Robert Wight
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Robert Wight MD FRS FLS (6 July 1796 – 26 May 1872) was a Scottish surgeon in the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
, whose professional career was spent entirely in southern India, where his greatest achievements were in botany – as an economic botanist and leading taxonomist in south India. He contributed to the introduction of
American cotton American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
. As a taxonomist he described 110 new genera and 1267 new species of flowering plants. He employed Indian botanical artists to illustrate many plants collected by himself and Indian collectors he trained. Some of these illustrations were published by William Hooker in Britain, but from 1838 he published a series of illustrated works in Madras including the uncoloured, six-volume ''Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis'' (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the ''Illustrations of Indian Botany'' (1838–50) and ''Spicilegium Neilgherrense'' (1845–51). By the time he retired from India in 1853 he had published 2464 illustrations of Indian plants.


Life and work


Early life

Wight was the son of a
solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
(
Writer to the Signet The Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of document ...
) in Edinburgh who came from a line of East Lothian tenant farmers. He was born at Milton, East Lothian, the ninth of twelve siblings. He was educated at home until the age of eleven after which he studied at the Royal High School in Edinburgh. He obtained a surgeon's diploma in 1816 from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. He trained at Edinburgh University, studying botany under
Daniel Rutherford Daniel Rutherford (3 November 1749 – 15 December 1819) was a Scottish physician, chemist and botanist who is known for the isolation of nitrogen in 1772. Life Rutherford was born on 3 November 1749, the son of Anne Mackay and Professor John ...
in 1816, and graduating MD in 1818.Noltie (2005a) It has been claimed that he worked as a ship's surgeon for two years and went on a few voyages, including one to the
USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
but this has been questioned.


Early work in India

In 1819 Wight went to India as an Assistant Surgeon in the service of the East India Company, serving initially with the 21st (afterwards 42nd, which was later commanded by his brother Colonel James Wight) Madras Native Infantry. His devotion to botany was clear from the start and his earliest collections were made around
Samalkota Samarlakota (Telugu:సామర్లకోట) is a town in Kakinada district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The town forms a part of Godavari Urban Development Authority. It was previously known as ''Chamarlakota'' (Telugu:చామ ...
,
Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...
and Masulipatam in the Northern Circars in the present-day state of Andhra Pradesh. After periods in the Public Cattle Depot at Mysore (
Seringapatam Srirangapatna is a town and headquarters of one of the seven Taluks of Mandya district, in the Indian State of Karnataka. It gets its name from the Ranganthaswamy temple consecrated at around 984 CE. Later, under the British rule the city wa ...
) and with the 33rd Madras Native Infantry he was, in January 1826, appointed to succeed Dr James Shuter in the post of Madras Naturalist. In 1828 the Governor of Madras,
Stephen Rumbold Lushington Stephen Rumbold Lushington (6 May 1776 – 5 August 1868) was an English Tory politician and an administrator in India. He was governor of Madras from 1827 to 1835. Early life He was born at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, the son of the Rev. James St ...
, scrapped the Naturalist's post, and its collections (including Wight's own, and earlier ones of Patrick Russell and the Tranquebar Missionaries) were sent to the Company headquarters in London. Wight was redeployed to regimental duties as garrison surgeon at
Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieval ...
. From here, in 1828, he began a productive correspondence with William Hooker, Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, sending him plant specimens and drawings by his Indian artist Rungiah. Earlier collections from around
Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
up to
Vellore Vellore (English: ), also spelt as Velur (), is a city and the administrative headquarters of Vellore district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Palar River in the northeastern part of Tamil Nadu and is separa ...
and from
Samalkota Samarlakota (Telugu:సామర్లకోట) is a town in Kakinada district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The town forms a part of Godavari Urban Development Authority. It was previously known as ''Chamarlakota'' (Telugu:చామ ...
and
Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...
, sent to Professor Robert Graham in Edinburgh had been unacknowledged and, though said to have been lost at sea, are probably the Andhra Pradesh specimens which are in the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.


Return to Scotland

In 1831, shortly after having been promoted to Surgeon, Wight took a three-year leave to Britain ‘''on private affairs''’. He took with him to London 100,000 plant specimens representing 3000-4000 species, and weighing 2 tons.
Nathaniel Wallich Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the British ...
was then in London curating the great East India Company herbarium, which contained the Madras Naturalists' collection. Wight's additions came too late and he had to identify, curate and distribute the collection on his own but Wight was fortunate to enlist the help of his old school and university friend
George Arnott Walker-Arnott George Arnott Walker Arnott of Arlary (6 February 1799 – 17 April 1868) was a Scottish botanist. Early life George Arnott Walker Arnott was born in Edinburgh in 1799, the son of David Walker Arnott of Arlary. He attended Milnathort Parish ...
, who had given up a legal career and was working as a free-lance botanist in Scotland. During this leave, Wight spent much time in Scotland where the two men worked on the collections and distributed up to 20 sets of duplicates to specialists in Britain, Europe, America and Russia. Wight & Arnott embarked on three joint publications: a Catalogue of the herbarium specimens (reproduced lithographically as was done by Wallich), a Peninsular Flora arranged according to the natural system, and a volume of monographs, mainly by other authors, of three significant plant families. Before Wight's return to India in 1834 the first two parts of the herbarium catalogue (with species numbers 1–1892), the first volume of the outstanding ''Prodromus Florae Peninsulae Indiae Orientalis'' (up to the family
Dipsacaceae The Dipsacaceae have been recognized as a family (the teasel family) of the order Dipsacales containing 350 species of perennial or biennial herbs and shrubs in eleven genera. The species are currently placed in the family Caprifoliaceae. Native ...
of the Candollean system) had been published. Shortly thereafter came the ''Contributions to the Flora of India'' under Wight's name, containing accounts of the families
Asclepiadaceae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, they were treated as a separate family under the name Asclepiadaceae, e.g. by APG II, and known as the milkweed family. They form a group of perennial herbs, twin ...
(by himself and Arnott),
Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...
(by Christian Nees von Esenbeck) and
Compositae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
(by
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candol ...
). Nees published Wight's
Acanthaceae Acanthaceae is a family (the acanthus family) of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species. Most are tropical herbs, shrubs, or twining vines; some are epiphytes. Only a few species are distributed in te ...
in Wallich's ''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores'', but the only other botanists to intensively examine his collections were
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 studi ...
, who published Wight's
Labiatae The Lamiaceae ( ) or Labiatae are a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint, deadnettle or sage family. Many of the plants are aromatic in all parts and include widely used culinary herbs like basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory ...
and
Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...
and
John Lindley John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley w ...
who described some of his orchids.


Return to India

Wight returned to India in 1834 as a full surgeon in the 33rd Regiment of Native Infantry at Bellary. During this period he began working on the medicinal plants of India, maintaining native botanical artists and publishing brief notes in the '' Madras Journal of Literature and Science'' and later became the editor for the botany section of that journal. The papers included one on the medicinal plant ‘''mudar''’ (''
Calotropis procera ''Calotropis procera'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae that is native to North Africa, Pakistan,tropical Africa, Western Asia, South Asia, and Indochina. The green fruits contain a toxic milky sap that is extremely bi ...
'') and on the flora of
Courtallam Courtallam is a panchayat town situated at a mean elevation of in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu, India. The Coutrallam Falls on the Chittar River is a major tourist attraction. Demographics India cens ...
.


Economic botany

The recognition of Wight's botanical skills led in 1836 to his transfer to the Madras Revenue Department. The transfer was based on references from Hooker and Robert Brown, the Governor Sir
Frederick Adam General Sir Frederick Adam (17 June 178117 August 1853) was a Scottish major-general at the Battle of Waterloo, in command of the 3rd (Light) Brigade. He was the fourth son of William Adam of Blair Adam and his wife Eleanora, the daughter of ...
advised by J.G. Malcolmson, and Wight was to report on agriculture and cotton. Over the next six years this work involved species such as tea, sugar cane, senna and, increasingly, cotton. In 1836 he visited Ceylon for six weeks, and he reported on the resources of upland areas including the
Palni Hills The Palani Hills are a mountain range in the southern Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Palani Hills are an eastward extension of the Western Ghats ranges, which run parallel to the west coast of India. The Palani Hills adjoin the hig ...
. In 1841 he purchased a house in Ootacamund, which was to remain the base for his growing family until 1847. In 1842 he was appointed Superintendent of American Cotton Plantations, a post in Coimbatore that he held until his retirement in 1853. This was a major project of the Madras Government with a spending of almost 500,000 Rupees (about £2.5 million in today's terms) to induce Indian tenant farmers (''ryots'') to grow introduced long-staple American Cotton and to process it using the saw gin, so that it could be exported for spinning and weaving in Manchester. The cotton was grown by ryots on farms that covered a range of soils and climatic regimes from Salem in the north to
Courtallam Courtallam is a panchayat town situated at a mean elevation of in the foothills of the Western Ghats in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu, India. The Coutrallam Falls on the Chittar River is a major tourist attraction. Demographics India cens ...
in the south. Wight showed that the new cottons could be grown, though this was difficult without irrigation. The experiment was, however, deemed a failure, though largely due to economic reasons, and long-staple cottons did not supersede indigenous diploid varieties until the early 20th century. Wight was an early member of the Madras Agri-Horticultural Society, whose garden, next to the Cathedral in Madras, acted as the city's botanical garden. He acted as the Society's secretary at various times between 1839 and 1841, and edited a volume of its ''Proceedings'' in 1842. In India Wight published numerous letters and short papers in the ''Madras Journal of Literature and Science'' (1834–40), in the various publications of the Calcutta-based Agricultural and Society of India (1838–54) and the ''Calcutta Journal of Natural History'' (1845–6).


Lithography and publications

Wight's lasting achievement was the series of illustrated publications on Indian botany. Learning from
Roxburgh Roxburgh () is a civil parish and formerly a royal burgh, in the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was an important trading burgh in High Medieval to early modern Scotland. In the Middle Ages it had at leas ...
, who had used expensive engravings, Wight decided to use cheaper lithographic techniques. He began to employ the artist Rungiah (Rungia), who was employed from possibly as early as 1826 to around 1845, and thereafter employed Govindoo. Unlike other British workers of the time, he gave credit to his artists, printing their names on all his publications of their drawings. He named a genus of orchid, '' Govindooia'' (now '' Tropidia''), after Govindoo, but could not do so for Rungiah, as a genus ''Rungia'' already existed, described by
Nathaniel Wallich Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the British ...
for an Indian plant named after the German chemist
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (8 February 1794 – 25 March 1867) was a German analytical chemist. Runge identified the mydriatic (pupil dilating) effects of belladonna (deadly nightshade) extract, identified caffeine, and discovered the first coal ...
(1794-1867). Wights illustrated publications included the uncoloured, six-volume ''Icones Plantarum Indiae Orientalis'' (1838–53) and two hand-coloured, two-volume works, the ''Illustrations of Indian Botany'' (1838–50) and ''Spicilegium Neilgherrense'' (1845–51).


Return to England and collections

Wight left India after retiring from service in March 1853. He returned to England with poor health and difficulty in hearing. He returned to England and bought the 66-acre estate of Grazeley Lodge near Reading. Although his intention had been to continue with taxonomic research, he got diverted into small-scale agriculture, and published very little thereafter. Eight short articles on cotton cultivation were published in the ''Gardeners' Chronicle'' in 1861 and as a substantial pamphlet in 1862. In 1865 Wight was a member of the committee that helped Edward John Waring edit the ''Pharmacopoeia of India'' (published in 1868) and in 1866 he read a paper on ''On the Phenomenon of Vegetation in the Indian Spring'' to the International Botanical Congress in London.Noltie(2005):3-24. Visiting botanists were welcomed to use his herbarium, but a new generation of botanists had become active in India, including
Joseph Hooker Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. Hooker had serv ...
and
Thomas Thomson Thomas Thomson may refer to: * Tom Thomson (1877–1917), Canadian painter * Thomas Thomson (apothecary) (died 1572), Scottish apothecary * Thomas Thomson (advocate) (1768–1852), Scottish lawyer * Thomas Thomson (botanist) (1817–1878), Scottis ...
. He donated his vast collection of duplicates to the Kew herbarium, which included 3108 species of higher plants and 94 of ferns, distributed in 1869/70 in 20 sets to herbaria in Europe, Russia, North America, South Africa, Australia and, for the first time, to two South Asian herbaria (Calcutta and
Peradeniya Peradeniya ( si, පේරාදෙණිය, translit=Pēradeniya; ta, பேராதனை, translit=Pērātaṉai) is a suburb of the city of Kandy Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a m ...
). In October 1871, shortly before his death Wight gave his best specimens to Kew, which included the types of the species described in his publications.


Personal life

Wight married Rosa Harriet(te), the third daughter of a senior Madras surgeon, Lacey Gray Ford in St George's Cathedral, Madras, on 17 January 1838. The couple had four sons and a daughter who survived into adulthood, and two daughters who died in infancy. Wight died on 26 May 1872 at Grazeley Lodge and was buried in the parish church of Grazeley where he had long been a churchwarden. Unlike some of his other medical contemporaries Wight was not successful financially, he left moveable estate worth less than £2000 (about £200,000 in today's terms), and Grazeley had to be sold immediately after his death. Descendants of the daughter of his eldest son James survive although they do not bear his surname.


Recognition and legacy

Wight was elected a
Fellow of the Linnaean 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 1832 and, in the same year, as a member of the oldest scientific society in Europe, the Academia Caesarea Leopoldina-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum. After his return to Britain, in 1855, he was elected a Fellow of Royal Society of London. In India he was a member of the Agri-Horticultural Societies of Madras and India. He corresponded with the leading botanists of his time including George Arnott Walker- Arnott, Sir William Hooker, Joseph Hooker, William
Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Rid ...
, Nathaniel Wallich,
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 studi ...
, Christian Gottfried
Nees Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus. He des ...
von Esenbeck, John Forbes
Royle Royle is a surname. The surname may derive from Ryal, Northumberland, Ryal in Northumberland, England. People: * Amanda Royle (born 1962), English actress, second daughter of Derek Royle * Adrian Royle (born 1959), retired English long distance r ...
, John Lindley, Carl Philipp von Martius,
John Stevens Henslow John Stevens Henslow (6 February 1796 – 16 May 1861) was a British priest, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin. Early life Henslow was born at Rochester, Kent, the son of a solici ...
, William
Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis ...
and Robert
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.


Eponymy

In recognition of his contribution to Botany, Wight is one of the most highly commemorated of all Indian botanists. Wight named many plants after his botanical collaborators in India and Europe. In 1830 Wallich dedicated the genus '' Wightia'' to him and 256 species have been dedicated to him though 19 of these were
illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
nomenclaturally, and the number is far greater when other combinations made from the basionyms are considered. In addition to flowering plants, this number includes 6 ferns, 3 bryophytes, 2 red algae and one each of clubmoss, brown alga, lichen and basidiomycete.For a complete list see Noltie(2005):476-516. A sample of species named after Wight include: * '' Aerva wightii'' Hook. f. * '' Agrostis wightii'' Nees ex Steud. * '' Anaphalis wightiana'' (DC.) DC. * ''Anaphyllum wightii'' Schott * '' Andrographis wightiana'' Arn. ex Nees * ''Andropogon wightianus'' Nees ex Steud.l * '' Anisochilus wightii'' Hook. f. * ''Anotis wightiana'' (Wall. ex Wight & Arn.) Hook. f. * '' Arenga wightii'' Griff. * '' Arisaema wightii'' Schott * '' Arundinaria wightiana'' Nees * '' Beilschmiedia wightii'' (Nees) Benth. ex Hook. f. * '' Blumea wightiana'' DC. * ''
Calophyllum wightianum ''Calophyllum'' is a genus of tropical flowering plants in the family Calophyllaceae. They are mainly distributed in Asia, with some species in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, and the Pacific Islands. History Members of the genus ''Calophyllu ...
'' Wall. ex Planch. & Triana * '' Carex wightiana'' Nees * '' Celtis wightii'' Planch. * '' Ceropegia wightii'' Grah. ex Wight * '' Chloris wightiana'' Nees ex Steud. * '' Cinnamomum wightii'' Meissn. * '' Cirrhopetalum wightii'' Thwaites Variants include Wt. and R.W. Some of his early contributions were mistakenly published by William Hooker with his name as "Richard Wight".Basak (1981).


Notes


Cited references

* * Noltie, H. J. (2007) ''Robert Wight and the Botanical Drawings of Rungiah and Govindoo''. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. ** ''The Life and Work of Robert Wight''. (Book 1) ** ''Botanical Drawings by Rungiah & Govindoo: the Wight Collection''. (Book 2) ** ''Journeys in Search of Robert Wight'' (Book 3). * * Noltie, H. J. (2005a
Robert Wight and the Illustration of Indian Botany. The Hooker Lecture.
The Linnean. Special Issue No 6.


Other sources

*Curtis' Botanical Magazine. 1931. ''Dedications and Portraits 1827-1927''. Compiled by Earnest Nelmes and Wm. Cuthbertson. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. * * *Gray, Asa. 1873.
Scientific Intelligence
'. American Journal of Science and Arts 5, ser. 3. p. 395. * King, Sir George. 1899.
The Early History of Indian botany
'. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. pp. 904–919.


External links


Scanned works of Robert Wight

Contributions to the botany of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wight, Robert Botanists with author abbreviations Fellows of the Royal Society Scottish botanists Scottish surgeons 1796 births 1872 deaths 19th-century British botanists Botanists active in India