Misplaced Pages

George Richard Vasey

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Trscavo (talk | contribs) at 00:33, 31 December 2024 (add citation and ref). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 00:33, 31 December 2024 by Trscavo (talk | contribs) (add citation and ref)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) American plant collector (1853–1921)

George Richard Vasey (1853–1921) was an American plant collector. He was the son of Dr. George S. Vasey, a physician and botanist. The botanical activities of father and son overlapped in time, so the two are often confused.

Life

George Richard Vasey was born in 1853. The precise place and date of his birth are unknown but records from the United States census of 1900 suggest he was born in Illinois in August 1853. He died in Alberta, Canada on 23 May 1921.

George Richard Vasey was the son of Dr. George S. Vasey, an English-born physician and botanist. The year Vasey was born, the family lived in Ringwood, Illinois where his father practiced medicine. His mother died when he was about 13 years old. He had six siblings, one of which died as an infant. His younger sister, Flora Nancy Vasey, was also a plant collector.

Collections

George Richard Vasey collected in at least eight U.S. states between 1875 and 1889:

  • 1875–1876: Northern California
  • 1878: North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia
  • 1880–1881: Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas
  • 1889: Washington

He collected hundreds of plants each season.

Legacy

There are dozens of eponymous taxon names that include an epithet such as vaseyi, vaseyanus, vaseyana, or vaseyanum. Some of these names honor George Richard Vasey while many of them acknowledge his father, George S. Vasey, a botanist who began collecting plants as a teenager growing up in Oneida County, New York. Notable examples of names that recognize the younger Vasey include Rhododendron vaseyi, Trillium vaseyi, Artemisia vaseyana, and Cirsium hydrophilum var. vaseyi.

The American botanist Asa Gray named and described Rhododendron vaseyi in 1879. In his description, Gray included the following anecdote:

As this interesting accession to our flora is one of the fruits of a botanical tour recently made by Mr. George R. Vasey, son of Dr. Vasey, the botanist of the Agricultural Department, who recognized its novelty and placed a specimen in my hands, I seize the opportunity of commemorating the name of Vasey in connection with the noble genus Rhododendron.

— Gray (1880)

George Richard Vasey collected the type specimen of Rhododendron vaseyi A.Gray in Jackson County, North Carolina in 1878. The species is sometimes referred to as the Vasey Rhododendron.

The species Trillium vaseyi was named and described by the American botanist Thomas Grant Harbison in 1901. In his description, Harbison claimed that "this Trillium was collected in the mountains of North Carolina in 1878 by Dr. George Vasey, whose name I take pleasure in associating with this species". However, the type specimen of Trillium vaseyi Harb. was in fact collected by George Richard Vasey, not his father. The species is commonly known as Vasey's trillium.

The subspecies Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana was first described as Artemisia vaseyana by the American botanist Per Axel Rydberg in 1916. The type specimen was collected by George Richard Vasey in the state of Washington in 1889. As of December 2024, Artemisia vaseyana Rydb. is a homotypic synonym for Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle. The taxon is commonly called the Vasey sage.

The variety Cirsium hydrophilum var. vaseyi was first described as Cnicus breweri var. vaseyi by Asa Gray in 1884. The type specimen was collected by George Richard Vasey on Mount Tamalpais in 1876. In his description of Cirsium hydrophilum var. vaseyi in 1959, the American botanist John Thomas Howell referred to the taxon as "the plant of Vasey's collecting", more commonly known as Vasey's thistle.

References

  1. "United States Census 1900: George R. Vasey". FamilySearch. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  2. "George Richard Vasey". FamilySearch. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
  3. Charters, Michael L. "An Annotated Dictionary of Botanical and Biographical Etymology". California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  4. "Vasey, Flora Nancy". Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  5. "Vasey, George Richard". Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
  6. "Search for 'vaseyi'". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  7. "Search for 'vaseyanus'". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  8. "Search for 'vaseyana'". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  9. "Search for 'vaseyanum'". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  10. "Rhododendron vaseyi A.Gray". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
  11. Gray (1880), pp. 48–49.
  12. "Specimen GH00015336: Rhododendron vaseyi A.Gray". Harvard University Herbaria. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  13. Dunne-Brady, John. "VASEY, George S. (1822–1893)" (PDF). pp. 64–65. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  14. "Trillium vaseyi Harb.". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 29 December 2024.
  15. Harbison (1901), p. 24.
  16. Floden & Knapp (2023), p. 198.
  17. "Specimen US00091979: Trillium vaseyi Harb.". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  18. Pistrang, Mark. "Vasey's Trillium (Trillium vaseyi) Harbison". United States Forest Service. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  19. "Artemisia vaseyana Rydb.". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  20. "Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana (Rydb.) Beetle". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  21. Innes, Robin J. (2017). "Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana". Fire Effects Information System. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Retrieved 31 December 2024.
  22. "Cnicus breweri var. vaseyi A.Gray". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  23. "Specimen GH00006051: Cnicus breweri var. vaseyi A.Gray". Harvard University Herbaria. Retrieved 30 December 2024.
  24. Howell (1959), p. 11.
  25. "Cirsium hydrophilum (Greene) Jeps. var. vaseyi (A.Gray) J.T.Howell". Calflora. Retrieved 30 December 2024.

Bibliography

External links