Murray Ross Henderson (1899–1982) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

botanist who did most of his botanical work in the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He took a position as a botanist in Malaya in 1921 and became curator of the

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 (called ...

in the

Singapore Botanical Gardens The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a -year-old tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Th ...

in 1924. On the invasion of

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. U ...

by Japan in World War II, Henderson escaped from Singapore to

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

. He travelled from there via

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

in South Africa, where he continued to do botanical work at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden for the remainder of the war. He returned to Singapore in 1946 and was appointed acting Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. He was Director of the Gardens from 1949 to 1954 when he retired to Aberdeen. M. R. Henderson graduated in botany from the University of Aberdeen. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1922. He authored a number of floras and other botanical texts including the 3 volume "Malayan Wild Flowers" and "Malayan Orchid Hybrids" (editor). He was honoured in 1998, with the naming of plant species from Malaya after him, ''

Emarhendia ''Emarhendia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Gesneriaceae. It only contains one species,''Emarhendia bettiana'' (M.R.Hend.) Kiew, A.Weber & B.L.Burtt. It is a subshrub endemic to Pahang in Peninsula Malaysia. ...

''.

References

External links

List of species named by M R Henderson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, M R, George Scottish expatriates in Singapore 1899 births 1982 deaths Botanists with author abbreviations 20th-century Scottish botanists Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Place of birth missing

References

Further reading

External links