Nathaniel Lord Britton

Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 - 1934) was a US botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York. His parents wanted him to study religion, but he was attracted to nature study at an early age.

He was a graduate of the Columbia University School of Mines and afterwards taught geology and botany at Columbia. Britton was the first director of the New York Botanical Garden. He engendered substantial financial support for the botanical garden by naming plants after wealthy contributors.

He married Elizabeth Gertrude Knight, a bryologist and fellow member of the Torrey Botanical Club. They were life-long collaborators in botanical research.

Much of his field work was done in the Caribbean, where he visited frequently when the winter weather in New York City became too severe. His contributions to Caribbean flora are undisputed.

He wrote Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada, and the British Possessions (1896) with Addison Brown, and The Cactaceae with Joseph Nelson Rose.

The house he lived and worked in, The Britton Cottage, is preserved at Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island, New York.

Britton retired as director of the NY Botanical Garden in 1929, but continued his research of Caribbean flora.

References

External links

• Nathaniel Lord Britton Cornelius Amory Pugsley Silver Medal Award, 1929. Pugsley Medals. Texas A&M University. Retrieved on 2008-05-10..
• Britton, Nathaniel; Addison Brown An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundray of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Britton, Nathaniel; Addison Brown An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundray of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Addison Brown An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions From Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundray of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Second Edition -- Revised and Enlarged, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Britton, Nathaniel; Joseph Nelson Rose The Cactaceae: Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family. Carnegie Institution for Science.

• Biographical information and picture