Alexander Garden (naturalist) facts for kids
Alexander Garden (born in 1730, died in 1791) was a Scottish doctor, botanist (someone who studies plants), and zoologist (someone who studies animals). The beautiful gardenia flower is actually named after him! He lived for many years in Charleston, South Carolina, where he spent his free time studying plants and animals. He would send samples of what he found to famous scientists like Carl Linnaeus.
Contents
Biography
Early Life and Education
Alexander Garden was born in January 1730 in Birse, Scotland. His father was a minister. Alexander studied medicine at Marischal College in the 1740s. There, he discovered a strong interest in natural history, which is the study of nature.
After working for two years as a surgeon's assistant in the navy, he continued his medical studies. He went to the University of Edinburgh. One of his teachers was Charles Alston. Alston was the King's Botanist and looked after the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. This garden grew plants used for medicine. Alston greatly influenced Garden's growing love for botany.
Moving to America
An opportunity came for Garden to work as a doctor in South Carolina. A distant relative, also named Alexander Garden, was a minister in Charleston. The younger Garden arrived there in April 1752. He started his medical work in Prince William Parish.
Marischal College gave him his medical degree (MD) in 1754. The next year, he moved to Charleston (which was called Charles Town back then). He married Elizabeth Peronneau in 1755. They had several children together.
A Passion for Nature
Even though Garden had a busy medical practice, he always found time for his biggest passion. He loved collecting and studying plants and animals. He would carefully pack them up and send them to other scientists. He sent samples to John Ellis, a merchant and zoologist in London. He also sent them to Carl Linnaeus in Sweden. Garden learned about Linnaeus's way of classifying living things in 1754.
Garden felt a bit alone in his interests in America. He wrote to Ellis, "there is not a living soul who knows the least iota of Natural History." So, he talked about plants and animals mostly through letters. His packages to Europe included "birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and plants." These came from South Carolina or even further away. Some were new species (types of living things) or genera (groups of species). These new discoveries were then written about in scientific books.
Garden became a member of several important scientific groups. He joined the American Philosophical Society in 1768. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1773. In 1783, he was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The Gardenia Flower
Garden sent different types of magnolia plants to London. He also sent some Gordonia specimens. He wrote descriptions of other plants like Stillingia and Fothergilla. Interestingly, the plant named after him, the Gardenia, was not something he discovered. It wasn't even from America! Linnaeus was encouraged to name a plant after Garden. Finally, John Ellis persuaded him to use Gardenia for the Cape jasmine flower.
Medical and Scientific Work
Garden's interest in animals led him to write about cochineal insects. He also wrote about the Greater Siren (Sirena lacertina), sometimes called the mud iguana. One of the sirens Garden collected is still kept in a jar at the Natural History Museum in London.
As a doctor, he used his scientific knowledge during a smallpox outbreak in Charleston in 1760. He inoculated (gave a protective shot to) over 2000 people. He also wrote an essay about the medicinal uses of the pinkroot plant (Spigelia marilandica).
Later Life
During the American War of Independence, Alexander Garden supported the British side. Because of this, his property in South Carolina was taken away in 1783. He had to leave South Carolina and moved to Westminster in London. He became a vice-president of the Royal Society. People said he was respected for his kindness, cheerfulness, and pleasant manners.
His health had been poor for a long time. He died from tuberculosis in London on April 15, 1791. He was sixty-one years old.
