Organisation(s)
E (main), K (main), B, BM, CGE, FI, HASLAR (currently BM), HBG, M, MANCH, MEL, P, W
Countries
Australasia: Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, VanuatuTropical Africa: Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, NigeriaPacific region: FijiMadagascan region: MadagascarSouthern Africa: South AfricaAtlantic region: Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Biography
Scottish gardener who was employed by the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He was engaged as botanist on board HMS Herald, commanded by Capt. H.M. Denham, on a voyage to Australia and the south-west Pacific (1852-1861). He was junior to the controversial collector John MacGillivray, and testified aginst him at a court of enquiry which dismissed MacGillivray from HMS Herald in Sydney (1855). W.G. Milne collected in South Africa (1852-1853) and during a later expedition collected in West Africa (1862-1866), where he was forced to sell his clothes when his funds ran out and walked naked for some 200 miles. He died in Creek Town, Old Calabar (Nigeria). The many plants named after him include Asplenium milnei Carruth., based on a specimen from Lord Howe Island, Stenocarpus milnei Hook. from New Caledonia and Freycinetia milnei Seem. from Fiji.
References
Dorr, L.J. Pl. Collectors Madagasc. Comoro Is. (1997): 308; Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Bot. Explor. S. Afr. (1981): 252; Hedge, I.C. & Lamond, J.M., Index Coll. Edindb. Herb. (1970): 111; Jackson, B.D., Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1901): 46; Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. M (1976): 481, 542;
