Biography

Mexican-born botanist who discovered more than 60 new Mexican plant species. His father was the British metallurgist and plant collector George B. Hinton. James Hinton was also a prolific author of stories and published several novels. J.C. Hinton was born in Mexico City, where his family had moved from the U.S. in connection with his father's work as a mining engineer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only four years old. She believed in fasting to overcome sickness, and although her remedy was unsuccessful faced with this illness, her youngest son, James, was known to follow the same course of action when taken ill. James and his two brothers, George and Howard, spent the rest of their early youth in the city of Cuernavaca and at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, James and George were sent to study in Vancouver, Canada. Here James became a keen swimmer and developed a plan to study economics at university. His idea did not come to fruition, however, as his father required help collecting plants in Mexico. James obliged and spent five years absorbing his father's passion and knowledge of Mexican flora. In the course of the work he travelled thousands of miles on the back of a mule, Lenina, later requesting the Lamiaceae expert Carl Epling to name a plant in her honour (Salvia leninae). The name brought some problems to Epling's door in the McCarthy era, when he had to prove he had not named the plant in honour of Vladimir Lenin.

Hinton married Helen Hart in 1942 and began work in Saltillo exploring for the alternative rubber source, guayule, before becoming a salesman. He carried on a number of business concerns over the next 60 years as well as running several ranches where he farmed turkeys and grew crops including melons and Agave americana. At his ranch in Aguililla, Nuevo León, he built a herbarium and made his most extensive collections in the surrounding region from the late 1960s onwards, sending duplicates to Billie Turner at the University of Texas. Hinton's herbarium, combined with his father's and son's collections, numbered more than 16,000 specimens with 370 types at the end of his life. (Hinton's early collections are labelled with his name, but he later began using a family number under the name 'Hinton et al'.) One of his favourite discoveries was the tree lupin named in his honour, Lupinus jaimehintonanus B.L. Turner.

The other side of James Hinton's life was writing fiction. He published more than 60 short stories in the magazine Mexican Life in the space of four years at the end of the 1930s, using the pseudonym Andres Mendoza, and over a hundred more in the last 20 years of his life, which he devoted almost entirely to writing. He produced six novels, including the tale of an orphaned cowherd, Juan Caraveo, published in 2004.

Hinton had a distinguished family background. His paternal great-great grandfather was natural historian John Howard Hinton and his paternal great grandfathers were the mathematican George Boole FRS and James Hinton, an aural surgeon. His grandfather Charles Howard Hinton was Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University. Great-great uncles included Sir George Everest FRS, the Surveyor General of India, and anthropologist A.C. Haddon FRS. His brother Howard Everest Hinton became a renowned entomologist in the U.K.

Sources:
G.S. Hinton, B.L. Turner, 2007, "James Hinton, (1915-2006)", Journal of the Botanical Research Institute, 1(2): 1277-80
G.S. Hinton and O.L. Garcilita, 2008, "James Hinton (1915-2006)", Acta Botanica Mexicana, 83: 1-11
The Fair Press: James Hinton, Juan Caraveo:
http://www.thefairpress.com/.

Biography

Mexican-born botanist who discovered more than 60 new Mexican plant species. His father was the British metallurgist and plant collector George B. Hinton. James Hinton was also a prolific author of stories and published several novels. J.C. Hinton was born in Mexico City, where his family had moved from the U.S. in connection with his father's work as a mining engineer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only four years old. She believed in fasting to overcome sickness, and although her remedy was unsuccessful faced with this illness, her youngest son, James, was known to follow the same course of action when taken ill. James and his two brothers, George and Howard, spent the rest of their early youth in the city of Cuernavaca and at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, James and George were sent to study in Vancouver, Canada. Here James became a keen swimmer and developed a plan to study economics at university. His idea did not come to fruition, however, as his father required help collecting plants in Mexico. James obliged and spent five years absorbing his father's passion and knowledge of Mexican flora. In the course of the work he travelled thousands of miles on the back of a mule, Lenina, later requesting the Lamiaceae expert Carl Epling to name a plant in her honour (Salvia leninae). The name brought some problems to Epling's door in the McCarthy era, when he had to prove he had not named the plant in honour of Vladimir Lenin.

Hinton married Helen Hart in 1942 and began work in Saltillo exploring for the alternative rubber source, guayule, before becoming a salesman. He carried on a number of business concerns over the next 60 years as well as running several ranches where he farmed turkeys and grew crops including melons and Agave americana. At his ranch in Aguililla, Nuevo León, he built a herbarium and made his most extensive collections in the surrounding region from the late 1960s onwards, sending duplicates to Billie Turner at the University of Texas. Hinton's herbarium, combined with his father's and son's collections, numbered more than 16,000 specimens with 370 types at the end of his life. (Hinton's early collections are labelled with his name, but he later began using a family number under the name 'Hinton et al'.) One of his favourite discoveries was the tree lupin named in his honour, Lupinus jaimehintonanus B.L. Turner.

The other side of James Hinton's life was writing fiction. He published more than 60 short stories in the magazine Mexican Life in the space of four years at the end of the 1930s, using the pseudonym Andres Mendoza, and over a hundred more in the last 20 years of his life, which he devoted almost entirely to writing. He produced six novels, including the tale of an orphaned cowherd, Juan Caraveo, published in 2004.

Hinton had a distinguished family background. His paternal great-great grandfather was natural historian John Howard Hinton and his paternal great grandfathers were the mathematican George Boole FRS and James Hinton, an aural surgeon. His grandfather Charles Howard Hinton was Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University. Great-great uncles included Sir George Everest FRS, the Surveyor General of India, and anthropologist A.C. Haddon FRS. His brother Howard Everest Hinton became a renowned entomologist in the U.K.

Sources:
G.S. Hinton, B.L. Turner, 2007, "James Hinton, (1915-2006)", Journal of the Botanical Research Institute, 1(2): 1277-80
G.S. Hinton and O.L. Garcilita, 2008, "James Hinton (1915-2006)", Acta Botanica Mexicana, 83: 1-11
The Fair Press: James Hinton, Juan Caraveo:
http://www.thefairpress.com/.

Biography

Mexican-born botanist who discovered more than 60 new Mexican plant species. His father was the British metallurgist and plant collector George B. Hinton. James Hinton was also a prolific author of stories and published several novels. J.C. Hinton was born in Mexico City, where his family had moved from the U.S. in connection with his father's work as a mining engineer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was only four years old. She believed in fasting to overcome sickness, and although her remedy was unsuccessful faced with this illness, her youngest son, James, was known to follow the same course of action when taken ill. James and his two brothers, George and Howard, spent the rest of their early youth in the city of Cuernavaca and at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively, James and George were sent to study in Vancouver, Canada. Here James became a keen swimmer and developed a plan to study economics at university. His idea did not come to fruition, however, as his father required help collecting plants in Mexico. James obliged and spent five years absorbing his father's passion and knowledge of Mexican flora. In the course of the work he travelled thousands of miles on the back of a mule, Lenina, later requesting the Lamiaceae expert Carl Epling to name a plant in her honour (Salvia leninae). The name brought some problems to Epling's door in the McCarthy era, when he had to prove he had not named the plant in honour of Vladimir Lenin.

Hinton married Helen Hart in 1942 and began work in Saltillo exploring for the alternative rubber source, guayule, before becoming a salesman. He carried on a number of business concerns over the next 60 years as well as running several ranches where he farmed turkeys and grew crops including melons and Agave americana. At his ranch in Aguililla, Nuevo León, he built a herbarium and made his most extensive collections in the surrounding region from the late 1960s onwards, sending duplicates to Billie Turner at the University of Texas. Hinton's herbarium, combined with his father's and son's collections, numbered more than 16,000 specimens with 370 types at the end of his life. (Hinton's early collections are labelled with his name, but he later began using a family number under the name 'Hinton et al'.) One of his favourite discoveries was the tree lupin named in his honour, Lupinus jaimehintonanus B.L. Turner.

The other side of James Hinton's life was writing fiction. He published more than 60 short stories in the magazine Mexican Life in the space of four years at the end of the 1930s, using the pseudonym Andres Mendoza, and over a hundred more in the last 20 years of his life, which he devoted almost entirely to writing. He produced six novels, including the tale of an orphaned cowherd, Juan Caraveo, published in 2004.

Hinton had a distinguished family background. His paternal great-great grandfather was natural historian John Howard Hinton and his paternal great grandfathers were the mathematican George Boole FRS and James Hinton, an aural surgeon. His grandfather Charles Howard Hinton was Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University. Great-great uncles included Sir George Everest FRS, the Surveyor General of India, and anthropologist A.C. Haddon FRS. His brother Howard Everest Hinton became a renowned entomologist in the U.K.

Sources:
G.S. Hinton, B.L. Turner, 2007, "James Hinton, (1915-2006)", Journal of the Botanical Research Institute, 1(2): 1277-80
G.S. Hinton and O.L. Garcilita, 2008, "James Hinton (1915-2006)", Acta Botanica Mexicana, 83: 1-11
The Fair Press: James Hinton, Juan Caraveo:
http://www.thefairpress.com/.