George Edward Post (1838–1909) was an American surgeon, academic and botanist.

Biography

George Edward Post was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on December 17, 1838, the son of Alfred Charles Post. He was a Professor of Surgery at the Syrian Protestant College in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, which became the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

(AUB). He had originally graduated from University College of New York.Mounir(Munir) E Nassar, M.D., FACP During 1860, he worked as a missionary doctor in Syria. He later published 18 articles in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

, including ''Arabic Dictionary of the Holy Bible'', ''Classification and Study of Principles of Plant Physiology and Function'' and ''Rules of How to Succeed'' and translated two texts from Arabic into English. Post published broadly in the areas of natural history, medicine, and theology. Post formally described 221 taxa, and published an extensive volume on the Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai in 1896. He was also one of the contributors to ''

Smith's Bible Dictionary ''Smith's Bible Dictionary'', originally named ''A Dictionary of the Bible'', is a 19th-century Bible dictionary containing upwards of four thousand entries that became named after its editor, William Smith. Its popularity was such that condense ...

'', in 1893. Later, a new and revised edition of Post's seminal work was published posthumously in 1932–1933 by

John Edward Dinsmore John Edward Dinsmore (1862-1951) was a botanist and educator, born in Maine, USA. He is best known for his role as the director of the herbarium of the American Colony, Jerusalem and as the honorary curator at the herbarium of George Edward Po ...

, entitled ''Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Sinai: Volume 1: A Handbook of The Flowering Plants and Ferns, Native and Naturalized From The Taurus to Ras Muhammad And From the Mediterranean Sea to The Syrian Desert, Vol I and II'', and which includes a description of many new plants, including ''

Iris hermona ''Iris hermona'', the Golan iris, is a plant species in the genus ''Iris'', it is also in the subgenus of ''Iris'', and in the section ''Oncocyclus''. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the pastures and meadows of the Golan Heights in Israel and ...

''. In 1875,

Pierre Edmond Boissier Pierre Edmond Boissier (25 May 1810 Geneva – 25 September 1885 Valeyres-sous-Rances) was a Swiss prominent botanist, explorer and mathematician. He was the son of Jacques Boissier (1784-1857) and Caroline Butini (1786-1836), daughter of Pierre ...

and

Charles Isidore Blanche Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

published ''Postia'' (in the

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

family), it is now a synonym of ''

Rhanteriopsis lanuginosa ''Rhanteriopsis'' is a genus of Middle Eastern plants in the tribe Inuleae within the family Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within t ...

''. Then in 1985, botanist Evgeniy Vasilyevich Kljuykov published ''

Postiella ''Postiella'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. It only contains one known species, ''Postiella capillifolia'' Its native range is Eastern Mediterranean and is found in Lebanon and Syria. The genus nam ...

'', which is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus of

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 belonging to the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

and named in Post's honour. For his work as a surgeon and missionary, he received the

Order of the Red Eagle The Order of the Red Eagle (german: Roter Adlerorden) was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful se ...

from the Kingdom of Prussia. He died in Beirut on September 30, 1909.

Biography

References

Further reading