Thomas King

Thomas King (14 April 1834 – 14 September 1896) was a British botanist and author. He discovered twenty-nine species of plant while in Chile during the 1860s and 1870s.

In 1885, he contributed a section on Scotland's botany to Francis Hindes Groome's book Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Graphic and Accurate Description of Every Place in Scotland.

Early life and career King was born in 1834 at Yardfoot, a farm in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire. While attending school in Glenhead,

Failing health forced him to seek a warmer climate, and in July 1864 he set sail on a three-month journey to Chile, where one of his brothers lived. He resumed teaching, in Valparaiso, and King used the connection to visit the area, where he discovered plant species rarely seen in the southern part of the country. He also discovered twenty-nine new species, including Stemmatum narcissoides, Ph.

Death With his sister at his bedside, King died at the Gordon Arms Hotel in Fochabers, Moray, on 14 September 1896. He had fallen ill with pleurisy five days earlier while attending the annual conference of the Cryptogamic Society. He was survived by a sister, to whom he wrote letters about his rekindled love of botany while he was in Chile. Bibliography The Clydesdale Flora''