Eugene Pintard Bicknell (September 23, 1859 – February 9, 1925) was an American

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 ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

. Bicknell was born at Riverdale-on-Hudson, the sixth son of Maria Theresa Pierrepont and Joseph Inglis Bicknell. The family was descended on the paternal side from settlers who moved from England in 1635 and on the maternal side from Sir Robert de Pierrepont who served

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

before settling in America in 1640. Another relative, Reverend James Pierrepont of

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

had donated his books to form the nucleus of the Yale College Library. Bicknell studied at home and worked with the banking firm John Munroe & Co. He married Edith Babcock in 1901 at Riverdale and they had two daughters. They then moved to

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

. He was interested in natural history from an early age. He wrote an article on the birds of the Hudson Valley in 1878 and in 1882 he wrote about the birds of the Catskill mountains in the bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club. He collected a specimen of a thrush that was described by Ridgway and named as Bicknell's Thrush. He served as a secretary to the

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its m ...

upon its founding and was a member of the

Torrey Botanical Club Torrey Botanical Society (formerly Torrey Botanical Club) was started in the 1860s by colleagues of John Torrey. It is the oldest botanical society in the Americas. The Society promotes the exploration and study of plant life, with particular ...

, the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

and other societies. He published more on plants and discovered several new species. Some of the species were found right in New York and local observers had never noticed the fine differences that Bicknell noted. He noted that there were two species of ''Helianthemum'' with a difference that had not been noticed before. This was followed by more species in the genera ''Sanicula'', ''Sisyrinchium'', ''Scrophularia'', and ''Agrimonia''. Bicknell's works include ''Review of the Summer Birds of Part of the Catskill Mountains'' (1882) and ''The Ferns and Flowering Plants of Nantucket'' (1908–19). He died at his home in Hewlett, Long Island on February 9, 1925. His plant collections were gifted by his wife to the New York Botanical Garden.

Named in Bicknell's honor

He is commemorated in the names of a number of plants and animals;

Plants

According to

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

, () there are at least 7 plants are named in honour of Eugene Pintard Bicknell (as ''bicknellii'' ) *'' Carex bicknellii'' *''

Crataegus bicknellii ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' *''

Crocanthemum bicknellii ''Crocanthemum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cistaceae. They are native to both North and South America where they are widespread. The common name frostweed relates to the ice crystals which form from sap exuding from cracks near ...

'' *''

Geranium bicknellii ''Geranium bicknellii'' is a species of geranium known by the common names Bicknell's cranesbill and northern cranesbill. It is native to much of the northern half of North America, where it can be found in a number of forest and woodland habita ...

'' , ''Bicknell's cranesbill'' *''

Panicum bicknellii ''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, annual or perennial grasses, growi ...

Animals

*''Catharus bicknelli''

Bicknell's thrush Bicknell's thrush (''Catharus bicknelli'') is a medium-sized thrush, at and . One of North America's rarest and most localized breeders, it inhabits coniferous mountain tops and disturbed habitats of the Northeast. While very similar in appeara ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bicknell, Eugene Pintard American botanists 1859 births 1925 deaths American ornithologists