American botanist at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History (now simply named the Bishop Museum). Charles Noyes Forbes worked as a botanical curator and in this capacity helped develop their small miscellaneous collection of plants into a comprehensive herbarium of the Hawaiian flora. Were it not for his untimely death, Forbes' work would have extended to Samoa and Tonga, where he was due to undertake a botanical survey as part of the Bayard Dominick Expedition.

Born in Boylston, Massachusetts, he began his education in that state by attending the Fay School in Southboro (1895 and 1897), before moving to California where he completed his schooling at the High School in National City. On leaving school he entered the University of California and received a BSc in 1908. At this time he was employed by the Bishop Museum as an assistant in botany and he remained there until his death 12 years later. Soon promoted to curator, Forbes was responsible for several papers in the museum's publication during his life, including "Notes on the Flora of Kahoolawe and Molokini" (1913) and his final work, "Salient Features of Hawaiian Botany" (1920).

Sources:
H.G.Rugg, 1920, "American Fern Society", American Fern Journal, 11(3): 91-93.