Bentham George

Bentham, George, was born at Stoke, near Plymouth, in 1800, being the nephew of Jeremy Bentham, the jurist (q.v.). In his youth he resided a good deal in France, managing his father's vineyards. He then acted as his uncle's editor, and in 1827 published Outlines of a new System of Logic, setting forth the doctrine of the quantification of the predicate. His attention was early directed to botany, and from 1829 to 1840 he acted as secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, and from 1861 to 1874 as president of the Linnean Society. Among his chief botanical works were the Flora of Hong-Kong, 1861, the Flora Australiensis, 1863 - 1878, and the Genera Plantarum, written in conjunction with Sir Joseph Hooker, 1862 - 1883. He became F.R.S. in 1862, and C.M.G. in 1878, and was also an LL.D. of Cambridge. His extensive herbarium was presented to the nation, and is preserved at Kew. Bentham died in 1884. The genus Benthamia, belonging to the Cornacea, was dedicated to him by Lindley.