Edward Forster the Younger (12 October 1765 – 23 February 1849) was an English

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

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 ...

Life

He was born at Wood Street,

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

, 12 October 1765, the third and youngest son of Edward Forster the elder and his wife Susanna;

Thomas Furly Forster Thomas Furly Forster (5 September 1761 – 28 October 1825) was an English botanist. Life Forster was born in Bond Street, Walbrook, on 5 September 1761, the eldest son of Edward Forster the Elder and his wife Susanna Furney. His father retir ...

and

Benjamin Meggot Forster Benjamin Meggot Forster (16 January 1764 – 8 March 1829) was an English botanist and mycologist who published ''An Introduction to the Knowledge of Fungusses'' in 1820. Life Forster was the second son of Edward Forster the elder and his wife ...

were his brothers and Susanna Dorothy Forster his sister. He received a commercial education in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, and entered the banking-house of Forster, Lubbocks, Forster, & Clarke. Forster took up botany in

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

at age 15. With his two brothers he later cultivated in his father's garden almost all the herbaceous plants then grown, and contributed county lists of plants to Gough's edition of ''Camden'' (1789). He was one of the early fellows 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 ...

, founded in 1788, was elected treasurer in 1816, and vice-president in 1828. With his brothers he was one of the main founders of the Refuge for the Destitute in Hackney Road.

Death and legacy

Forster resided mainly at

Hale End Hale End is a locality in East London in the borough of Waltham Forest, very near Woodford Green, two miles from Tottenham and one mile from Walthamstow. It adjoins Highams Park in the E4 postal district. Much of Highams Park until the late 19t ...

, Walthamstow, but at the time of his death was at the Ivy House,

Woodford Woodford may refer to: Places Australia *Woodford, New South Wales *Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region *Woodford, Victoria Canada * Woodford, Ontario England *Woodford, Cornwall * Woodford, Gloucestershire *Woodford, Greate ...

, London. He died of

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

, 23 February 1849, two days after inspecting the Hackney Road Refuge on the occasion of an outbreak of the disease. He was buried in the family vault at Walthamstow. At his death his library and his herbarium, collected in many parts of England, were sold. Robert Brown bought the herbarium and presented it to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

The species ''

Luzula forsteri ''Luzula forsteri'', commonly known as southern wood-rush, is a species of perennial plant in Juncaceae family that is native to Europe, north Africa and western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of ...

'' was named for Forster.

Works

In 1817 Forster had printed a catalogue of British birds.''Catalogus avium in insulis Britannicis habitantium cura et studio Eduardi Forsteri jun.'', London, 1817, pp. 48), Subsequently he concentrated on plants. He printed papers on critical species of British plants in the ''Transactions'' of the

, the ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'', and ''

The Phytologist ''The Phytologist'' was a British botanical journal, appearing first as ''Phytologist: a popular botanical miscellany''. It was founded in 1841 as a monthly, edited by George Luxford. Luxford died in 1854, and the title was taken over by Alexa ...

''. Forster collected material on the flora of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. Several species described by him were in the ''Supplement to English Botany'' (1834).

Family

In 1796 Forster married Mary Jane, only daughter of Abraham Greenwood, who died in 1846 without surviving issue.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Edward 1765 births 1849 deaths Deaths from cholera English bankers English botanists Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Walthamstow