Nicholas Edward Brown (11 July 1849 in

Redhill, Surrey Redhill () is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of London Borough of Croydon, Croydon in ...

– 25 November 1934 in

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 1759, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) was an English plant

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

and authority on succulents. He was also an authority on several families of plants, including

Asclepiadaceae The Asclepiadoideae are a subfamily of plants in the family Apocynaceae. Formerly, it was 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, twinin ...

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae (), or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1,800 species. Several genera are commonly known as 'ice plants' or 'carpet weeds'. The Aizoaceae are also referred to a ...

, Labiatae and Cape plants.

Background

He started work as an assistant in the Herbarium at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

in 1873, and was promoted to the position of Assistant Keeper in 1909, which he kept until 1914. He produced many annotated drawings of succulent plants in his work revising the genus ''

Mesembryanthemum ''Mesembryanthemum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Aizoaceae, indigenous to southern Africa. As with many members of that family, it is characterized by long-lasting flower heads. Flowers of ''Mesembryanthemum'' protect their game ...

'', which were published in 1931. He was the author of several works on the taxonomy of plants, particularly

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

s. The

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). Also ...

genus '' Nebrownia'' was named in his honour by

Otto Kuntze Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (23 June 1843 – 27 January 1907) was a German botanist. Biography Otto Kuntze was born in Leipzig. An apothecary in his early career, he published an essay entitled ''Pocket Fauna of Leipzig''. Between 1863 and 1866, he ...

. A number of plants bear the specific name "''nebrownii''" – such as ''Acacia nebrownii'', ''Gibbaeum nebrownii'', ''Caralluma nebrownii'' and ''Lithops olivacea v nebrownii'', as does a waterhole in the

Etosha National Park Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. ...

. The plant '' Anthurium brownii'' and the genus ''Brownanthus'' (now a synonym of ''

'') also bear his name. He was awarded the Captain Scott Memorial Medal by the South African Biological Society in recognition of his work on SA flora, and in 1932 an honorary D.Sc. was conferred on him by the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

. His publications appeared mainly in the ''Kew Bull.'' and in ''Flora Capensis''. He married the daughter of Thomas Cooper (1815–1913), another Kew botanist.

References

External links

1849 births 1934 deaths English botanists English taxonomists {{UK-botanist-stub