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John Gilbert Baker was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
botanist.
Baker was born in
GuisboroughGuisborough is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England....
, the son of John and Mary (nêe Gilbert) Baker and educated at Quaker schools in Ackworth and York.
He worked at the library and
herbariumIn botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
of
Royal Botanic Gardens, KewThe Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...
between 1866 and 1899, and was keeper of the herbarium from 1890 to 1899. He wrote handbooks on many plant groups, including
AmaryllidaceaeAmaryllidoideae is the subfamily of flowering plants that takes its name from the genus Amaryllis. It is part of the family Amaryllidaceae, in order Asparagales...
,
BromeliaceaeBromeliaceae is a family of monocot flowering plants of around 3,170 species native mainly to the tropical Americas, with a few species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, Pitcairnia feliciana...
,
IridaceaeThe Iris family or Iridaceae is a family of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants included in the monocot order Asparagales, taking its name from the genus Iris. Almost worldwide in distribution and one of the most important families in horticulture, it includes more than 2000 species...
,
LiliaceaeThe Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation , and flower arranged in threes. Several have bulbs, while others have rhizomes...
, and
fernA fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...
s. His published works include
Flora of Mauritius and the Seychelles (1877) and
Handbook of the Irideae (1892).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1878.
He died in Kew in 1920. He had married Hannah Unthank in 1860 and was the father of botanist Edmund Gilbert Baker.