British land owner, naturalist and explorer. Philip Barker Webb had a particular interest in botany and collected plants throughout Mediterranean Europe, Madeira and the Canary Islands, publishing the epic three volume catalogue Histoire naturelle des ⟮les Canaries. Born at Milford House near Godalming in Surrey, his father was a wealthy gentleman and lord of the manors of Milford and Witley and so Philip Webb began his education at a private school for boys before moving on to Harrow School. His father passed away in 1799, putting Webb in command of a considerable fortune and after graduating from Christchurch College, Oxford, in 1815 (having studied Greek, Latin, Italian and Spanish as well as botany and geology) he put it to use satisfying his desire to travel.

While in Vienna Webb befriended a young and wealthy Italian named Chevalier Alberto Parolini and after two years together in Italy the pair returned to England where Webb introduced his companion to eminent British botanists such as Sir Joseph Banks and Robert Brown. The pair planned an expedition to the Mediterranean and Near East and, after Webb had visited several cities in Sweden on his own, they met in Italy and set off to visit the Ionian Islands, Corinth, Athens and Istanbul, before continuing on to Asia Minor, all the way studying the vegetation and geology. Leaving Turkey for Malta their ship was attacked by pirates, although they managed to fend them off and continued on to Sicily and another tour of Italy. Back in Milford in 1821 he concentrated on managing the estate and studying for several years before, in 1825, he was on the move again, this time via southern France and into Spain. Here he collected plants as well as birds, fish and shells and published his findings in an Iter Hispaniense (1838) and an Otia Hispanica (1839). From Gibraltar he crossed into Morocco and explored the mountains of Tetouan before spending a further year studying the flora of Portugal, the results of which were also published in the Iter Hispaniense.

It was in the Iberian peninsula that Webb developed an interest in the New World and set out for Brazil in 1828, stopping first in Madeira where he spent several months adding to his herbarium. Continuing on to the Canary Islands his Spanish assistant began to grow homesick and decided to return to Spain leaving Webb in search of a new companion. In Tenerife he met Sabin Berthelot, a Frenchman who had spent eight years developing a herbarium on the archipelago and who eventually persuaded Webb to abandon his plans for Brazil and remain collecting and studying with him. Exploring islands that Berthelot had hitherto neglected, the pair developed a deep understanding of the region's flora and fauna, making geological, ecological and climatological observations and eventually returning to Paris with their specimens and notes. Here, in a house on the Champs Elys⟩es, they embarked upon the mammoth task of publishing an entire account of the natural history of the Canary Islands. The Histoire naturelle des ⟮les Canaries was published between 1836 and 1850 and enlisted the help of a wide range of naturalists across Europe.

In the final years of his life Webb returned to Italy, a country he had grown to love, and after botanising there for a further two years he producing the Fragmenta florulae Aethiopico-Aegyptiacae. The ageing naturalist became friends with Filippo Parlatore, who went on to found the Herbarium Centrale Italicum in Florence. This is the herbarium that now houses the Webb collection which he bequeathed to the Duke of Tuscany. Following a brief visit to Spain and another to Italy he was attacked by gout in Paris while attempting to visit his brother in Geneva. Returning to England Webb, both a member of the Royal Society and the Linnaean Society of London, died in August of 1854.

Sources:
W. T. Stearn, 1973, ✢Philip Barker Webb and Canarian Botany✢, Monographiae Biologicae Canarienses 4: 15-29
G. S. Boulger, 1899, ✢Webb, Philip Barker (1793-1854)✢, Dictionary of National Biography 60: 105-107.