Henry Higgins (botanist)
Encyclopedia
Henry Hugh Higgins was an English botanist, bryologist, geologist
, curator and clergyman. He is cited as an authority in scientific classification, as Higgins.
He was inspector of the National Schools in Liverpool
from 1842 to 1848 and chaplain to the Rainhill Asylum, also in Liverpool. He was also president of the Liverpool Field Naturalists' Club from 1861 to 1881.
He especially worked on the Ravenhead collections, almost wholly made up of Upper Carboniferous flora
, fish, bivalves and insect remains. Higgins had suggested that Ravenhead donate his collections to the Liverpool Museum and the donation gained a home with the construction of the railway in 1870, which exposed two Carboniferous seams known as the Upper and Lower Ravenhead. Most of Liverpool Museum's collections survived the Liverpool Blitz
of May 1941 which practically destroyed the Museum itself, but the entire Ravenhead collection was lost in the fire.
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
, curator and clergyman. He is cited as an authority in scientific classification, as Higgins.
He was inspector of the National Schools in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
from 1842 to 1848 and chaplain to the Rainhill Asylum, also in Liverpool. He was also president of the Liverpool Field Naturalists' Club from 1861 to 1881.
He especially worked on the Ravenhead collections, almost wholly made up of Upper Carboniferous flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
, fish, bivalves and insect remains. Higgins had suggested that Ravenhead donate his collections to the Liverpool Museum and the donation gained a home with the construction of the railway in 1870, which exposed two Carboniferous seams known as the Upper and Lower Ravenhead. Most of Liverpool Museum's collections survived the Liverpool Blitz
Liverpool Blitz
The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the British city of Liverpool and its surrounding area, at the time mostly within the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire but commonly known as Merseyside, during the Second World War by the German Luftwaffe.Liverpool, Bootle, and the...
of May 1941 which practically destroyed the Museum itself, but the entire Ravenhead collection was lost in the fire.
Selected publications
- 1882. The Turvey ammonite: a paper read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, October 16th, 1882. 8 pp.
- 1890. What is religion?.
Books
- 1858. ... Synopsis and list of British Hymenomycetes, arranged according to the epicrisis of M. Fries. Ed. H. Greenwood. 54 pp.
- 1858. The Fungi of Liverpool and its vicinity... Ed. H. Greenwood. 81 pp.
- 1859. ... Synopsis and list of British Gastromycetes. 122 pp.
- henry hugh Higgins, joseph Henry. 1872. On vitality. Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 388 pp.
- 1874. Synopsis of an arrangement of invertebrate animals in the Free public museum of Liverpool: with introduction. Issue 28 of the Proceedings of the Literary & Philosophical Society of Liverpool. Ed. D. Marples. 104 pp. Republished by General Books LLC, in 2010, 72 pp. ISBN 978-1-153-39726-1
- 1877. Notes by a field-naturalist in the western tropics: from a journal kept on board the Royal Mersey steam yacht "Argo". Ed. E. Howell. 205 pp. Republished by BiblioLife, in 2010, 252 pp. ISBN 978-1-146-83768-2
Genuses
- (RubiaceaeRubiaceaeThe Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee , quinine , and gambier , and the horticulturally valuable madder , west indian jasmine ,...
) Higginsia BlumeCarl Ludwig BlumeCharles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume was a German-Dutch botanist.He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life working in the Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands, where he was Director of the Rijksherbarium at Leiden...
ex Pers.
Species
- (ApiaceaeApiaceaeThe Apiaceae , commonly known as carrot or parsley family, is a group of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera, it is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants...
) CymopterusCymopterusCymopterus is a genus of perennial plants in the Apiaceae. They are commonly known as the spring parsleys. They are short, squat plants with long taproots.Species include:* Cymopterus aboriginum* Cymopterus beckii...
higginsii S.L.Welsh - (AsteraceaeAsteraceaeThe Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
) ErigeronErigeronErigeron is a genus of about 390 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest species diversity in North America, where 173 species occur....
higginsii S.L.Welsh - (HydrophyllaceaeHydrophyllaceaeHydrophylloideae is a subfamily of the Boraginaceae family of flowering plants. Their taxonomic position is somewhat uncertain. Traditionally, and under the Cronquist system, they were given family rank under the name Hydrophyllaceae, and treated as part of the order Solanales...
) PhaceliaPhaceliaPhacelia is a genus of about 200 species of annual or perennial herbaceous plants, native to North and South America....
higginsii N.D.Atwood - (ScrophulariaceaeScrophulariaceaeScrophulariaceae, the figwort family, are a family of flowering plants. The plants are annual or perennial herbs with flowers with bilateral or rarely radial symmetry. Members of the Scrophulariaceae have a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including...
) PenstemonPenstemonPenstemon , Beard-tongue, is a large genus of North American and East Asian plants traditionally placed in the Scrophulariaceae family. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae...
higginsii (Neese) N.H.Holmgren & N.D.Atwood
Sources
- alan j. Bowden, wendy Simkiss. Henry Hugh Higgins and Frederick Price Marrat: the reluctant palaeobotanists and the Ravenhead collections. In the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 114, 327-338
- w. Simkiss, a.j. Bowden. Palaeobotanical studies and collecting in the 19th century, with particular reference to the Ravenhead collection and Henry Hugh Higgins. In Bowden, A.J., Burek, C.V. & Wilding, R. (eds) 2005. History of Palaeobotany: Selected Essays. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 241, 111-126