Samuel Frederick Gray - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Samuel Frederick Gray (10 December 1766 – 12 April 1828) was a British

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

, and

pharmacologist Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

. He was the father of the zoologists

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

and

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...

Background

He was the son of Samuel Gray, a London seedsman. He received no inheritance and, after failing to qualify for medicine, turned to medical and botanical writing. He married Elizabeth Forfeit in 1794 and moved to

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, where he established an assay office before he moved back to London in 1800. He set up an

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...

business in

Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...

, which failed within a few years. Then, he seems to have maintained himself by writing and lecturing.

Medical writings

Gray wrote a ''Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia'', published in 1818 with several subsequent editions. In 1819, he became co-editor of the ''London Medical Repository'', to which he contributed many articles on medical, botanical, and other topics. He published, in 1823, ''The Elements of Pharmacy'' and, in 1828, ''The Operative Chemist'', both practical reference works. * ''A Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia : being a Treatise on Pharmacology in general''. Underwood, London A new and improved Ed. 182
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...

* ''A Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia : being a Treatise on Pharmacology in general''. Underwood, London 3rd Ed. 182
Digital edition
by the

* ''A Supplement to the Pharmacopoeia, and Treatise on Pharmacology in general''. Underwood, London 5th Ed. 183
Digital edition
by the

''The Natural Arrangement of British Plants''

Gray's major text of interest today is ''The Natural Arrangement of British Plants'', published in two volumes in 1821. The authorship is disputed, and his son, John Edward Gray, later claimed to have done most of the work, but that was not supported by his grandson. The book itself is innovative, being the first British flora to employ

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...

's natural system of plant classification, an improvement on the artificial classification of

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

. Probably, that was what made it be poorly received by conservative

botanists This is a list of botanists who have Wikipedia articles, in alphabetical order by surname. The List of botanists by author abbreviation is mostly a list of plant taxonomists because an author receives a standard abbreviation only when that auth ...

of the day. ''The Natural Arrangement of British Plants'' also included substantial sections on

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

, then classed as cryptogamic plants, introducing many new

genera 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 nomenclat ...

, including ''

Auriscalpium ''Auriscalpium'' is a genus of mushrooms typifying the family Auriscalpiaceae. Etymology ''Auriscalpium'' is a compound of the Latin, ''auris'', "ear"; and ''scalpo'', "I scratch", generally meaning ear pick. The term was originally applied ...

'', ''

Coltricia ''Coltricia'' is a genus of fungi in the family Hymenochaetaceae. It was circumscribed by Samuel Frederick Gray Samuel Frederick Gray (10 December 1766 – 12 April 1828) was a British botanist, mycologist, and pharmacologist. He was the fathe ...

'', ''

Leccinum ''Leccinum'' is a genus of fungi in the family Boletaceae. It was the name given first to a series of fungi within the genus ''Boletus'', then erected as a new genus last century. Their main distinguishing feature is the small, rigid projections ...

'', and '' Steccherinum'', which remain in current use. Despite its recognised

nomenclatural Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...

importance today, it was neglected by British botanists after its publication for "its idiosyncrasies, anti-Linnaean character, unorthodox nomenclature, narrow generic concepts and contemporary hostility to the supposed author R. A. Salisbury."

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Samuel Frederick English botanists English mycologists 1766 births 1828 deaths 18th-century British botanists 19th-century British botanists

Background

Medical writings

''The Natural Arrangement of British Plants''

See also

References

Bibliography