Career

Collecting localities

Collections

Literature

Biographical data

 

Finlayson, George

 

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 8: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement II)

 

Born: 1790, Thurso, Scotland. Died: 1823, at sea between Calcutta and England.

 

career:

Surgeon in the service of the East India Company; Naturalist of the Mission to Siam and Cochinchina, 1821-22.1 When returning to Singapore in 1822 he was seriously ill with consumption.

The genus Finlaysonia Wall. was named in his honour.

 

Collecting localities:1

Malay Peninsula. Sailing from Calcutta (Nov. 21, 1821); upon its way to the Further East, the mission reached Penang (staying Dec. 11, 1821-Jan. 4, 1822), made some trips in the island, and visited Qualla (= Kuala) Muda on the opposite shore of Queda (= Kedah) (Dec. 25) and Mt Palmer in the southern part (Jan. 1, 1822); touched at the Dindings, Pangkor Isl. (9); Malacca (14); landed on the island of Little Carimon; Singapore (Jan. 20-Febr. 23); landed in a bay within a few miles of the extreme point of the Peninsula (26).

 

collections:

Herb. E.I.C., distributed by Wallich (see there) in 1827-32; 1st set at present at Kew [K]. Specimens badly localized, sometimes not at all.2 Only few duplicates, e.g. in Herb. Deless. (Geneva [G]). Dupl. Mal. Penins. in Herb. Edinb. [E].

 

literature:

(1) Diary of G. Finlayson edited by Raffles: ‘The mission to Siam and Hue in the years 1821-22’ (London 1826).

(2) cf. Ch. Curtis in ‘Catalogue etc. of Penang’ (1892) p. 99; Ridley in Journ. Str. Br. Roy. As. Soc. no 25, 1894, p. 164-165; Burkill in Gard. Bull. Str. Settlem. 4, 1927, p. 147; Kerr on the Siam collections in ‘Early botanists in Thailand’ (Thail. Res. Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl. 12, 1939, p. 8-9).

 

biographical data:

In ‘The mission to Siam etc.l.c. p. ix-xxvi; in Biogr. Index Britten & Boulder, 2nd. ed. by Rendle, 1931; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936.