British botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and University College London. Daniel Oliver was responsible for continuing to edit Sir W. J. Hooker's Icones Plantarum after his retirement. Born in Newcastle-upon Tyne, he was educated at the Friend's School in Brookfield near Wigton and from an early age began to make contributions to the study of botany. In 1847 he published a list of plants from Boulsdersdale and Teesdale in The Phytologist and was soon making botanical excursions to Ireland and the Aran Isles. From 1858 he worked as an assistant at Kew and here published many important works, including Lessons in Elementary Botany (1864), three volumes of the Flora of Tropical Africa (1868-1877) and his Illustrations of the Principal Natural Orders of the Vegetable Kingdom (1874).

In 1861 Oliver was appointed professor of botany at University College London and, three years later, became keeper of the library and herbarium at Kew, a position he maintained until his retirement in 1890. In later life Oliver produced a book on Kew Gardens and was made a fellow of both the Royal and Linnean Societies, also receiving medals from both. He died of heart failure at Kew in December 1916.

Sources:
G.C. Druce, 1916, "Obituaries: Daniel Oliver", Botanical Exchange Club Reports, 4(5): 466-467.