Peter MacOwan born Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

, England on 14 November 1830 - died Uitenhage

Uitenhage

Uitenhage is a South African town with 275,185 inhabitants in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. The town's name is pronounced by English speakers and in Afrikaans...

, Cape Province 30 November 1909, was a British colonial botanist and teacher in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

He was the son of Peter McOwan, a Wesleyan Minister from Scotland, and changed his name at some stage. After finishing school he taught at Bath, Colchester

Colchester

Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

 and Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, and in 1857 taught chemistry at the Huddersfield

Huddersfield

Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....

 College Laboratory. That same year he graduated in chemistry from the University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, becoming Professor of Chemistry at Huddersfield. The year before, he married Amelia Day from Bristol. A severe lung condition, possibly asthma, caused him to move to South Africa and take up the post of principal at the newly established Shaw College in Grahamstown

Grahamstown

Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...

. His health rapidly improved and leaving chemistry behind he resumed studying botany in which he had become interested while still in England, having started a collection of flowers and mosses. This interest was furthered by his association with Dr William Guybon Atherstone

William Guybon Atherstone

William Guybon Atherstone medical practitioner, naturalist and geologist, one of the pioneers of South African geology and a member of the Cape Parliament....

, Henry Hutton and Mrs. FW Barber. He entered into a fruitful exchange of specimens and correspondence with Asa Gray

Asa Gray

-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....

 of the States, Sir William Hooker

William Jackson Hooker

Sir William Jackson Hooker, FRS was an English systematic botanist and organiser. He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, and was the first Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring,...

 of Kew and with Harvey

William Henry Harvey

William Henry Harvey was an Irish botanist who specialised in algae.- Biography :William Henry Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father Joseph Massey Harvey, was a Quaker and prominent merchant...

 and Sonder

Otto Wilhelm Sonder

Otto Wilhelm Sonder was a German botanist and pharmacist who was a native of Holstein. From 1841 to 1878 he was the proprietor of a pharmacy in Hamburg. In 1846 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Königsberg.He was the author, with William Henry Harvey , of the Flora Capensis...

 who were working on the Flora Capensis. Finding it a drain on his own time to supply duplicates to overseas collectors, he formed the South African Botanical Exchange Society, which brought together a large number of amateur botanists. By 1868 roughly 9000 duplicates had been sent abroad, for which in return they received specimens from Europe, North America and Australia. His contributions are acknowledged in the introductions to Flora Capensis. He assisted Atherstone and HG Galpin in confirming in 1867 that the Hopetown

Hopetown

Hopetown lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province. It stands on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River. The first diamond discovered in South Africa, the Eureka Diamond, was found at Hopetown.-History:...

 or Eureka Diamond

Eureka Diamond

The Eureka Diamond was the first diamond discovered in South Africa. It weighed , and was found near Hopetown on the Orange River in 1867. The diamond, cut to a cushion-shaped brilliant, is currently on display at the Mine Museum in Kimberley.-Discovery:...

 was indeed a diamond. Eventually he became head of natural sciences at Gill College, Somerset East, South Africa and then later director of the Cape Town Botanical Garden and curator of the Cape Government Herbarium. Peter MacOwan's daughter Flora married Selmar Schonland

Selmar Schonland

Professor Selmar Schonland , the founder of the Botany Department at Rhodes University, was a German immigrant, who came to the Eastern Cape in 1889 to take up an appointment as curator of the Albany Museum...

 in 1896.

Plant pathology as a science in South Africa formally began in 1887 with the appointment of Peter MacOwan as the consultant in economic botany to the Cape Government.

See also

Harry Bolus Harry Bolus Harry Bolus was a South African botanist, botanical artist, businessman and philanthropist. He advanced botany in South Africa by establishing bursaries, founding the and bequeathing his library and a large part of his fortune to the South African College... Selmar Schonland Selmar Schonland Professor Selmar Schonland , the founder of the Botany Department at Rhodes University, was a German immigrant, who came to the Eastern Cape in 1889 to take up an appointment as curator of the Albany Museum... Ernest Edward Galpin Ernest Edward Galpin Ernest Edward Galpin Ernest Edward Galpin Ernest Edward Galpin (born Grahamstown December 6, 1858 - October 16, 1941 Mosdene, Transvaal, was a South African botanist and banker. He left some 16,000 sheets to the National Herbarium in Pretoria and was dubbed "the Prince of Collectors" by General... Francis Guthrie Francis Guthrie Francis Guthrie was a South African mathematician and botanist who first posed the Four Colour Problem in 1852. At the time, Guthrie was a student of Augustus De Morgan at University College London. He studied under John Lindley, Professor of Botany at the University of London. Guthrie obtained... William John Burchell William John Burchell William John Burchell was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist and author. He was the son of Matthew Burchell, botanist and owner of Fulham Nursery, nine and a half acres of land adjacent to the gardens of Fulham Palace. Burchell served a botanical apprenticeship at Kew and was...

Rudolf Marloth Rudolf Marloth Hermann Wilhelm Rudolf Marloth 28 December 1855 Lübben, Germany - 15 May 1931 Caledon, Cape Province was a German-born South African botanist, pharmacist and analytical chemist, best known for his Flora of South Africa which appeared in six superbly illustrated volumes between 1913 and 1932... John Medley Wood John Medley Wood John Medley Wood 1 December 1827 Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England - 26 August 1915 Durban, was a South African botanist who contributed greatly to the knowledge of Natal ferns, is generally credited with the establishment of sugarcane mosaic virus immune Uba sugar cane in Natal and for his... Joseph Burke II Joseph Burke II Joseph Burke was a collector of plants and animals for Lord Derby.-1839-1840:... Thomas Robertson Sim Thomas Robertson Sim Thomas Robertson Sim 25 June 1858 Northfield, Aberdeenshire, Scotland - 23 July 1938 Durban, Natal was a botanist, bryologist, botanical artist and Conservator of Forests in Natal, best known for his extremely detailed book The Forests and Forest Flora of The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope which...

External links

• Buxus macowanii Oliv. - plant named after Peter MacOwan