Biography
British (Scottish) botanist, geologist and agriculturalist, William Carruthers served as keeper of botany at the British Museum (1871-1895). Born in Moffat, Scotland he was educated at the Moffat Academy before entering the University of Edinburgh in 1845. Here he had to work as a tutor in order to afford his education and was still a student in 1854 when he began to study at New College, Edinburgh with a view to entering Presbyterian ministry. Clearly displaying a talent in the field of natural sciences, Carruthers soon specialised in natural history which would become his life's work. For a while a lecturer in botany at the New Veterinary College of that city, after briefly serving as assistant secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was named assistant in the botany department of the British Museum in 1859. Later succeeding J.J. Bennett as Keeper of Botany he saw the natural history sections of the British museum move to their current location in South Kensington.
Carruthers was particularly interested in geology and he published numerous works in this field, including a paper on the geology of Moffat (1959). He combined his two passions through the study of palaeobotany, working on the extinct tree genera Lepidodendron and Calamites, the family Lycopodiaceae and the structure of fossil plant stems. Carrunthers also served as Consulting Botanist to the Royal Agricultural Society (1871-1910), aiding greatly in the development of a seed-testing network as well as with regards to grass choice for meadows and pastures, weeds and parasitic fungi. He was also active in the Presbyterian Church and edited the Children's Messenger for 42 years, while also producing a considerable collection of works on Puritan history. A Fellow of the Royal Society (1871) and the Linnean Society (1861), Carrunthers was president of the latter between 1886 and 1890 and also served the Geologists Association of London as its president (1875-1876).
Sources:
G.C. Druce, 1923, "William Carruthers", Botanical Exchange Club Reports, 6(5): 697-698
W.G. Smith, 1923, "William Carruthers: 1830-1922", Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 28: 118-121
F.A. Stafleu and R.S. Cowan, 1976-1998, Taxonomic Literature, 2nd edition (TL-2).
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 104; Kent, D.H. & Allen, D.E., Brit. Irish Herb. (1984): 111; Knobloch, I.W., Phytologia Mem. 6 (1983): 14; Lanjouw, J. & Stafleu, F.A., Index Herb. Coll. A-D (1954): 117;
