John Lindley

An increased numbers of new orchid genera and species were introduced to the sales rooms , glasshouses , and herbaria of Europe in the 1800s , the terminology ofr " language " of the Orchid Family became increasingly confusing .Seeing the need of the Orchid Family became increasingly confusing . Seeing the need for a s systematic classification of the orchids, John Lindley developed a system of enumerating all the known orchids of the world , thus becoming known as " the father of modern orchidology ."

Desendant of a Yorkshire family , John Lindley was born at Catton , near Norwich , England , on 5February 1799. His father was a well-known nurseryman , renowned as the author of A Guide to the Orchid and Kitchen Garden .

Young Lindley was educated at the Grammer School at Norwich. Though he had difficulty in learning lessons by rote , he distinguished himself by his quick and industrious nature . At that time his interest led him to the study of plants and antiquities , and he is known to have spent much of his pocket money in renting books on those subjects. He read with such avidity that his schoolmates called him " Old Antiquity ."He left school when he was about sixteen and went to Belgium on business transactions for his father . On his return he botanical , horticultural , and entomological pursuits .

At Norwich , Lindley became well acquinted with William Hooker , to whom he supplied plants and insects from time to time. In 1818 or 1819 he went to London and there was employed as assistant librarian by Hooker' s son , Sir Joseph . The younger Hooker also thought highly of Lindley and recommended him to Mr. William Cattley , who was looking for an editor for the Collectena Botanico, an enumeration of many of Cattley's fine plants . This work was published in 1821.

With proceeds from his Rosarum Monographia , published in 1820, Lindley bought a dissecting microscope and a small herbarium , an important addition to his own expanding collection . The herbarium received the whole of what he called his leisure hours . In this work his wife assisted in its arrangement and conservation ; though it was inferior to some others in extent , it was surpassed by none in condition .

In 1822 he became garden assistant secretary to the Horticultural Society . At that time the garden at Chiswick was being formed by William Spencer Cavendish , the sixth Duke of Devonshire , partly under Lindley's supervision . Both jobs were formed ably and well, and in 1826 he was appointed sole assistant secretary to the Horticultural Society , in which capacity he attended to duties in both London and Chiswick. From this point on Lindley became the mainspring of the society , advancing its financial position on Lindley became the mainspring of the society , advancing its financial position and maintaining its working efficiency . The position required his daily attendance durinf office hours in Regent Street, or once a week at the garden , in addition to frequent extra work in the early morning . Mr. Sabine ,Honorary Secretary of the society , resigned his post in 1830 owing to untoward circumstances that taxed his energy and well -being . The customary , expensive fetes held at the garden had failed to promote the objectives of the society , and though Mr. Sabine 's hopes and expectatons had been high , difficulties resulted . Working with George Bentham , who had succeeded Mr. Sabine as Honorary Secretary , Lindley worked out a plan for holding general exhibitions of flowers and fruits at the garden instead of the larger , costly exhibitions previously held. These exhibitions proved to be the means of restoring the society to its former prosperity ,and similar exhibitions , based on Bentham and Lindley's were held in all parts of the country.

Seeing the need for a first-rate horticultural journal , Lindley and other gentlemen, including Sir Joseph Paxton , founded the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1841. Lindley became its editor , doing his utmost to raise the prestige of horticultural and , through his great knowledge of plants and their requirements , clearly laying before the public the physiological laws involved in the various operations of gardening . Through his columns he staunchly advocated the improved education of gardeners and worked to detect fraud and expose the practices of the unprincipled .

As wealthy amateurs began collecting orchids , Lindley seized the opportunity for an intensive study of the genera and species . By his investigations, he was the first to make a substantial classification of the Orchid Family. Though the system was later modified to meet expanding needs, its basic simplicity made it valuable to horticulture . Here is Lindley's classification:

I. Another one only

A. Pollen masses waxy.

1. No caudicula or separable stigmatic gland .

Tribe I. Malaxeae (or Malaxideae)

2. A distinct caudicula ,but no separable stigmatic gland .

Tribe II. Epidendreae

3. A distinct caudicula , united to a deciduous stigmatic gland .

Tribe III. Vandeae

B. Pollen powdery , granular , or sectile .

1. Anther teminal ,erect .

Tribe IV . Ophreae (or Ophrydeae)

2. Anther terminal, opercular , lying over the rostellum.

Tribe V. Arethuseae .

3. Anther dorsal , behind the rostellum.

Tribe VI. Neotteae .

II. Anthers two

Tribe VII. Cypripedeae .

In this position as orchid authority for British horticulture, Lindley began receiving a steady stream of material for study and identification , and his herbarium became the repository of the type and duplicates of numerous new genera and species from all parts of the world . To this he added his own skillfully done analytical pencil sketches and ink and watercolor drawings .

Prior to Bentham's resignation in 1841 , nearly all the activities of the Honoray Secretary , plus his own duties , fell on Lindley's Soulders . He subsequently took the designation of vice-secretary ,the succeeding honorary secretaries taking very little active part in the management . He continued in this office until 1858 , resigning to become secretary to the society and member of council , a position which he held until failing strength and the overwhelming responsibilities of te Exhibition of 1862 obliged him to give up all active participation in management of the society's affairs .

Lindley had been in poor health for some years previously . In 1851 he had acted as juror to investigate and report on the foods displayed in the Great exhibition of that year . The burden of this office , compiled upon his other duties , was so trying that as a consequence he became seriously ill. He recuperated after a period of rest and resumed his work with his usual vitality , but when the 1862 Exhibition commenced , he was induced aganist the advice of his family to take charge of the whole colonial department . Constant headaches began to plague him , but he refused to give up his post . By the time the exhibition was closed his mantal and physical health had been so severely impaired that he was never to recover fully . Soon thereafther he was compelled to resigh the secretaryship of the society . His good friend ,H.G. Reichenbach , later recalled :

Traces of the mental exhaustion which saddened Lindley's last years are to be found in some of his last works . It was exceedingly painful to me when I went to him, the excellent man whom I had known ever since 1849 ,and found that he did not remember one of his favourites -he who shortly before was one of the most active workers; and he felt the full weight of the affliction ,upon which he expressed himself with such touching eloquence to Bateman and myself. I still see him the verandah at Tunham Green , as he appeared one October evening ,when he called after me , bidding me not to forget to pay him a visit as often as I come to England . Except his household and physician , I was the last who saw him.

Dr. Lindley's family and friends were aware of his fragile heath, but his death took them somewhat by surprise . He retired for the night on Tuesday , 31 October ; the following morning he was taken by a seizure and died very shortly afterward. Present at this burial on 5 November were Bentham ,J.D. Hooker ,T. Thompson ,Reichenbach , and many other friends.

Though John Lindley's life seemed centered in the Horticultural Society , many other activities and pursuits , in which he actively engaged , were important to him. He lectured both at University College and at the Botanic Garden of the Society of Apothecaries at Chelsea ; in this lattere establishment he held the office of Praefectus Horti. His connection with University College had begun in 1829 , and he continued to lecture there until 1862. Upon his resignation he was made Emeritus Professor and was subsequently appointed to the office of Examiner of Botany at the University of London from 1861 to 1863. He never read his lectures to the students ; instead , he outlined and planned carefully , profusely illustrating his discussions with large , rough drawings .

His journalistic contributions were prodigious . A parital listing of his major works follows :

1829 Synopsis of the British Flora

1830 Outlines of Botany

1832 Introduction to Botany

1833 Nixus Palntaruk

1835 Key to Structural and stystematic Botany

1836 Natural System of Botany

1837 Monograph on the Victoria regia

1837-38 Ladies Botany

1838 Flora Medica

1839 School Botany

1841 Elements of Botany

1846 The Vegetable Kingdom

1849 Medical and Economic Botany

Several of these works were published mainly for the use of his classes . These by no means were his only journalistic efforts, however. In addtion to drawing up the greater part of Loudon's Encyclopedia of plants , he conducted all except the first few volumes of the Botanical Register. With but little assistance he edited Lindley and Paxton's Flower Garden ,besides contributing to several of Paxton's works in horticultural botany . He wrote all the botanical articles in the Penny Cyclopaedia down to the letter R, and a Treatise on Botany ,published by the society . From his pen issued the greatest part of the eighth , and the whole of the ninth volume of Sibthorp's Flora Gracea , published from 1835 to 1837 ,and from 1831 to 1837 he worked with William Hutton on the Fossil Flora of Great Britain , three volumes containing figures and descriptions of fossil vegetables found in the country.

As in elementary botany, he commenced in horticulture with a small work entitled Outlines of Horticulture . Theory of Horticulture followed ,published in 1840, reproduced in America , and translated into nearly every European language. A second edition was issued in England in 1855.

His particular attentions had been more exclusively devoted to orchidaceous plants for years. Between 1830 and 1840 his Genera and Species of Orchidaceous Plants was issued in parts; a second edition , under the title of Folia Orchidaceae , was begun in 1852 , but was never completed , the last part having been issued in May 1859. The Sertum Orchidaceum , a folio of beautifully colored plates, appeared in numbers and was completed in 1838.

Lindley was a frequent contributor to the Transactions of the Horticultural Society from 1822 to 1848 ,drawing up reports on the new plants in the society's garden and on ornamental plants -adding notes of morphological and physiological interest. In the volumes of the Transactions of the Linnean Society several other important papers by Lindley are to be found, mainly in reference to orchids.

Lindley was a member of about sixty scientific societies , including every notable botanical and horticultural society in Europe and America . He became a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1820 and of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1828. In 1832 he received his Ph.D from the University of Munich . In 1834 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Science of Berlin and became a corresponding member of the French Institute in 1853 . In 1857 he received the Royal Medal from the Horticultural Society ,awarded " in recognition of the value of his labours in various branches of scientific botany , and more especially for his learned and comprehensive works on the natural orders of plants, on the Orchidaceae, and on theoretical and practical horticulture."

Lindley was of average height, with dark brown hair and ruddy complexion . He had only one useful eye , the other having been blind since infancy . He was short of temper and unlikely to be patient with those who opposed him ; at the same time , however, he was warm-hearted and had a generous disposition . He was married tothe daughter of Anthony Freestone of St. Margaret's ,Southelmham ,Suffolk , in 1823, by whom he had three children.

An impressive list of orchids honors Lindley's name. Besides the genera Lindleyella and Neolindleya , there are Barkeria lindleyana , Cattleyopsis lindleyana , Eulophia lindleyana , Maxillaria lindleyana , Odontoglossum lindleyanum , Physosiphon lindleyi , Sobralia lindleyana , Spiranthes lindleyana , and Bulbophyllum lindleyana .

The total of this great horticulturist-botanist's accomplishments would be more than staggering to those of even above-average abilities , and the following quotation , published in 1865 in the Journal of Botany , may indicate the regard he was afforded by his contemporaries :

References

Ames , Oakes . 1932. John Lindley (1799-1865). Amer. Orch . Soc. Bull. 1, no.2. Dillon ,Gordon W. 1957.Development of a system of orchid classification .

Understanding the Orchid Family -II Amer .Orch .Soc . Bull . 26,no. 4 . Gardener's Chronicle ,H.G. 1917 .Dr. Lindley .The Orch .Rev. 25 ,no. 292.

White ,C.T. 1940. A history of Australian Orch. Rev. 5, no.4.