Joseph William Mathews

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Joseph William "Jimmy" Mathews (7 April 1871 - 23 September 1949) was a horticulturist and gardener from England who served as the first curator of the Kirstenbosch national botanical garden in Cape Town, South Africa.

Horticulture wurde definiert als der Anbau von Pflanzen, hauptsächlich für Lebensmittel, Materialien, Komfort und Schönheit

Horticulture has been defined as the culture of plants, mainly for food, materials, comfort and beauty. According to an American horticulture scholar, "Horticulture is the growing of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and of plants for ornament and fancy." A more precise definition can be given as "The cultivation, processing, and sale of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and ornamental plants as well as many additional services". It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, soil management, landscape and garden design, construction and maintenance, and arboriculture. In contrast to agriculture, horticulture does not include large-scale crop production or animal husbandry.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Botanical garden at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town

Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of ten National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Prior to 1 September 2004, the institute was known as the National Botanical Institute.

Display at the Mathews Rockery in Kirstenbosch botanical garden Mathews memorial.jpg
Display at the Mathews Rockery in Kirstenbosch botanical garden

Mathews was born in Bunbury, Cheshire to Robert Mathews and Mary Elizabeth. He trained in horticulture at the Kew botanical gardens and went to work in the Cape Town public gardens in 1895. In 1913, the botanical garden at Kirstenbosch was established and Mathews was appointed the curator under the directorship of Professor H.H.W. Pearson. Mathew cultivated and encouraged the use of numerous local plants including several bulbs. He published notes on the culture of many of the local plants. He retired in 1936 but continued to write and published on the Cultivation of non-succulent South African plants (Cape Town, 1938). [1]

Bunbury, Cheshire village in Cheshire, UK

Bunbury is a village in Cheshire, England, south of Tarporley and north west of Nantwich on the Shropshire Union Canal. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 1,195.

Henry Harold Welch Pearson botanist

Henry Harold Welch Pearson, was a British-born South African botanist, chiefly remembered for founding Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in 1913.

The rockery at Kirstenbosch is named after him as are the plant species Geissorhiza mathewsii and Tritonia mathewsiana . [2]

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References

  1. Compton, R.H. (1949). "Obituary: Joseph William Mathews. First curator of Kirstenbosch". The Journal of the Botanical Society of South Africa. 35 (1): 9. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  2. "Mathews, Joseph William (1871-1949) on JSTOR".