Charles Gardner

For other people named Charles Gardner, see Charles Gardner (disambiguation).

Charles Austin Gardner (6 January 1896 – 24 February 1970) was a Western Australian botanist.[1][2]

Early life

Born in Lancaster, in England, on 6 January 1896, Gardner emigrated to Western Australia with his family in 1909.

Gardner showed an interest in art and botany from youth, and was appointed a botanical collector for the Forests Department in 1920. The following year he was appointed botanist to the Kimberley Exploration Expedition, resulting in his first botanical publication, Botanical Notes, Kimberley Division of Western Australia, in which twenty new species were described. In 1924 he transferred to the Department of Agriculture, and following a departmental re-organisation in 1928 he was appointed Government Botanist and Curator of the State Herbarium.[3][4] During this time he also wrote about botanical topics in the local Western Australian media including Our Rural Magazine.

Travels and publications

He travelled widely and published around 320 papers,[5] the most important of which were in which were Contributions to the Flora of Western Australia in Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia (from 1923), Enumeratio Plantarum Australiae Occidentalis (1930) and Flora of Western Australia Volume 1, Part 1, Gramineae (1952). He described eight genera and about 200 new species. In 1937 he became the first Australian Botanical Liaison Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Awards

Gardner was awarded the Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia in 1949, and the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1961.

He retired in 1962, and died from diabetes at Subiaco, Western Australia, on 24 February 1970, aged 74. His personal botanical collection was bequeathed to the Benedictine Community at New Norcia, but was transferred to the State Herbarium in Perth in June 1970.

References

  1. ↑ Marchant, Neville G. "Gardner, Charles Austin (1896–1970)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
  2. ↑ "Entry in NLA catalogue and Trove regarding variant titles and names as found in library catalogues".
  3. ↑ "STATE BOTANIST.". Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954). Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 24 January 1929. p. 27. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "STATE BOTANIST.". The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954). Perth, WA: National Library of Australia. 19 January 1929. p. 18. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  5. ↑ C.A. Gardner : bibliography 1923-67, Dept. of Agriculture, 1970, retrieved 29 March 2015
  6. ↑ IPNI.  C.A.Gardner.

Publications

Further reading

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Austin Burton Edwards		 Clarke Medal
1961 		Succeeded by
Horace Waring
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