George Bentham : autobiography, 1800-1834 / edited by Marion Filipiuk.

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George Bentham was the nephew and assistant of Utilitarian philsopher, Jeremy Bentham, and himself emerging figure himself in the field of botany - where he would prove to be one of the great taxonomists of the century

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Bentham (1800-1884) was a noted English taxonomic botanist and a nephew of the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham. This volume, the first published version of the manuscript original at the Kew Gardens Archives in London, was written at intervals between 1867 and Bentham's death. The manuscript was based largely on his own journals and those of his siblings, all of whom predeceased him. Bentham's father Samuel was a naval engineer, inventor, and administrator in both Russia and England during Bentham's childhood, and the family also lived for a dozen years in post-Napoleonic France. Privately educated by his mother and a succession of tutors, Bentham studied botany and other subjects for several years at the Protestant College at Montauban, France, and then he managed a family estate near Montpellier. Returning to London, he undertook the study of law, edited a book on logic for his uncle, and was briefly a barrister until an inheritance from his uncle made it possible for him to marry. Since Bentham and his wife had modest needs and no children, he was able to devote the last half century of his life to botanical pursuits. He published various papers on botanical subjects, and with his friend and colleague Sir Joseph Hooker, completed the Genera plantarum ad exemplaria imprimis in herbariis Kewensibus servata definita (3 v., 1862-1883). A fascinating account of life in early-19th-century Europe. Appendixes; index of plant names and persons. All levels. K. B. Sterling; formerly, Pace University