Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Burbidge, Frederick William
BURBIDGE, FREDERICK WILLIAM (1847–1905), botanist, born at Wymeswold, Leicestershire, on 21 March 1847, was son of Thomas Burbidge, a farmer and fruit-grower. He entered the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick as a student in 1868, and proceeded in the same year to the Royal Gardens, Kew. Here he showed skill as a draughtsman and was partly employed in making drawings of plants in the herbarium. Leaving Kew in 1870, he was on the staff of the 'Garden' from that year until 1877.
During this period he published 'The Art of Botanical Drawing' (1872); 'Cool Orchids and how to grow them, with a Descriptive List of all the Best Species' (1874); 'Domestic Floriculture, Window Gardening and Floral Decorations' (1874), one of the best books of the kind; 'The Narcissus: its History and Culture' (1875), with coloured plates drawn by himself and a scientific review of the genus by Mr. John Gilbert Baker; the volume on 'Horticulture' (1877) in G. P. Bevan's 'British Industries' series; and 'Cultivated Plants, their Propagation and Improvement' (1877), an excellent text-book for young gardeners, which won public appreciation from Gladstone.
In 1877 Burbidge was sent by Messrs. Veitch as a collector to Borneo. He was absent two years, during which he also visited Johore, Brunei, and the Sulu Islands. He brought back many remarkable plants, especially pitcher-plants, such as 'Nepenthes Rajah' and 'N. bicalcarata'; orchids, such as 'Cypripedium Laurenceanum,' 'Dendrobium Burbidgei' and 'Aerides Burbidgei'; and ferns, such as 'Alsophila Burbidgei ' and 'Polypodium Burbidgei.' The chronicle of his journey was published in 1880 as 'The Gardens of the Sun, or a Naturalist's Journal on the Mountains and in the Forests and Swamps of Borneo and the Sulu Archipelago.' The first set of the dried specimens brought back by him numbered nearly a thousand species, and was presented by Messrs. Veitch to the Kew herbarium. Sir Joseph Hooker in describing the Scitamineous 'Burbidgea nitida ' (Botanical Magazine 1879 t. 6403) names it 'in recognition of Burbidge's eminent services to horticulture, whether as a collector in Borneo, or as author of "Cultivated Plants, their Propagation and Improvement," a work which should be in every gardener's library.' In 1880 Burbidge was appointed curator of the botanical gardens of Trinity College, Dublin, at Glasnevin. There he did much to encourage gardening in Ireland (Gardeners' Chronicle, 1901, ii. 460). In 1889 Dublin University conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A., and in 1894 he became keeper of the college park as well as curator of the botanical gardens. While at Dublin he published The Chrysanthemum : its History, Culture, Classification and Nomenclature' (1883) and 'The Book of the Scented Garden' (1905). On the establishment of the Victoria medal of honour by the Royal Horticultural Society, in 1897, Burbidge was one of the first recipients, and he was also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Burbidge died from heart-disease on Christmas Eve 1905, and was buried in Dublin. He married in 1876 Mary Wade, who died, without issue, six months before him. Although no scientific botanist, nor very skilful as a cultivator, Burbidge did admirable service as a horticultural writer.
[Journal of Botany, 1906, 80; Gardeners' Chronicle, xxxviii. (1905) 460, and xxxix. 10 (with portrait); Kew Bulletin, 1906, 392; Journal of the Kew Guild, 1906, 326 (with portrait); and 'Hortus Veitchii' (1906) 75, 399.]