Scannell, M.J.P. 1984. Flora of Connemara and the Burren; some corrections and additions. ''Ir. Nat.J.'' 21: 286- 288. *———, Doogue, D. and Parnell, J. 1996. ''An Irish Flora.'' 7th ed Dundalgan Press (W. Tempest) Ltd, Dundalk.

References

Academics of Trinity College Dublin 20th-century Irish botanists Road incident deaths in England 1912 births 1994 deaths {{Ireland-scientist-stub