Species Watsonia comptonii
Pictures from Observations
Range:
Location unknown
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Etymology of Watsonia:
For William Watson (1715–1787), English physician, apothecary, botanist and naturalist. He introduced the work of Linnaeus and his botanical classification system to Britain. He was the first scientist to observe the flash of light from the discharge of a Leyden jar and to show that electricity could pass through a vacuum and that it had a positive and negative charge; he coined the word ‘circuit’. His articles, entitled Experiments on the Nature of Electricity, appeared from 1745 onward in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which he became a member (1741) and vice president (1772). Both he and Benjamin Franklin discovered some of the same characteristics of electricity at the same time, but independently. The two men became friends.
Etymology of comptonii:
Honoring Prof. Robert Harold Compton (1886-1979). Cambridge educated botanist and the second director of Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, he made more than 35 000 collections. In 1914 he parrticipated in a field expedition to New Caledonia and found both new genera and new species. This collecting register is in the British Museum. After war service from 1915-1918 he became a professor of botany at the University of Cape Town. He founded and edited the Journal of South African Botany. Upon his retirement he settled in Swaziland and undertook a survey of the territory.
Scientific name:
Watsonia comptonii L. Bolus
Synonym of:
Long etymology:
Synonym status:
Observations of Taxon
Watsonia comptonii
Name of observer:
Barbara Jeppe (David)
Date observed:
Date observed unknown
