Michael Schuck Bebb
| Michael Schuck Bebb | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 23, 1833 Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio, United States |
| Died |
December 5, 1895 San Bernardino, California, United States |
| Fields | Botany |
| Alma mater | Beloit College, Wisconsin, |
| Known for | Extensive research into the Salix genus |
| Notable awards | member of the Philadelphia, Buffalo and Chicago Academies of Science |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Bebb |
Michael Schuck Bebb (December 23, 1833 – December 5, 1895) was an amateur systematic botanist in the 19th century with a reputation as the leading salicologist in both America and Europe. His extensive work on the genus Salix led to several plants being named in his honour.
Michael Schuck Bebb was born on December 23, 1833 in Butler County, Ohio, one of five children to William Bebb and Sarah Schuck. His formative years were spent on the family farm in Hamilton, Ohio, where his interest in horticultural subjects took root amidst “the pleasure grounds, vegetable and fruit gardens” and “well stocked greenhouse”. Through his uncle, Evan Bebb, the young Bebb received a complete set of the Natural History Reports of the State of New York and Emerson’s Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts. These books opened up the hitherto unknown world of botany to the sixteen-year-old, who could now trace the genera and species of given plants and learn from their relationship. Applying this new found knowledge to the trees, shrubs and herbs around him, Bebb began work collecting and preparing specimens for his famous herbarium of later years.
During this time his father, William Bebb had become active in politics and campaigned for the Whig politician William Henry Harrison in 1836 and 1840. In 1846 he himself was elected Governor of Ohio, only the third governor born in the state. After declining a second term in office, Governor Bebb withdrew from public life and moved his family to his newly acquired estate Fountaindale in Winnebago County, Illinois. Instead of travelling with the family along the regular route to the estate via the Miami canal, the seventeen-year-old Michael Schuck Bebb assisted his brother in law in driving a herd of short horn cattle four hundred miles into the state of Illinois. This epic journey opened up new and exciting species of flora to the young man and further fuelled his growing passion for botany.
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