Joseph Henry Maiden (25 April 1859 – 16 November 1925) was a
botanist who made a major contribution to knowledge of the Australian flora, especially the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
''
Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of Flowering plant, flowering trees, shrubs or Mallee (habit), mallees in the Myrtaceae, myrtle Family (biology), family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the Tribe (biology) ...
''. This botanist is denoted by the
author abbreviation Maiden when
citing a
botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar or Group epithets must conform to the '' Inte ...
.
Life
Joseph Maiden was born in
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west fr ...
in northwest London. He studied science at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degre ...
, but due to ill health he did not complete the course. As part of his treatment he was advised to take a long sea voyage, and so in 1880 he sailed for
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. In 1881, Maiden was appointed first curator of the Technological Museum in Sydney (now the
Powerhouse Museum), remaining there until 1896. While there, he published an article in 1886 describing what he called "some sixteenth century maps of Australia". These were the so-called Dieppe maps, the Rotz (1547), the Harleian or Dauphin (mid-1540s), and the Desceliers (1550), photo-lithographic reproductions of which had been published by the British Museum in 1885. He was much interested in the native plants, and in his early days was associated with the Rev.
William Woolls in his botanical studies. After his first collection of plants were destroyed in a fire at the Garden Palace near Sydney Botanic Gardens in 1882, he amassed a new collection, which was housed in part of an exhibition hall in the Outer Domain, behind Sydney Hospital.
[Gilbert, L. (2002) 'Maiden, Joseph Henry', in R. Aitken and M. Looker (eds), ''Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens'', South Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp. 394–95.] This collection formed the basis for his first book, ''The Useful Native Plants of Australia'', published in 1889, in which he acknowledged his debt to the work of
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Vic ...
with whom he had been in correspondence.
In 1890 he was appointed consulting botanist to the Department of Agriculture and in 1894 was made Superintendent of Technical Education. In 1892 he published a ''Bibliography of Australian Economic Botany''. In 1896, Maiden was appointed Government Botanist and Director of the Botanic Gardens, succeeding Charles Moore, who had been one of his botanical mentors.
He immediately set about establishing the colony's first
herbarium
A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant 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 sheet of paper (calle ...
, as well as a museum, library and Sydney's first playground. He had in the previous year brought out Part I of ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of New South Wales'', of which other parts appeared in this and in later years. Another valuable work, the ''Forest Flora of New South Wales'', was published in parts between 1904 and 1924, and his ''Illustrations of New South Wales Plants'' began to appear in 1907. In 1909 Maiden published ''Sir Joseph Banks the "father of Australia"''. In 1916, in collaboration with
Ernst Betche, he published ''A Census of New South Wales Plants'', and in 1920 Maiden published Part I of ''The Weeds of New South Wales''.
Maiden became the recognised authority on ''Acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus n ...
'' and ''Eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of Flowering plant, flowering trees, shrubs or Mallee (habit), mallees in the Myrtaceae, myrtle Family (biology), family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the Tribe (biology) ...
''. He published about 45 papers, and his eight-volume ''A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus'' remained a major reference for over fifty years. He induced his co-author, the artist Margaret Flockton, to delay her retirement for five years to complete the illustrations. He was the author of numerous species and the collector of type material for many more.[ His other interests included reducing sand erosion, promoting wattle cultivation for the tanning industry, and control (or use) of prickly pear.] He served as secretary of the (Royal) Geographical Society of Australasia, lectured in agricultural botany and forestry at the University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one o ...
, and was a trustee of the Rookwood Church of England Cemetery. He was an active office-bearer in the Royal and Linnean societies of New South Wales, the (Royal) Australian Historical Society, the Wattle Day League, the Horticultural Society and Horticultural Association, the Field Naturalists' Society, the Town Planning Association of New South Wales, and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science.
It was modelled on the British As ...
.
Joseph Maiden retired in 1924, and died at Turramurra
Turramurra is a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Ku-ring-gai Council. It shares the ...
, Sydney.[ '' Eucalyptus maidenii'' is named in his honour. He was also appointed a Companion of the Imperial Service Order in 1916.]
See also
*List of Australian plant species authored by Joseph Maiden
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022
This is a list of Australian plant species authored by Joseph Maiden, including naturalised species:
* '' Acacia abrupta'' Maiden & Blakely
* '' Acacia acellerata'' Maiden & Blakely
* '' Acacia adsurgens'' Maiden & ...
* Margaret Flockton, illustrator for the Botanic Gardens and of ''A Critical Revision of the Genus Eucalyptus''.
References
References
*
Further reading
The following sources were not consulted in the writing of this article:
*
External links
*
* ''A Critical Revision of the Genus ''Eucalyptus, 8 volume
BHL
* ''The Useful Native Plants of Australia (including Tasmania)''
IA
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/12190#/summary BHL] (Digitized from QK431.M254, The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maiden, Joseph Henry
20th-century Australian botanists
Australian taxonomists
Botanists with author abbreviations
1859 births
1925 deaths
Botanists active in Australia
Australian foresters
Australian Companions of the Imperial Service Order
Fellows of the Royal Society
19th-century Australian botanists
English emigrants to colonial Australia