James Edgar Dandy (24 September 1903, in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distr ...

– 10 November 1976, in

Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...

) 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 ...

Keeper of Botany The Keeper of Botany was a position at the Natural History Museum — formerly British Museum (Natural History) — in London, England, and served as head of department for botany. The position was in place between 1827 and 2013. Keepers of B ...

at the

British Museum (Natural History) The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum ...

between 1956 and 1966. He was a world specialist on the plant genus ''

Potamogeton ''Potamogeton'' is a genus of aquatic, mostly freshwater, plants of the family Potamogetonaceae. Most are known by the common name pondweed, although many unrelated plants may be called pondweed, such as Canadian pondweed (''Elodea canadensis'' ...

'' and the family

Magnoliaceae The Magnoliaceae () are a flowering plant family, the magnolia family, in the order Magnoliales. It consists of two genera: ''Magnolia'' and '' Liriodendron'' (tulip trees). Unlike most angiosperms, whose flower parts are in whorls (rings), t ...

Life

Dandy was educated at Preston Grammar School and after that at

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the old ...

, where he took his B.A. In 1925, he was appointed as an assistant to John Hutchinson at Kew Gardens, who worked on a new

Angiosperm Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants ...

classification. He gave Dandy the opportunity to revise three taxa, one of which was Magnoliaceae. He became

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 1927. On 11 July the same year, he was appointed Second class Assistant at the British Museum Department of Botany. He stayed here until his retirement in 1966. In 1936 he was promoted to First class Assistant, in 1946 to Principal Scientific Officer, and in 1956 he eventually became Keeper of Botany. After his retirement, he kept active in the field of botany until he fell seriously ill, in July 1976.

Publications

Magnoliaceae

* 1927 The Genera of Magnolieae. in: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Gardens, Kew 1927(7): 257-264. * 1927 ''Michelia kisopa'' and ''M. doltsopa'' Buch.-Ham. (Magnoliaceae). in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 65: 277-279 * 1927 The identity of ''Talauma villariana''. in: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Gardens, Kew 1927(10): 419-420. * 1928 Three new Magnolieae. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 66: 46-48. * 1928 New or noteworthy Chinese Magnolieae. in: Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (Edinburgh) deel 16(77): 123-132. * 1928 Malayan Magnolieae. in: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Gardens, Kew 1928(5): 183-193. * 1928 ''Michelia montana'' and two allied new species. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 66: 319-322 * 1928 Two new michelias from Kwangtung. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 66: 359-361. * 1928 ''Magnolia sinensis'' and ''M. nicholsoniana''. in: Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (London) deel 53(1): 115. * 1929 A new ''Michelia'' from the borders of Tibet and Assam. in: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Royal Gardens, Kew 1929(7): 222-223 * 1929 Three new michelias from Indo-China. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 67: 222-224. * 1930 A new ''Magnolia'' from Honduras. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 68: 146-147. * 1930 New Magnolieae from China and Indo-China. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 68(7): 204-214. * 1931 Four new Magnolieae from Kwangsi. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 69(9): 231-233. * 1933 A second species of ''Pachylarnax'' (Magnoliaceae). in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 71: 312-313. * 1934 The identity of ''Lassonia'' Buc'hoz. in: Journal of Botany, British and Foreign (London) deel 72: 101-103. * 1936 ''Magnolia globosa''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 159: t.9467. * 1943 ''Michelia doltsopa''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 164: t.9645. * 1948 ''Magnolia dawsoniana''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 164: t.9678-9679. * 1948 ''Magnolia nitida''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 165: t.16. * 1950 The Highdown Magnolia. in: Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (London) deel 75: 159-161. * 1951 A Survey of the genus ''Magnolia'' together with ''Manglietia'' and ''Michelia''. in: P.M. Synge d.Camellias and Magnolias, Report of the Conference held by The Royal Horticultural Society April 4–5, 1950: 64-81. * 1963 Magnoliaceae, in R.E. Woodson & al., Flora of Panama, Part IV, Fascicle 5. in: Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, MO) deel 49(3/4): 173-176. * 1964 ''Manglietia insignis''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 175: t.443. * 1964 ''Magnolia virginiana''. in: The Botanical Magazine, or, Flower-Garden Displayed (London) deel 175: t.457. * 1971 The classification of the Magnoliaceae. in: Newsletter of the American Magnolia Society deel 8: 3-6.

Other

* 1958 The Sloane Herbarium: an annotated list of the Horti Sicci composing it, with biographical accounts of the principal contributors. Based on records compiled by the late James Britten. With an introduction by Spencer Savage. Revised and edited by J.E. Dandy * 1958 List of British vascular plants. Prepared for the British Museum (Natural History) and the Botanical Society of the British Isles. Incorporating the London catalogue of British plants. * 1967 Index of generic names of vascular plants, 1753-1774. International Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature.

References

* DANDY, James Edgar’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 19 May 2011
* Cannon, J.F.M. (1977). Obituaries - James Edgar Dandy
Watsonia 11: 419-420
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dandy, James Edgar 1903 births 1976 deaths 20th-century British botanists Scientists from Preston, Lancashire Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge People educated at Preston Grammar School