John Gilbert Baker (13 January 1834 – 16 August 1920) was an English

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. His son was the botanist

Edmund Gilbert Baker Edmund Gilbert Baker (1864–1949) was a British plant collector and botanist. He was the son of John Gilbert Baker John Gilbert Baker (13 January 1834 – 16 August 1920) was an England, English botanist. His son was the botanist Edmund G ...

(1864–1949).

Biography

Baker was born in Guisborough in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, the son of John and Mary (née Gilbert) Baker, and died in

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 ...

. He was educated at Quaker schools at Ackworth School and

Bootham School Bootham School is a private Quaker boarding school, on Bootham in the city of York in England. It accepts boys and girls ages 3–19 and had an enrolment of 605 pupils in 2016. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school was ...

, York. He then worked at the library and

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, 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 sh ...

of the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

between 1866 and 1899, and was keeper of the herbarium from 1890 to 1899. He wrote handbooks on many plant groups, including

Amaryllidaceae The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus '' Amaryllis'' and is commonly known as the amaryl ...

Bromeliaceae The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

Iridaceae Iridaceae () is a family of plants in order Asparagales, taking its name from the Iris (plant), irises. It has a nearly global distribution, with 69 accepted genera with a total of about 2500 species. It includes a number of economically importan ...

Liliaceae The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fai ...

, and

fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...

s. His published works includ
''Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles''
(1877) and ''Handbook of the Irideae'' (1892). Baker issued several

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

-like series, among others the series ''Herbarium of British Roses erbarium Rosarum Britannicarum'.Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. He married Hannah Unthank in 1860. Their son Edmund was one of twins, and his twin brother died before 1887. John G. Baker was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1878. He was awarded the

Veitch Memorial Medal The Veitch Memorial Medal is an international prize awarded annually by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Goal The prize is awarded to "persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement ...

of the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

in 1907.

Taxa named in honour

Several plant species with the epithet ''bakeriana'' or ''bakeranius'' and ''bakeranium'' have been named in honour of John G. Baker.Dr Ross Bayton Including; * '' Hieracium bakerianum'' * '' Hymenostegia bakeriana'' * '' Iris reticulata var. bakeriana'' (also known as '' Iris bakeriana'') * '' Lilium bakerianum'' * '' Rhodolaena bakeriana'' * '' Rubus bakerianus''

Selected publications

* *

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, John Gilbert 1834 births 1920 deaths People from Guisborough People educated at Ackworth School People educated at Bootham School English botanists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Victoria Medal of Honour recipients Veitch Memorial Medal recipients British pteridologists