William Deans Cowan (1844, Newbattle -1924) was a Scottish naturalist. He was a member of the London Missionary Society who was sent to Madagascar (1874-1881), where he taught Malagasy students at Fianarantsoa. He was an authorities collector of natural history material including lemurs, birds, reptiles, molluscs and insects that were sent to the zoology department of the British Museum (Natural History) under Albert Günther (a total of 13,000-14,000 specimens).[1] [2][3] Much of his plant collection, is also held by that institutions herbarium then under William Carruthers. He also collected insects for John Obadiah Westwood,[4] birds for Alfred Newton[5] and orchids for Henry Nicholas Ridley.[6] [7] He was a Member of the Royal Geographic Society.
- ^ Butler A. G. 1878. On a collection of Lepidoptera recently received from Madagascar. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (5) 2(10):283–297. full text
- ^ Waterhouse, C.O., 1878 Contributions to a knowledge of the Coleoptera of Madagascar. Cistula Entomologica 2(40): 363–368.full text
- ^ Waterhouse, C.O. 1880. New Genera and Species of Coleoptera from Madagascar. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History ser. 5, 5(29): 409–419 Full text
- ^ National Archives
- ^ Alfred Newton papers Cambridge University Library
- ^ Ridley, H. N. (1885). The Orchids of Madagascar. J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 21: 456 – 523 full text
- ^ Ridley, H. N. (1883). Descriptions and Notes on new or rare Monocotyledonous Plants from Madagascar, [collected by W. Deans Cowan] with one from Angola. J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 20: 329 – 338.Full text