Richard Cunningham (botanist)
| Richard Cunningham | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 12, 1793 Wimbledon, Surrey, England |
| Died | April 1835 Bogan River, New South Wales |
| Cause of death | Killed by aborigines |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Botanist |
Richard Cunningham (12 February 1793 – April 1835) was an English botanist who became Colonial Botanist of New South Wales and superintendent of the Sydney Botanic Gardens.
He was born in Wimbledon, Surrey, England, the second son of gardener Allan Cunningham, who came from Renfrewshire, Scotland, and his English wife Sarah. Cunningham was educated at a Rev. John Adams Academy at Putney and then went to work for William Townsend Aiton on Hortus Kewensis for six years. For the next 18 years, he worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, cataloguing specimens sent from Australia by his brother Allan.
After being recommended for the position by both his brother Allan and botanist Robert Brown, Cunningham sailed to Australia to take up the position of Colonial Botanist of New South Wales and superintendent of Sydney Botanic Gardens, arriving in January 1833. Later that year he made an expedition to New Zealand, on the HMS Buffalo. He was dropped off in the Bay of Islands and remained in Northland until March 1834 and was collected in May 1834 by the HMS Alligator. While he was there he made a large collection of plants, amongst them a new orchid, Dendrobium cunninghamii, and the discovery of a new Hebe species. In 1834 he assisted John Lhotsky in the writing up for the botanical results of Lhotsky's expedition to the Australian Alps.
...
Wikipedia