Book review: Noltie N. J., Indian forester, Scottish laird. The botanical lives of Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie

H. Walter Lack

doi:10.3372/wi.49.49307

Abstract

Noltie N. J., Indian forester, Scottish laird. The botanical lives of Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie. – Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2015. – ISBN 978-1-910877-10-4. – 17.3 × 24.5 cm, xiv + 324 pp., many illustrations, hardback. – Price: GBP 15.00.Citation: Lack H. W. 2019: Book review: Noltie N. J., Indian forester, Scottish laird. The botanical lives of Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie. – Willdenowia 49: 361–362. doi: https://doi.org/10.3372/wi.49.49307Version of record first published online on 26 November 2019 ahead of inclusion in December 2019 issue.

Highlights

The book here reviewed is a comprehensive and complete analysis of the life and work of Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn (1820 – 1895), the commissioner and owner of these anonymous botanical illustrations which ended up in the library of the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). In a sense this biography, the result of fifteen years of work, is an offshoot of the author‘s contributions to Flora of Bhutan, which brought him in contact with herbarium specimens collected by Cleghorn, the botanical illustrations mentioned above and his pertinent publications
There is no focus on what is conventionally understood as career, the reader is rather introduced in epic form to the story of a highly diverse life, which stands in the tradition of the Scottish surgeons active for the East India Company (EIC), like Alexander Gibson or Robert Wight, both previously studied by Henry
Considerable attention is given to the numerous societies to which Cleghorn was affiliated in some form or other, among them the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London and the Royal Society of Edinburgh to name a few

Summary

Introduction

BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. The botanical lives of Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie.

Results

Conclusion