William Herbert

The Hon. William Herbert (12 January 1778 – 28 May 1847) was a British botanist, botanical illustrator, poet, and clergyman. He served as a member of parliament for Hampshire from 1806 to 1807, and for Cricklade from 1811 to 1812. His botanical writings are noted for his treatment of Amaryllidaceae. He was also the first Dean of Manchester.

Herbert died suddenly at his house in Hereford Street, Park Lane, London, on Friday, 28 May 1847. was issued in 1837. His Crocorum Synopsis appeared in the miscellaneous portion of the Botanical Register for 1843-4-5. Contributions on hybridisation made by him to the Journal of the Horticultural Society were the outcome of observation and experiment. A History of the Species of Crocus was reprinted separately from that journal, edited by John Lindley in 1847, just after his death. The genus Herbertia of Sweet commemorated his name.

His major works, including sermons, reviews, and scientific memoirs, besides his early poetical volumes, appeared in 2 volumes in 1842. He edited Musae Etonensis (1795) while still at school and, on quitting Eton, obtained a prize for a Latin poem on the subject Rhenus, which was published. A translation appeared in Translations of Oxford Prize Poems, 1831.

List of selected publications

Recognition The International Bulb Society awards The Herbert Medal to persons making meritorious achievement in advancing the knowledge of bulbous plants.

Family Herbert married the Hon. Letitia Emily Dorothea, second daughter of Joshua Allen, 5th Viscount Allen, on 17 May 1806, and was father of Henry William Herbert and three other children.

Commentary on Herbert Charles Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species (1859): Natural Selection, as we shall hereafter see, is a power incessantly ready for action, and is as immeasurably superior to man's feeble efforts, as the works of Nature are to those of Art. ...The elder De Candolle and Lyell have largely and philosophically shown that all organic beings are exposed to severe competition. In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject with more spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge.

Andrew Dickson White wrote in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896): About 1820 Dean Herbert, eminent as an authority in horticulture, avowed his conviction that species are but fixed varieties.

Science historian Conway Zirkle has written that Herbert had recognized the struggle for existence. According to Zirkle "he approached very closely to the natural selection hypothesis when he suggested that winter hardiness might become established in a hybrid stock through the survival of chance variations."