Edward Whittall (born Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, 9 September 1851; died 15 July 1917) was an Anglo-Ottoman merchant and amateur botanist best known today for sending many species of bulbs to Europe. The standard author abbreviation Whittall is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name . [1]
Whittall's grandfather Charlton Whittall (1791-1867) and his brother James moved to Smyrna (now İzmir) starting in 1817, setting up a trading firm named C. Whittall & Co. This initially became a part of the British Levant Company until its dissolution in 1825. The Whittalls exported a variety of products to England including dyes, valonea (an oak product used in tanning), dried fruits, and cotton.
Edward Whittall was the son of James Whittall (1819-1883), second son of Charlton Whittall, and Magdelaine Giraud (1823-1912), a member of a merchant family of Venetian origin which intermarried multiple times with the Whittalls. James Whittall was a coin collector; he contributed to a collection now in the British Museum. [2] Edward Whittall married Mary Maltass (1851-1938) in 1875 and they had nine children together. Three of his sons - Albert (1879-1957), Edward (1888-1947), and Godfrey (1882-1957) - were on a football team that represented Smyrna at the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens. [3]
Edward worked in the family firm of C. Whittall, although much of the work seems to have been done by his brother Herbert (1858-1929). [4] According to English traveller Gertrude Bell writing in 1902, Edward Whittall was known to be a friend and advisor of statesman Kâmil Pasha, who was to return as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire in 1908. [5]
In 1874 Whittall, an avid sportsman who was fond of shooting in the nearby mountains, organized an expedition there with Henry John Elwes, a visiting British naturalist who had an increasing interest in plants. This sparked Whittall's interest in the local flora, and he began to collect them, at first with a mind to providing employment during slow periods for local villagers. Eventually he created a larger garden area on Nif dagı to hold his collection and sent some of them to be sold in Britain and Holland. [6] Starting in 1890 he sent bulbs to Kew Gardens, asking only for help identifying the species. Several of the species were unknown to British botanists and John Gilbert Baker named several after Whittall, including Fritillaria whittallii, Veronica whittallii, and the subspecies Tulipa orphanidea whittallii. He sent large quantities of bulbs to Kew Gardens, sufficient for the Kew Bulletin of 1899 to report that "Kew owes its unique display of early flowering spring bulbs in great measure to the constant liberality of Mr. Edward Whittall, of Smyrna. We owe to him the sheets of white Galanthus elwesii and of blue Chionodoxa which each year produce more and more striking effects." [7] Whittall was particularly interested in the Chionodoxa; his naming of Chionondoxa sardensis is still accepted today, although the Chionodoxa have modernly been moved into Scilla.
Whittall is buried in the Bornova Anglican Cemetery.
Whittall's house in the Bornova district of İzmir and its gardens still exist and as of 2021 are operated as a venue for weddings and events by Brian Giraud, a great-grandson. [8]
Sir William Jackson Hooker was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he founded the Herbarium and enlarged the gardens and arboretum. The standard author abbreviation Hook. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Scilla is a genus of about 30 to 80 species of bulb-forming perennial herbaceous plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. Sometimes called the squills in English, they are native to woodlands, subalpine meadows, and seashores throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. A few species are also naturalized in Australasia and North America. Their flowers are usually blue, but white, pink, and purple types are known; most flower in early spring, but a few are autumn-flowering. Several Scilla species are valued as ornamental garden plants.
İzmir is a metropolitan city on the west coast of Anatolia, and capital of İzmir Province. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara, and the largest urban agglomeration on the Aegean Sea.
Henry John Elwes, FRS was a British botanist, entomologist, author, lepidopterist, collector and traveller who became renowned for collecting specimens of lilies during trips to the Himalaya and Korea. He was one of the first group of 60 people to receive the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1897. Author of Monograph of the Genus Lilium (1880), and The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland (1906–1913) with Augustine Henry, as well as numerous articles, he left a collection of 30,000 butterfly specimens to the Natural History Museum, including 11,370 specimens of Palaearctic butterflies.
Scilla luciliae is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is referred to by the common names Bossier's glory-of-the-snow or Lucile's glory-of-the-snow, and is a bulbous perennial from western Turkey that flowers in early spring. After flowering, it goes into dormancy until the next spring. The specific epithet is in honour of Lucile, the wife of the Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810-1885). It belongs to a group of Scilla species that were formerly put in a separate genus, Chionodoxa, and may now be treated as Scilla sect. Chionodoxa.
Bornova is a municipality and district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 220 km2, and its population is 454,470 (2022). It is the third largest district in İzmir's metropolitan area and is almost fully urbanized at the rate of 98.6 percent, with correspondingly high levels of development in terms of industry and services. Bornova's center is situated at a distance of 8 km (5 mi) to the northeast of the traditional center of İzmir and 5 km (3 mi) from the coastline at the tip of the Gulf of İzmir to the west. Bornova district area is surrounded by the district areas of Yunusemre and Menemen to the north, Kemalpaşa to the east, Buca to the south, and Konak and Karşıyaka to the west, where the larger part of İzmir's urban area extends. Bornova is home to Ege University's main campus and associated hospital, one of the largest and foremost medical centers in western Turkey.
James Drummond was an Australian botanist and naturalist who was an early settler in Western Australia.
The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed, is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name Curtis's Botanical Magazine.
Levantine mansions of İzmir refer to about thirty stately residences in İzmir, Turkey, dating principally from the 19th century and of which a significant number remain intact by being restored and continuing to be used and visited.
Fritillaria uva-vulpis, commonly called the fox's grape fritillary, is a bulbous perennial plant belonging to the genus Fritillaria and native to eastern Turkey, north-western Iraq and western Iran. They are mainly found in the wooded foothills of the Zagros, where they grow in damp meadows and cornfields between 900 and 1800 m above sea level.
Scilla sardensis, the lesser glory-of-the-snow, is a bulbous perennial from west Turkey flowering in early spring. After flowering, it goes into dormancy until the next spring. It belongs to a group of Scilla species that were formerly put in a separate genus, Chionodoxa, and may now be treated as Scilla sect. Chionodoxa.
Scilla × allenii is a hybrid between two species of flowering plants, both of which are now placed in the genus Scilla. One of the parents is Scilla bifolia. As of March 2020, sources differ as to the identity of the other, which may be either Scilla forbesii or Scilla luciliae.
Brian Frederick Mathew MBE, VMH is a British botanist, born in the village of Limpsfield, Surrey, England. His particular area of expertise is bulbous plants, particularly ornamental bulbous plants, although he has contributed to other fields of taxonomy and horticulture. He has authored or co-authored many books on bulbs and bulbous genera which appeal to both botanists and gardeners, as well as specialist monographs on other genera, including Daphne, Lewisia, and Helleborus. His work has been recognized by the British Royal Horticultural Society and the International Bulb Society.
Bornova Anglican Cemetery also known as The English Churchyard of St. Mary Magdalene is a historic English Protestant cemetery in Izmir, Turkey. The cemetery is approximately 6 kilometres north of the city centre in a district called Bornova.
George Nicholson, was an English botanist and horticulturist, amongst 60 awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1897 for their contributions to horticulture. He is noted for having edited "The Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening", produced as an eight-part alphabetical series between 1884 and 1888 with a supplement, and published by L. Upcott Gill of London. It was also published in New York in 1889 by The American Agriculturist in 4 Volumes.
Tulipa sprengeri, or Sprenger's tulip, is a wild tulip from the Pontic coast of Turkey. It is quite rare and possibly extinct in the wild, but widely cultivated as an ornamental.
Levantines in Turkey or Turkish Levantines, refers to the descendants of Europeans who settled in the coastal cities of the Ottoman Empire to trade, especially after the Tanzimat era. Their estimated population today is around 1,000. They mainly reside in Istanbul, İzmir and Mersin. Anatolian Muslims called Levantines Frenk and tatlısu Frengi in addition to Levanten. Turkish Levantines are mostly Latin Catholics.
Galanthus elwesii, Elwes's snowdrop or greater snowdrop, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae, native to the Caucasus.
Edward Martyn Rix is a British botanist, collector, horticulturist and author. Following completion of a PhD on Fritillaria at Cambridge University, he worked in Zurich, Switzerland and at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley. He is the author of many books and articles on plants and horticulture and is the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London.
Whittall Mansion is an Ottoman-era mansion in Istanbul, Turkey, built in 1900. Today, it is a historic house museum dedicated to rock musician Barış Manço (1943–1999).
