Scottish botanist, author and artist (1754–1808)
Lady
Charlotte Murray
Born (1754-08-02 ) 2 August 1754Died 4 April 1808(1808-04-04) (aged 53) Resting place Bath Abbey Occupation Botany Known for Geranium pratense Notable work The British Garden
Lady Charlotte Murray (2 August 1754 – 4 April 1808) was a Scottish botanist and author. She was the eldest child of John Murray, 3rd Duke of Atholl , and Charlotte Murray, Duchess of Atholl . Her paternal grandfather was the Jacobite general Lord George Murray while her maternal grandfather was the Hanoverian James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl .
She is best known for her two-volume work The British Garden , which ran to two or three editions in her lifetime, the second (and possibly the first)[ 1] being in 1799, and the third in 1805 or 1808,[ 2] and another in 1880.[ 3] The book was targeted at young people and considered the Linnaean system and how it can be used to discover the name of an unknown plant.[ 4]
She also produced numerous botanical illustrations.[ 5]
In 1793, Lady Charlotte discovered a double variety of Geranium pratense which she sent to Lady Banks .[ 6]
She died in Bath on 4 April 1808, unmarried. She was buried in Bath Abbey.[ 7]
^ Shteir, Ann B. (1996). Cultivating women, cultivating science: Flora's daughters and botany in England, 1760-1860 . Johns Hopkins University Press . p. 67. ISBN 978-0801861758 .
^ Lady Charlotte Murray The British Garden: A Descriptive Catalogue of Hardy Plants, Indigenous Or cultivated in the climate of Great Britain Vol.1 (1808) , p. 48, at Google Books
^ George, Samantha (2007). Botany, Sexuality and Women's Writing, 1760-1830: From Modest Shoot to Forward Plant . Manchester University Press . p. 100. ISBN 978-0719088452 .
^ Ogilvie, Marilyn ; Harvey, Joy (16 December 2003). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century . Routledge. ISBN 9781135963439 .
^ Noltie, H. J. (30 September 2019). "A Scottish daughter of Flora: Lady Charlotte Murray and her herbarium portabile" . Archives of Natural History . 46 (2): 298–317. doi :10.3366/anh.2019.0592 . S2CID 208599648 .
^ Sowerby, James (1797). English Botany . Vol. 6.
^ Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; et al., eds. (2007). The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women . Edinburgh University Press . p. 277. ISBN 978-0748632930 .