Charles Wright (October 29, 1811 – August 11, 1885) was an American botanist.

History

Wright was born in

Wethersfield, Connecticut Wethersfield is a town located in Hartford County, Connecticut. It is located immediately south of Hartford along the Connecticut River. Its population was 27,298 at the time of the 2020 census. Many records from colonial times spell the name ...

,Mary Gunn and L. E. W. Codd the son of James Wright and Mary née Goodrich. He studied classics and mathematics at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, and in October 1835 moved to Natchez, Mississippi to tutor a plantation owner's family. His employer's business failed two years later, and he moved to Texas, working as a land surveyor and teacher. He surveyed ground for the Pacific Railroad Company.Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins and Michael Grayson During this time, he also collected plants for Asa Gray. Gray thought of Wright as one of his most trusted collectors.Carolyn Dodson In 1849, he joined an army expedition (with Gray's help) through Texas, botanising from

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

and then on to

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

. But he had to walk most of the 673 miles, (which took over 104 days effort).Dan Lewis Fische He collected seeds of '' Penstemon baccharifolius'' (Hook), between Texas and El Paso, which were later given to William Hooker. Also, '' Castilleja lanata'' (found near the Rio Grande) and '' Castilleja integra'' (found in the

Organ Mountains The Organ Mountains (also known as La Sierra de los Órganos) are a rugged mountain range in southern New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument was declared a national monument on May 21, 2 ...

, near El Paso). In the spring of 1851, he joined the

United States and Mexican Boundary Survey The United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855) determined the border between the United States and Mexico as defined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had ended the Mexican–American War. The results of the survey were publis ...

(also with Gray's help). His collections from these two trips, formed the basis of Gray's ''Plantae Wrightianae'' (1852–53). He found around 50 new plants in the area. Between 1853 and 1856, he took part in the Rodgers- Ringgold

North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition The North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, also known as the Rodgers-Ringgold Expedition was a United States scientific and exploring project from 1853 to 1856. Commander Cadwalader Ringgold (1802–1867) led the expedition until ...

, collecting plants in Madeira, Cape Verde,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, Sydney, Hong Kong, the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic read ...

, Japan (at

Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...

Tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, 444.99 km2 in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to Ne ...

, the

and the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

including

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

) and the western side of the Bering Strait. He collected over 500 specimens while the ships were delayed at

Simon's Bay Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern si ...

, near Cape Town. Wright left the expedition at San Francisco in February 1856 and went south to

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. His collection of plants from Hong Kong was used by

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...

for his ''Flora Hongkongensis'' (1861). Between 1856 and 1867, he led a scientific expedition to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. In 1859 he joined

Juan Gundlach Juan Cristóbal Gundlach (17 July 1810 in Marburg – 14 March 1896 in Havana), born Johannes Christoph Gundlach was a Cuban naturalist and taxonomist. Biography Gundlach graduated from Marburg University, where his father was professor of phys ...

in the area around

Monteverde Monteverde is the twelfth canton of the Puntarenas province of Costa Rica. It is located in the Cordillera de Tilarán mountain range. Roughly a four-hour drive from the Central Valley, Monteverde is one of the country's major ecotourism des ...

, and in the winter of 1861-62 they explored together around Cárdenas. He was also still in communication with Asa Gray and via him,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, discussing orchids. This was possible because at the start of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he was in Cuba and Gray kept him there until 1864 to keep Wright safe and his ongoing botanical work intact. In 1871, he went with the US Commission to

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

. From 1875 to 1876, he was the librarian of the

Bussey Institution The Bussey Institute (1883–1936) was a respected biological institute at Harvard University. It was named for Benjamin Bussey, who, in 1835, endowed the establishment of an undergraduate school of agriculture and horticulture and donated land in ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. His lichen specimens were given to

Edward Tuckerman Edward Tuckerman (December 7, 1817 in Boston, Massachusetts – March 15, 1886) was an American botanist and professor who made significant contributions to the study of lichens and other alpine plants. He was a founding member of the Natura ...

. *

Legacy

Charles Wright is commemorated in the names of a number of plants, including '' Datura wrightii'', the genus ''

Carlowrightia ''Carlowrightia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the bear's breeches family, Acanthaceae. Members of the genus, commonly known as wrightworts, are mainly small shrubs bearing inflorescences of lily-like flowers. They are native to the America ...

'' (wrightworts) and '' Geissorhiza wrightii'' (Baker). George Engelmann named a small cactus after him, ''Wright's fishhook'' ('' Sclerocactus uncinatus var. wrightii''). He is also commemorated in the name of the American grey flycatcher (''Empidonax wrightii'' ) found near El Paso. '' Tropidophis wrighti'' (Wright's dwarf boa) was also named after him. Charles Wright Elementary School in Wethersfield, Connecticut is named after him.

References

*Barbara and Richard Mearns - ''Audubon to Xantus, The Lives of Those Commemorated in North American Bird Names'' *Richard A Howard ''Charles Wright in Cuba, 1856-1867''

External links

*
''Plantae Wrightianae e Cuba Orientali'' by A. Grisebach at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Charles American librarians 1811 births 1885 deaths Botanists active in the Caribbean People from Wethersfield, Connecticut Yale University alumni 19th-century American botanists Harvard University librarians

History

Legacy

See also

References

External links