The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Lindley, John

LINDLEY, lĭnd'lĭ, John, English botanist and horticulturist: b. Catton, near Norwich (Norfolk), 5 Feb. 1799; d. Acton, 1 Nov. 1865. He became Belgian agent for a London seed merchant in 1815, later took up botanical studies, published in 1819 a translation of Richard's ‘Analyse du Fruit’ and was appointed assistant librarian to Sir Joseph Banks at London. Later, he was successively made assistant secretary to the Horticultural Society (1822-41), professor of botany in the University of London (1829-60) and lecturer in botany to the Apothecaries' Company (1836-53). In 1828 he was elected to the Royal Society, whose royal medal he received in 1857, and in 1853 became a corresponding member of the Institut de France. He was appointed editor of the Botanical Register in 1826, of the Journal of the Horticultural Society in 1846; and in 1841 was a founder of the Gardeners' Chronicle, whose chief editor he was until his death. He was an able lecturer, a constant opponent of the Linnæan as contrasted with the natural system of classification and the author of several valuable works such as ‘The Theory and Practice of Horticulture’ (1842) and ‘The Vegetable Kingdom’ (1846). He also wrote almost the entire descriptive portion of London's ‘Encyclopædia of Plants’ (1822-29). His lectures attracted large audiences and excited great popular interest in England in the cultivation of plants. He encouraged public exhibitions of fruits and flowers. His influence as an editor was also very great and his textbooks were long standard in his native country.