Cyril Tenison White

Cyril Tenison White
Cyril Tenison White c. 1925
Born	(1890-08-17)17 August 1890 Brisbane, Australia
Died	16 August 1950(1950-08-16) (aged 59) Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, Australia
Fields	Botany
Institutions	Queensland Government
Notable awards	Mueller Medal
Author abbrev. (botany)	C.T.White
Spouse	Henrietta Duncan Clark

Cyril Tenison ("C.T.") White (17 August 1890 – 15 August 1950) was an Australian botanist.

White was born in Brisbane to Henry White, a trade broker, and Louisa nee Bailey. He attended school at South Brisbane State School, and was appointed pupil-assistant to the Colonial Botanist of Queensland in 1905, a position previously held by his grandfather on his father's side, Frederick Manson Bailey. White also succeeded his uncle, John Frederick Bailey, in becoming Queensland's Government Botanist in 1917.

White married Henrietta Duncan Clark, a field naturalist and avid hiker, at South Brisbane on 21 October 1921. They married in Baptist tradition.

As the Government Botanist, White aided farmers and naturalists in identifying noxious weeds and evaluating native species for pastures and fodder. Between 1915 and 1926, he worked on a 42-part series on weeds which appeared in the Queensland Agricultural Journal. His books, An Elementary Textbook of Australian Forest Botany (1922) and Principles of Botany for Queensland Farmers (1938) were used as the textbooks for courses in forestry that he held at University of Queensland. In 1921–1927, he authored a 41-part series on Queensland trees. Also, he co-wrote a 12-part, illustrated series on eucalyptuses with William D. Francis which appeared in Queensland Naturalist in 1924–1934.

He collected a number of species from Queensland, neighbouring states, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. These helped to build up the Queensland Herbarium, where he insisted on keeping full data on distribution of all catalogued species. His friend and fellow naturalist Estelle Thomson also provided him with specimens for the Queensland Herbarium.