John Fraser (botanist)

John Fraser
FLS, F.R.H.S.
John Fraser, lithograph of an 18th-century portrait
John Fraser
(lithograph of an 18th-century portrait)
Born(1750-10-14)14 October 1750
Died26 April 1811(1811-04-26) (aged 60)
Occupation(s)Botanist and plant collector
Years active1780–1810
Known forDiscovery and introduction of the flora of the Americas to Europe

John Fraser, FLS, F.R.H.S.,[1] (14 October 1750 – 26 April 1811) was a Scottish botanist who collected plant specimens around the world, from North America and the West Indies to Russia and points between, with his primary career activity from 1780 to 1810.[2][3][4] Fraser was a commissioned plant collector for Catherine, Czar of Russia in 1795, Paul I of Russia in 1798,[5] and for the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1806;[6] he issued nursery catalogues c. 1790 - 1796,[7] and had an important herbarium that was eventually sold to the Linnean Society.[3][8][9]

  1. ^ Johnson, George William, Johnson's Gardeners' dictionary and cultural instructor, London, A. T. De La Mare printing and publishing co., Ltd., 1916, title page and p. 361. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.20764. Accessed 31 July 2012. See also:
    Card, H.H., A revision of Genus Frasera, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, April 1931, 18(2):245–282 at 245. Accessed 2 August 2012.
  2. ^ Brendel, Frederick, Historical Sketch of the Science of Botany in North America from 1635 to 1840, The American Naturalist, 13:12 (Dec. 1879), pp. 754–771, The University of Chicago Press. Accessed 31 July 2012.
  3. ^ a b Desmond, Ray (ed.), Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists, CRC Press, 1994, p. 263. ISBN 978-0-85066-843-8. (Google book.) Accessed 31 July 2012.
  4. ^ Faulkner, Thomas, John Fraser Obituary in An historical and topographical description of Chelsea, and its environs, v. 2, 1829, p. 41, (Google book). Accessed 31 July 2012.
  5. ^ The Old Market Gardens and Nurseries of London — No. 10, (52 MB file from archive.org) Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardner v. 57, 29 March 1877, pp. 112, 238, et al.. Accessed 31 July 2012.
  6. ^ Hogg, Robert, Life of John Fraser, Cottage Gardener, v. 8, 1851–2, pp. 250–252, as republished by Fraser, Don, "John Fraser, short biography". Archived from the original on 22 October 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), web page by the descendants of John Fraser, last update 21 September 2007. Accessed 31 July 2012.
  7. ^ Desmond. (The catalogues were reprinted in the Journal of Botany in 1899, pp. 481–87; 1905, pp. 329–31)
  8. ^ Ward, Daniel B., The Thomas Walter Herbarium Is Not the Herbarium of Thomas Walter, Taxon, 56(3):917–926, August 2007, at 917. Accessed 31 July 2012. The article attributes what was once thought of as Walter's herbarium to John Fraser.
  9. ^ Simpson, Marcus B. Jr, Moran, Stephen W., and Simpson, Sallie, Biographical notes on John Fraser (1750–1811): plant nurseryman, explorer, and royal botanical collector to the Czar of Russia, Archives of Natural History, v. 24, pp. 1–18, ISSN 0260-9541. doi:10.3366/anh.1997.24.1.1, (fee-walled).