FEATURE
John Lindley (1799-1865)
David R. Hershey
Department of Horticulture, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-5611
Lindley, one of the most remarkable horti-
culturists of the 19th century, was born on 5
Feb. 1799 at Catton, near Norwich, England.
His father was a skillful but financially un-
successful nurseryman. Lindley, an enthusi-
astic and successful student, was unable to go
to college because of his family’s financial
situation, but his astounding ability for hard
work enabled him to become one of the most
productive plant scientists of his time. At age
16, Lindley went to Belgium as a seedman’s
representative, because his father lacked the
money to buy him an officer’s commission in
the army. He worked with his father for a few
years upon his return and became acquainted
with botanist William Hooker.
Lindley demonstrated his capacity for
sustained work by translating the French book
Analyse du Fruit into English in one sitting of
three days and two nights, despite blindness in
one eye. His translation, Observations on the
Structure of Fruits, was published in 1819.
Lindley hoped to become a plant collector to
Sumatra, and as preparation for the rigors of
the trip, he slept on the bare floor.
Lindley had several careers, most of them
simultaneously. He was a prominent member
of the London Horticultural Society for 40
years, serving as its secretary from 1858 until
his death; the first professor of botany at the
Univ. of London, a position he held for 40
years; editor of the Botanical Register for 18
years and the influential Gardener’s Chronicle,
a publication he cofounded with Sir Joseph
Paxton, for 25 years; and professor of botany
and director of the Physic Garden for the
Society of Apothecaries for 18 years.
In addition to his official duties, Lindley
played a major role in saving Kew Gardens
from being closed by- the government as a
budget-cutting measure. His work led to con-
version of the gardens to a public institution
for horticultural display, research, and educa-
tion. He was frequently consulted by the British
government on matters ranging from the Irish
potato famine to the vegetation of Ascension
Island to fraud in horticulture. In 1830 he
organized the first exhibition of flowers and
fruits in England for the London Horticultural
Society, the forerunner of today’s Chelsea
flower show. He was a juror of food products
for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and superin-
tended the horticultural exhibits of the Great
International Exhibition of 1862. He success-
fully crusaded to repeal the glass tax, enabling
wider use of greenhouses.
Received for publication 12 June 1992.
960
Lindley was a prolific writer and editor,
with a bibliography of more than 230 technical
and popular articles and books. In 1820 Lindley
published Rosarum Monographia, followed in
1821 by Digitalium Monographia. He next
edited William Cattley 's Collectanea Botanica.
These works, along with his numerous articles
in the Botanical Register, quickly gave Lindley
an international reputation. His book, The
Theory of Horticulture (1840) and its revi-
sions, is considered the first modem book on
horticultural science and is applicable to hor-
ticulture today. Lindley describes many “re-
cent” innovations, including the use of bottom
heat and nontraditional plant containers to
prevent root circling or what Lindley termed
“corkscrew roots” (Fig. 1). He begins the
chapter on potting with: “When a plant is
forced to grow in a . . . garden pot, its condition
is exceedingly different from that to which it
would be naturally exposed. The roots, instead
of having the power of spreading constantly
outwards, and away from their original start-
ing point, are constrained to grow back upon
themselves; the supply of food is comparatively
uncertain, and they are usually exposed to
fluctuations of temperature and moisture un-
known in a natural condition.”
Lindley’s pioneering works on orchid
taxonomy earned him the title “father of modern
orchidology.” His books included Genera and
Species of Orchidaceous Plants (1830-40) and
Folia Orchidacea (1852-59). His botanical
texts promoted the natural system of plant
classification. He named innumerable new
species discovered by plant explorers and
started the practice of ending plant family
names in “aceae.” He guided plant collectors
with his 1822 article “Instructions for Packing
Living Plants in Foreign Countries,” which
was replaced only by Ward’s invention of the
Wardian case or terrarium in 1840.
Lindley was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1828 and received their Royal Medal
in 1857 for raising horticulture “from the
condition of an empirical art to that of a de-
veloped science.” In 1832 the Univ. of Munich
granted him an honorary PhD. Overwork as-
sociated with the 1862 exhibition caused
Lindley’s health to decline. He died on 1 Nov.
1865. His private library formed the Lindley
library of the Royal Horticultural Society,
London. His orchid collection was housed at
the Kew herbarium and his general herbarium
at the Univ. of Cambridge.
Despite his many accomplishments in and
contributions to the science of horticulture,
Lindley 's pioneering books are virtually never
cited by today’s horticultural textbooks. Per-
haps, his inductioninto the ASHS Horticultural
Hall of Fame will help contemporary textbook
authors rediscover John Lindley and introduce
him to today’s students of horticulture.
Fig. 1. Twisted or corkscrew root of Pinus
laricio grown in a pot [from
The Theory and
Practice of Horticulture (1855)].
References
Earl of Morton. 1965. John Lindley. J. Royal Hort.
Soc. 90:457-462.
Encyclopedia Britannica. 1981. Lindley, John. En-
cyclopedia Britannica Micropaedia. 6:236.
Gardener, J. 1965. John Lindley. Gardeners’ Chron.
158:406,409,430,434,451,457,476,481,502,
507,526.
Gardeners’ Chronicle. 1865. The late Dr. Lindley
(obituary). Gardeners’ Chron. p. 105-1059,
1082-1083.
Green, J.R. 1914. John Lindley and the vegetable
kingdom, p. 336-353. In: J.R. Green (ed.). A
history of botany in the United Kingdom from
the earliest time to the end of the 19th century.
E.P. Dutton, New York.
Keeble, F. 1913. John Lindley, p. 162-177. In: F.W.
Oliver (ed.). Makers of British botany. Cam-
bridge University Press, London.
Lemmon, K. 1968. The golden age of plant hunters.
Phoenix House, London.
Lindley, J. 1831. Introduction, p. v-xxvii. In: G.
Lindley. A guide to the orchard and kitchen
garden. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans,
London.
Lindley, J. 1855. The theory and practiceof horticul-
ture; or an attempt to explain the chief operations
of gardening upon physiological grounds.
Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, London.
Mea, A. 1967. The Hookers of Kew. Michael Jo-
seph, London.
Reeve, L.A. 1866. Portraits of men of eminence in
literature, science and art. vol. 4. Alfred William
Bennett, London.
Reinikka, M.A. 1964. John Lindley-Father of
modern orchidology. Amer. Orchid Soc. Bul.
33:564-568.
Steam, W.T. 1965. The self-taught botanists who
saved the Kew Botanic Garden. Taxon 14:293-
298.
Stearn, W.T. 1973. Lindley, John, p. 371-373. In:
C.C. Gillispie (ed.). Dictionary of scientific bi-
ography. vol. 8. Scribner’s, New York.
Stearn, W.T. 1986. Botanical Latin. 3rd ed.,revised.
David & Charles, London.
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