Thomas Bridges (22 May 1807 – 9 November 1865) was an English

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

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 ...

and traveling specimen collector. He is most notable for his discovery of new plant and animal

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from South America in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, as well as in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He was elected 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 ...

in 1844. He collected at various times (after 1856) in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

. The specimens he collected were sent back to Europe for identification. Bridges emigrated to California in 1856, the specimens collected during this period up to his 1865 death were presented to the National Herbarium at Washington by his widow. His wife's uncle was

Hugh Cuming Hugh Cuming (14 February 1791 – 10 August 1865) was an England, English collecting, collector who was interested in natural history, particularly in conchology and botany. He has been described as the "Prince of Collectors". Born in England, he ...

. Bridges is reported to have been very excited about the prospect of discovering new species, writing in a letter dated 1858 from California to

William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

: ::"I can scarcely describe to you how pleasing and gratifying it has been to me to learn that in my collections you have found some new and rare plants--I was partially under the impression that from the labours of Douglas, Hartweg, Jeffrey, Lobb and other travelers from Europe with the many United States Exploring Expeditions that little or nothing remained to be discovered and only gleanings were left to those of us of the present day." As a result of his collecting, several new species were named after him, including: *''Octodon bridgesii''

Bridges's degu Bridges's degu (''Octodon bridgesii'') is a species of rodent in the family ''Octodontidae''. It is found in southern Chile. The species was named after Thomas Bridges. Taxonomy Ricardo Ojeda's degu (''O. ricardojedai''), which is found in A ...

*''Copiapoa bridgesii''

Copiapoa ''Copiapoa'' is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, from the dry coastal deserts, particularly the Atacama Desert, of northern Chile. Description It comprises 32 morphologically defined species and 5 heterotypic subspe ...

de Bridges *''

Penstemon ''Penstemon'' , the beardtongues, is a large genus of roughly 250 species of flowering plants native mostly to the Nearctic, but with a few species also found in the North American portion of the Neotropics. It is the largest genus of flowering ...

bridgesii'' *''

Pomacea bridgesii ''Pomacea bridgesii'', common names the spike-topped apple snail or mystery snail, is a South American species of freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Ampullariidae. These snails were mos ...

'' Spike-topped apple snail

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridges, Thomas 1807 births 1865 deaths 19th-century American botanists 19th-century British botanists Botanists active in California Botanists active in South America English botanists