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BENTHAM, GEORGE (1800-1884)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 747 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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See also:

BENTHAM, See also:GEORGE (1800-1884) , See also:English botanist, was See also:born at Stoke near See also:Portsmouth on the 22nd of See also:September 'Soo. His See also:father, See also:Sir See also:Samuel Bentham (1757–1831), was the only See also:brother of See also:Jeremy Bentham, the publicist, and of scarcely inferior ability though in a different direction. Devoting himself in See also:early See also:life to the study of See also:naval See also:architecture, Sir Samuel went to See also:Russia to visit the naval establishments in the Baltic and See also:Black Seas. He was induced to enter the service of the empress See also:Catherine II., built a flotilla of gunboats and defeated the See also:Turkish See also:fleet. For this he was made, in addition to other honours, See also:colonel of a See also:cavalry See also:regiment. On the See also:death of the empress he returned to See also:England to be employed by the See also:admiralty, and was sent (1805–1807) again to Russia to superintend the See also:building of some See also:ships for the See also:British See also:navy. He attained the See also:rank, under the admiralty, of inspector-See also:general of naval See also:works. He introduced a multitude of improvements in naval organization, and it was largely through his recommendation that M. I. See also:Brunel's See also:block-making machinery was installed at Portsmouth. George Bentham had neither a school nor a See also:college See also:education, but early acquired the See also:power of giving sustained and concentrated See also:attention to any subject that occupied him—one essential See also:condition of the success he attained as perhaps the greatest systematic botanist of the 19th See also:century. Another was his remarkable linguistic aptitude.

At the See also:

age of six to seven he could converse in See also:French, See also:German and See also:Russian, and he learnt See also:Swedish during a See also:short See also:residence in See also:Sweden when little older. At the See also:close of the See also:war with See also:France, the Benthams made a See also:long tour through that See also:country, staying two years at See also:Montauban, where Bentham studied See also:Hebrew and See also:mathematics in the See also:Protestant Theological School. They eventually settled in the neighbourhood of See also:Montpellier where Sir Samuel See also:purchased a large See also:estate. The mode in which George Bentham was attracted to the botanical studies which became the occupation of his life is noteworthy; it was through the applicability to them of the logical methods which he had imbibed from his See also:uncle's writings, and not from any See also:special attraction to natural See also:history pursuits. While studying at See also:Angouleme a copy of A. P. de See also:Candolle's Flore francaise See also:fell into his hands and he was struck with the See also:analytical tables for identifying See also:plants. He immediately proceeded to test their use on the first that presented itself. The result was successful and he continued to apply it to every plant he came across. A visit to See also:London in 1823 brought him into See also:con-tact with the brilliant circle of English botanists. In 1826, at the pressing invitation of his uncle, he agreed to See also:act as his secretary, at the same See also:time entering at See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn and See also:reading for the See also:bar. He was called in due time and in 1832 held his first and last brief. The same See also:year Jeremy Bentham died, leaving his See also:property to his See also:nephew.

His father's See also:

inheritance had fallen to him the previous year. He was now in a position of modest See also:independence, and able to pursue undistractedly his favourite studies. For a time these were divided between See also:botany, See also:jurisprudence and See also:logic, in addition to editing his father's professional papers. Bentham's first publication was his See also:Catalogue See also:des picnics indigenes des See also:Pyrenees et du Bas See also:Languedoc (See also:Paris, 1826), the result of a careful exploration of the Pyrenees in See also:company with G. A. See also:Walker See also:Arnott (1799-1868), afterwards See also:professor of botany in the university of See also:Glasgow. It is interesting to See also:notice that in it Bentham adopted the principle from which he never deviated, of citing nothing at second-See also:hand. This was followed by articles on various legal subjects: on codification, in which he disagreed with his uncle, on the See also:laws affecting See also:larceny and on the See also:law of real property. But the most remarkable See also:production of this See also:period was the Outline of a New See also:System of Logic, with a See also:Critical Examination of Dr See also:Whately's Elements of Logic (1827). In this the principle of the quantification of the predicate was first explicitly stated. This See also:Stanley See also:Jevons declared to be " undoubtedly the most fruitful See also:discovery made in abstract logical See also:science since the time of See also:Aristotle." Before sixty copies had been sold the publisher became bankrupt and the stock went for wastepaper. The See also:book passed into oblivion, and it was not till 1873 that Bentham's claims to priority were finally vindicated against those of Sir See also:William See also:Hamilton by See also:Herbert See also:Spencer.

In 1836 he published his Labiatarum genera et See also:

species. In preparing this See also:work he visited, between 1830-1834, every See also:European See also:herbarium, several more than once. The following See also:winter was passed in See also:Vienna, where he produced his Commentationes de Leguminosarum generibus, published in the See also:annals of the Vienna Museum. In 1842 he removed to Pontrilas in See also:Herefordshire. His See also:chief occupation for some succeeding years was his contributions to the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis, which was being carried on by his friend, A. P. de Candolle. In all these dealt with some 4730 species. In 1854 he found the See also:maintenance of a herbarium and library too See also:great a tax on his means. He therefore offered them to the See also:government on the understanding that they should See also:form the See also:foundation of such necessary See also:aids to See also:research in the Royal Botanic Gardens at See also:Kew. At the same time he contemplated the See also:abandonment of botanical work. Fortunately, he yielded to the persuasion of Sir William See also:Hooker, See also:John See also:Lindley and other scientific See also:friends. In 1855 he took up his residence in London, and worked at Kew for five days a See also:week, with a brief summer See also:holiday, from this time onwards till the end of his life.

As his friend See also:

Asa See also:Gray wrote: " With such methodical habits, with freedom from professional or administrative functions, which consume the time of most botanists, with steady devotion to his chosen work, and with nearly all See also:authentic material and needful appliances at hand or within reach, it is not so surprising that he should have undertaken and have so well accomplished such a vast amount of work, and he has the crowning merit and happy See also:fortune of having completed all that he undertook." The government, iri 1857, sanctioned a See also:scheme for the preparation of a See also:series of Floras or descriptions in the English See also:language of the indigenous plants of British colonies and possessions. Bentham began with the See also:Flora Hongkongensis in 1861, which was the first comprehensive work on any See also:part of the little-known flora of See also:China. This was followed by the Flora Australiensis, in seven volumes 0863-1878), the first flora of any large See also:continental See also:area that had ever been finished. His greatest work was the Genera Plantarum, begun in 1862, and concluded in 1883 in collaboration with Sir See also:Joseph Hooker, " the greater portion being," as Sir Joseph Hooker tells us, " the product of Bentham's indefatigable See also:industry." As age gradually impaired his bodily See also:powers, he seemed at last only to live for the completion of this monumental work. When the last revise of the last See also:sheet was returned to the printer, the stimulus was withdrawn, and his powers seemed suddenly to fail him. He began a brief autobiography, but the See also:pen with which he had written his two greatest works See also:broke in his hand in the See also:middle of a See also:page. He accepted the See also:omen, laid aside the unfinished See also:manuscript and patiently awaited the not distant end. He died on the loth of September 1884, within a fortnight of his 84th birthday. The scientific See also:world received the Genera Plantarum with asunanimous an assent as was accorded to the Species Plantarum of See also:Linnaeus. Bentham possessed, as Professor See also:Daniel See also:Oliver remarked, " an insight of so special a See also:character as to deserve the name of See also:genius, into the relative value of characters for See also:practical systematic work, and as a consequence of this, a sure sifting of essentials from non-essentials in each respective grade." His preparation for his crowning work had been practically lifelong. There are few parts of the world upon the botany of which he did not See also:touch. In the sequence and arrangement of the great families of flowering plants, different views from those of Bentham may be adopted.

But Bentham paved the way by an intimate and exact statement of the structural facts and their accurate relationship, which is not likely to be improved. In method and See also:

style, in descriptive work, Bentham was a supreme See also:master. This, to quote Professor Oliver again, is " See also:manifest not only in its terseness, aptness and precision, but especially in the judicious selection of diagnostic marks, and in the instinctive estimate of probable range in variation, which long experience and innate genius for such work could alone inspire." (W. T.

End of Article: BENTHAM, GEORGE (1800-1884)

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