The Linnean Society of London is a society dedicated to the study of, and the dissemination of information concerning, natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collections and publishes academic journals and books on plant and animal biology. The society also awards a number of prestigious medals and prizes for achievement.
Sir Francis "Frank" Darwin was a British botanist. He was a son of the naturalist and scientist Charles Darwin, and brother of George Howard Darwin, Horace Darwin, and Leonard Darwin.
The Darwin–Wedgwood family is composed of two interrelated English families, descending from prominent 18th-century doctor Erasmus Darwin, and Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the pottery company Josiah Wedgwood and Sons. Its most notable member was Charles Darwin, a grandson of both. The family included at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets. Presented below are brief biographical descriptions and genealogical information with links to articles on the members. The individuals are listed by year of birth and grouped into generations. The relationship to Francis Galton and his immediate ancestors is also given. Note that the data tree below does not include all descendants or even all prominent descendants.
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection is the title of a journal article, comprising and resulting from the joint presentation of two scientific papers to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858: On The Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type by Alfred Russel Wallace and an Extract from an unpublished Work on Species from Charles Darwin's Essay of 1844. The article also includes an Abstract of a Letter from Darwin to Asa Gray, and an introductory letter by Joseph Dalton Hooker and Charles Lyell. The article was the first announcement of the Darwin – Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection; and appeared in print on 20 August 1858. The presentation of the papers spurred Darwin to write a condensed "abstract" of his "big book" on Natural Selection. This was published in November 1859 as On the Origin of Species.
The Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge is the University of Cambridge's Earth Sciences department. First formed around 1731, the department incorporates the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.
Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton, FRS HFRSE FLS was a British evolutionary biologist who was a lifelong advocate of natural selection through a period in which many scientists such as Reginald Punnett doubted its importance. He invented the term sympatric for evolution of species in the same place, and in his book The Colours of Animals (1890) was the first to recognise frequency-dependent selection.
Dr Dukinfield Henry Scott FRS HFRSE LLD was a British botanist. The standard author abbreviation D.H.Scott is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Edgar Johnson Allen was a British marine biologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1914 and won the Gold Medal of the Linnean Society in 1926 and the Royal Society's Darwin Medal in 1936.
Andrew Dickson Murray FRSE FRPSE FLS was a Scottish lawyer, botanist, zoologist and entomologist. Murray studied insects which caused crop damage, specialising in the Coleoptera. In botany, he specialised in the Coniferae, in particular the Pacific rim conifer species.
John Joseph Bennett was a British botanist.
John Jenner Weir, FLS, FZS was an English amateur entomologist, ornithologist and British civil servant. He is best known today for being one of the naturalists who corresponded with and provided important data to both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
The Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society is a scientific journal publishing original papers relating to the taxonomy of all plant groups and fungi, including anatomy, biosystematics, cytology, ecology, ethnobotany, electron microscopy, morphogenesis, palaeobotany, palynology and phytochemistry.
The Darwin–Wallace Medal is a medal awarded by the Linnean Society of London for "major advances in evolutionary biology". Historically, the medals have been awarded every 50 years, beginning in 1908. That year marked 50 years after the joint presentation by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace of two scientific papers—On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection—to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858. Fittingly, Wallace was one of the first recipients of the medal, in his case it was, exceptionally, in gold, rather than the silver version presented in the six other initial awards. However, in 2008 the Linnean Society announced that due to the continuing importance of evolutionary research, the medal will be awarded on an annual basis beginning in 2010.
James Mallet is an evolutionary zoologist specialising in entomology.
Robert Allen Rolfe was an English botanist specialising in the study of orchids. For a time he worked in the gardens at Welbeck Abbey. He entered Kew in 1879 and became second assistant.
Stephen Blackmore CBE FRSE FRSB FLS is a British botanist, who was educated at St. George's School, Hong Kong and the University of Reading where he completed his PhD in 1976. He then worked at the Royal Society of London’s Research Station on Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean before being appointed Lecturer in Biology and Head of the National Herbarium and Botanic Garden at the University of Malawi. In 1980, he was appointed Head of Palynology at Natural History Museum in London and from 1990 to 1999 served there as Keeper of Botany. He was the 15th Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from 1999 until 20 December 2013, and was appointed Her Majesty's Botanist in Scotland in 2010.
George Henslow was an Anglican curate, botanist and author. Henslow was notable for being a defender of Lamarckian evolution.
