Genus Randia

For Isaac Rand (1674–1743), English botanist, apothecary, and gardener at the Society of Apothecaries’ Physic Garden, Chelsea, one of the most esteemed botanical gardens in Europe during the 18th century. He became an official demonstrator of the plants to the Society of Apothecaries in 1718, and its first director in 1724. During his tenure, he produced two catalogues of the garden and, in 1739, Horti medici Chelseiani Index Compendiarius, a 214-page alphabetical list of plants in the garden. Each year, new plants were grown at the garden, 50 of which were given to the Royal Society, of which he became a Fellow in 1739. Linnaeus met Rand when he visited the garden in 1736, and 10 years after Rand’s death, named a genus after him.