Biography

British botanist and schools inspector in India. Charles Baron Clarke made significant collections of plants and became an authority on both the Indian flora and the Cyperaceae family. Clarke was born in Andover and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1856. He was then elected a fellow of Queen's College and was a lecturer in maths there from 1858-1865. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1860 but never practised.

Clarke moved to India in 1866 to join the Education Department in Bengal. After serving as a maths lecturer at Presidency College, Calcutta, he became Inspector of Schools, a role which entailed much travel and thus ample opportunity for fulfilling his passion for botanising. He collected roughly 7,000 numbers in Eastern Bengal before 1868, but these were lost in the wreck of a boat. Undeterred, he resumed his activities, the next decade taking him to locations including Sylhet, the Madhopur jungles in western Mymensingh, Sikkim, Bhutan, the Punjab Himalayas and the Nepalese border, the Nilgiri Hills, Dacca, Chittagong and the Western Sundarbans. In 1876 he made an arduous journey into Kashmir which tested his health.

Clarke stepped into the role of superintendent of the Calcutta Royal Botanic Gardens in 1869, though he found that his official duties took up so much time he had little left for botanical research. He was also in charge of cinchona cultivation in Sikkim during this period. He reverted to the Educational Department in 1871. Clarke moved back to England in 1877, at first on leave, then on special duty at the Kew Herbarium as Indian officer assisting Sir Joseph Hooker in preparing the Flora of British India. He remained in this post till 1883, after which he moved back to India, serving once more as Inspector of Schools (in Assam) until his retirement in 1887 and making several more lengthy collecting trips.

Once retired, Clarke settled back in England near to Kew so that he could carry out further work there, concentrating on the difficult Cyperaceae family. He made several collecting trips during this period, to the north of England and Hampshire, Switzerland and Madeira. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1894-1896 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1882. As well as his special interest in the Cyperaceae, Clarke completed monographs on the Indian Cyrtrandaceae, Commelinaceae and Urticaceae (the latter particularly thorough). He published many papers in the Journal of the Linnean Society and the Journal of Botany on the plants he had collected in India, of which he deposited more than 25,000 numbers at Kew, representing in excess of 5,000 species. The Himalayan genus Clarkella Hook.f. was named in his honour.

Sources:
Anon., 1906, Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1906(7): 271-281
R. Desmond, 2004, "Clarke, Charles Baron (1832-1906)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32425, accessed 15 February 2011.

Biography

British botanist and schools inspector in India. Charles Baron Clarke made significant collections of plants and became an authority on both the Indian flora and the Cyperaceae family. Clarke was born in Andover and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1856. He was then elected a fellow of Queen's College and was a lecturer in maths there from 1858-1865. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1860 but never practised.

Clarke moved to India in 1866 to join the Education Department in Bengal. After serving as a maths lecturer at Presidency College, Calcutta, he became Inspector of Schools, a role which entailed much travel and thus ample opportunity for fulfilling his passion for botanising. He collected roughly 7,000 numbers in Eastern Bengal before 1868, but these were lost in the wreck of a boat. Undeterred, he resumed his activities, the next decade taking him to locations including Sylhet, the Madhopur jungles in western Mymensingh, Sikkim, Bhutan, the Punjab Himalayas and the Nepalese border, the Nilgiri Hills, Dacca, Chittagong and the Western Sundarbans. In 1876 he made an arduous journey into Kashmir which tested his health.

Clarke stepped into the role of superintendent of the Calcutta Royal Botanic Gardens in 1869, though he found that his official duties took up so much time he had little left for botanical research. He was also in charge of cinchona cultivation in Sikkim during this period. He reverted to the Educational Department in 1871. Clarke moved back to England in 1877, at first on leave, then on special duty at the Kew Herbarium as Indian officer assisting Sir Joseph Hooker in preparing the Flora of British India. He remained in this post till 1883, after which he moved back to India, serving once more as Inspector of Schools (in Assam) until his retirement in 1887 and making several more lengthy collecting trips.

Once retired, Clarke settled back in England near to Kew so that he could carry out further work there, concentrating on the difficult Cyperaceae family. He made several collecting trips during this period, to the north of England and Hampshire, Switzerland and Madeira. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1894-1896 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1882. As well as his special interest in the Cyperaceae, Clarke completed monographs on the Indian Cyrtrandaceae, Commelinaceae and Urticaceae (the latter particularly thorough). He published many papers in the Journal of the Linnean Society and the Journal of Botany on the plants he had collected in India, of which he deposited more than 25,000 numbers at Kew, representing in excess of 5,000 species. The Himalayan genus Clarkella Hook.f. was named in his honour.

Sources:
Anon., 1906, Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1906(7): 271-281
R. Desmond, 2004, "Clarke, Charles Baron (1832-1906)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32425, accessed 15 February 2011.

Biography

British botanist and schools inspector in India. Charles Baron Clarke made significant collections of plants and became an authority on both the Indian flora and the Cyperaceae family. Clarke was born in Andover and studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1856. He was then elected a fellow of Queen's College and was a lecturer in maths there from 1858-1865. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1860 but never practised.

Clarke moved to India in 1866 to join the Education Department in Bengal. After serving as a maths lecturer at Presidency College, Calcutta, he became Inspector of Schools, a role which entailed much travel and thus ample opportunity for fulfilling his passion for botanising. He collected roughly 7,000 numbers in Eastern Bengal before 1868, but these were lost in the wreck of a boat. Undeterred, he resumed his activities, the next decade taking him to locations including Sylhet, the Madhopur jungles in western Mymensingh, Sikkim, Bhutan, the Punjab Himalayas and the Nepalese border, the Nilgiri Hills, Dacca, Chittagong and the Western Sundarbans. In 1876 he made an arduous journey into Kashmir which tested his health.

Clarke stepped into the role of superintendent of the Calcutta Royal Botanic Gardens in 1869, though he found that his official duties took up so much time he had little left for botanical research. He was also in charge of cinchona cultivation in Sikkim during this period. He reverted to the Educational Department in 1871. Clarke moved back to England in 1877, at first on leave, then on special duty at the Kew Herbarium as Indian officer assisting Sir Joseph Hooker in preparing the Flora of British India. He remained in this post till 1883, after which he moved back to India, serving once more as Inspector of Schools (in Assam) until his retirement in 1887 and making several more lengthy collecting trips.

Once retired, Clarke settled back in England near to Kew so that he could carry out further work there, concentrating on the difficult Cyperaceae family. He made several collecting trips during this period, to the north of England and Hampshire, Switzerland and Madeira. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1894-1896 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1882. As well as his special interest in the Cyperaceae, Clarke completed monographs on the Indian Cyrtrandaceae, Commelinaceae and Urticaceae (the latter particularly thorough). He published many papers in the Journal of the Linnean Society and the Journal of Botany on the plants he had collected in India, of which he deposited more than 25,000 numbers at Kew, representing in excess of 5,000 species. The Himalayan genus Clarkella Hook.f. was named in his honour.

Sources:
Anon., 1906, Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, 1906(7): 271-281
R. Desmond, 2004, "Clarke, Charles Baron (1832-1906)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32425, accessed 15 February 2011.