John Buchanan (13 October 1819 – 1898) was a New Zealand botanist and scientific artist. He was a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

Biography

Buchanan was born in

Dunbartonshire Dunbartonshire ( gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann) or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders P ...

, Scotland, and in his early life apprenticed as a

calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

pattern designer. He emigrated to

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

in 1852, not long after the settlement had been established, working as a survey assistant and gold prospector, during the

Otago Gold Rush The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – ...

. During this period, Buchanan was an amateur botanist, collecting plant specimens he sent to contacts in Scotland. On the recommendation of

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 ...

, Buchanan became employed as a botanist for

James Hector Sir James Hector (16 March 1834 – 6 November 1907) was a Scottish-New Zealand geologist, naturalist, and surgeon who accompanied the Palliser Expedition as a surgeon and geologist. He went on to have a lengthy career as a government employe ...

's survey of Otago and the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

of the South Island. In 1865, Buchanan was employed by the Colonial Museum in Wellington (now

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. ''Te Papa Tongarewa'' translates literally to "container of treasures" or in full "container of treasured things and people that spring fr ...

), after Hector was appointed as the director of the institution. During the next 20 years, Buchanan collected specimens for the museum and surveyed the plants growing in the

Wellington Botanic Garden The Wellington Botanic Garden in Wellington, New Zealand covers 25 hectares of land on the side of the hill between Thorndon and Kelburn, near central Wellington. The garden features 25 hectares of protected native forest, conifers, plant c ...

Works

* ''Botanical notes on the Kaikoura Mountains and

Mount Egmont Mount Taranaki (), also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is the second highest point in the North Island, after Mount Ruapehu. The mountain has a secon ...

'' (1867)
''Manual of the indigenous grasses of New Zealand'' (1880)
Buchanan also had some 29 publications in the ''Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand'', including his identification of new species.

Artworks

* Contributed woodcuts to Buller's Manual of New Zealand Birds * Contributed scientific illustrations to Hutton's Fishes of New Zealand John Buchanan painting MA I087863

References

External links

National Library of New Zealand

Artworks in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
1819 births 1898 deaths 19th-century New Zealand botanists New Zealand naturalists People from Dunbartonshire Scottish emigrants to New Zealand {{Botanist-stub