Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916) was a British plantsman and author on botany and gardening.

Life

Ellacombe, the son of

Henry Thomas Ellacombe Henry Thomas Ellacombe or Ellicombe (1790-1885), was an English divine and antiquary. He was the inventor of an apparatus to allow a single ringer to ring multiple bells. Life Ellacombe was born in 1790, the son of the Rev. William Ellicombe, re ...

, was born at

Bitton Bitton is a village and civil parish of South Gloucestershire in England, to the east of the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd. It is in South Gloucestershire. The parish of Bitton has a population of 9,307, and apart from the village ...

, Gloucestershire in 1822. He attended Bath Grammar School and

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...

, Oxford, graduating in 1844. In 1847 he was ordained and spent a year as a curate at

Sudbury, Derbyshire Sudbury is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire, England, located about south of Ashbourne. It is part of the Derbyshire Dales district. The population as recorded at the 2001 Census was 976, increasing to 1,010 at the 2011 Census. The £0. ...

, before returning to Bitton as his father's curate. In 1850 he succeeded his father as vicar of Bitton. Two years later he married Emily Aprila Wemyss with whom he had ten children. A keen botanist and gardener, Ellacombe grew a wide range of plants at Bitton and exchanged plants and seeds with

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

and other botanical gardens across Europe. Sir

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

dedicated volume 107 of the ''

Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...

'' to him. In 1897 he was one of the first 60 recipients of the

Victoria Medal of Honour The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society. The award was established in 1897 "in per ...

.Elliott.

Works

''The Plant-Lore & Garden-Craft of Shakespeare'' (1878) – After a short introduction, in a section titled ''Plant Lore of Shakespeare'' Rev. Ellacombe alphabetically lists plants referenced in Shakespeare's plays. Each notation begins with a quote using the plant, and the play, act and scene. If there is more than one reference he lists them all; Roses, for example, have 65 quotes from numerous plays. For each plant, he then gives specific information about the family, uses and distribution. At times he quotes the use of the plant by other authors, such as Chaucer, Spenser and Ben Jonson. The Appendices are on "The Daisy", "The Seasons of Shakespeare's Plays", and the "Names of Plants", which lists various names of a plant by various authors. Other works: *''Shakespeare as an Angler'' (1883) *''In a Gloucestershire Garden'' (1895) *''In My Vicarage Garden, and Elsewhere'' (1902)

Notes

References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellacombe, Henry Nicholson 1822 births 1916 deaths 19th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford English garden writers English gardeners Parson-naturalists People from Bitton People from South Gloucestershire District Victoria Medal of Honour (Horticulture) recipients