{{short description|British botanist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Isaac Henry Burkill |image = Isaac_Henry_Burkill.jpg |image_size = |caption = c. 1907 |birth_date = {{birth date|1870|5|18|df=y}} |birth_place = near Leeds, Yorkshire, England |death_date = {{Death date and age|1965|3|8|1870|5|18|df=y}} |death_place = Leatherhead, Surrey, England |residence = |citizenship = |nationality = |ethnicity = |fields = Botany |workplaces = University of Cambridge<br />Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew<br />Botanic Garden at Calcutta<br />Botanic Gardens, Singapore |alma_mater = University of Cambridge |doctoral_advisor = |academic_advisors = |doctoral_students = |notable_students = |known_for = |author_abbrev_bot = Burkill |influences = |influenced = |awards = Linnean Medal (1952) |religion = |signature = <!--(filename only)--> |footnotes = }} '''Isaac Henry Burkill''' (18 May 1870 – 8 March 1965) was an English botanist who worked in India and in the Straits Settlements (present day Singapore). He worked primarily in economic botany but published extensively on plant biology, ethno-botany, insect-plant interactions and described several species. He published a two volume compilation on the plants of economic importance in the Malay Peninsula, collating local names and knowledge. He also wrote a detailed history of botany in India. The plant genera ''Burkillia'' and ''Burkillianthus'' were named in his honour.
==Life and career== Burkill was born in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire, he studied at Repton School and received a B.A. with Honours in Natural Science from Caius College, Cambridge winning the Frank Smart Prize. He then joined the University Herbarium at Cambridge as Curator from 1891 to 1896 during which time he obtained a master's degree receiving a Walsingham medal in 1894. In 1897 he joined the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as a Herbarium assistant and became a principal assistant in 1899. In 1901 he moved to India as an Assistant Reporter on Economic Products to the Government of India. He worked at the Indian Museum in Calcutta under Sir George Watt who was the Reporter.<ref>{{acad|BRKL888IH|name=Isaac Henry Burkill}}</ref> In 1911-12 he joined as botanist on the Abor Expedition.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Burkill, I. H. |year=1924|title= The Botany of the Abor expedition.|journal= Rec. Bot. Surv. India |volume=10|issue=1| pages= 376–381}}</ref> In 1912 he succeeded H. N. Ridley as Director of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. He continued the work of his predecessor on the para-rubber and other aspects of economic botany but also reorganized the herbarium, collected specimens from across the region and worked intensively on vernacular names and local knowledge on medicinal plants. In 1935, ten years after his retirement, he published his two-volume ''Dictionary of economic products of Malay Peninsula'' which has been reprinted many times. Burkill also collected and compiled information on the collectors of specimens in the region.<ref>{{cite book |last= Burkill|first= Isaac Henry|date= Aug 1927|title=The Gardens' Bulletin; Straits Settlements|volume=4|issue=nos 4–5 |url= https://archive.org/details/gardensbulletins34unse|chapter= Botanical Collectors, Collections and Collecting Places in the Malay Peninsula|location= Singapore|pages= [https://archive.org/details/gardensbulletins34unse/page/n136 113]–202 }}</ref> Burkill also worked in collaboration with the forestry department, conducting research on dipterocarps.<ref>{{cite journal|pages=341–349 | title=I. H. Burkill in India| author=Santapau, H.| volume=17| issue=3| year=1960| journal=The Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore| url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43588123}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pages=350–356| title = I.H. Burkill in Malaya| author1=Furtado, C.X.|author2=Holttum, R.E.| year=1959| volume=17|issue=3 |journal=Gardens Bulletin, Singapore |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43588132}}</ref>
Burkill married his cousin Ethel Maud Morrison in 1910.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0035869X0012413X|title=Isaac Henry Burkill|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland|volume=97|pages=88|year=2011|last1=Winstedt|first1=R. O.|doi-access=free}}</ref> Their son, Humphrey Morrison Burkill, was also a distinguished botanist who served as director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 1957 to 1969.<ref name=GardenObit>{{cite journal|last1=Turner|first1=Ian Mark|title=Obituary: Humphrey Morrison Burkill O.B.E., F.L.S. (1914—2006)|journal=Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore|date=2006|volume=58|pages=133–139|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/43572744#page/143/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mms.elibraryhub.com/SIP/contentfiles/migrated/SIP_1477_2009-02-26.html |title=Short Biography of H.M. Burkill |access-date=2011-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822080821/http://mms.elibraryhub.com/SIP/contentfiles/migrated/SIP_1477_2009-02-26.html |archive-date=2011-08-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Botanical publications== Burkill conducted research on insect pollination and floral biology over the course of many years. He published a series of eight articles in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1906 to 1916. He also encouraged other researchers in the region to study pollination including amateur botanists like Maude Lina West Cleghorn. Burkill applied evolutionary ideas to suggest values of adaptations. In his 1908 study of flowers along a ridge in the Sikkim Himalayas, he suggested that the preponderance of pendulous flowers in the region were an adaptation to protect the nectar and pollen from rain<ref>{{cite journal| page=xix| year=1909|title=Annual report for 1908| journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|url= https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002183801#page/xix/mode/2up}}</ref> and in his 1952 Hooker lecture he suggested that yams had evolved underground storages to protect themselves from pigs and humans.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1953.tb00664.x|title=The Hooker Lecture|journal=Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London|volume=164|pages=12–42|year=1953|last1=Burkill|first1=I. H.}}</ref> * {{cite journal|author=Burkill, I.H.|year=1906 |url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753003193114#page/511/mode/2up| title=Note on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no 1. The pollination of Thunbergia grandiflora, Roxb. in Calcutta. |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal| volume=2| issue=10| pages=511–514}} * {{cite journal|url= https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753003193114#page/515/mode/2up |author=Burkill, I.H.|year= 1906 |title=Notes on the pollinatio of flowers in India. Note no 2. The pollination of Corchorus in Bengal and Assam. | journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=2| issue=10| pages=515–520}} * {{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753003193114#page/521/mode/2up |author=Burkill, I.H.|year=1906| title= Notes on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no. 3. The mechanism of six flowers of the North-West Himalaya| journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal| volume=2| issue=10| pages=521–525}} * {{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002183785#page/516/mode/2up/ | year=1907 |title=Notes on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no 4. On Cotton in Behar.| journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal| volume= 3|issue=7|pages=517–526 | author=Burkill, I.H.}} * {{cite journal| year= 1908 |title=Notes on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no 5. Some autumn observations in the Sikkim Himalayas |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal| volume=4| pages=179–195| url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/31801126|author=Burkill, I.H.}} * {{cite journal|year=1910 |title=Notes on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no 7. A few observations made in the Central Provinces and Behar. |journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=6|pages=101–107 |url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002183819#page/101/mode/2up/| author=Burkill, I.H.}} * {{cite journal|url=https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753002183876#page/238/mode/2up/| author=Burkill, I.H.|year= 1916 |title= Notes on the pollination of flowers in India. Note no. 8. Miscellanea| journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|volume=12| pages=239–265}}
Burkill also wrote a seven part series on the history of botany in India, published initially in the ''Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society'' and later as a separate book. This work covered the range of botanical workers in India and is an important source on the topic although there were some minor errors such as a mention of "Dapoli" in place of "Dapuri".<ref>{{cite journal|url= https://archive.org/stream/journalofbo5219541955bomb#page/228/mode/1up/| title=Chapters on the history of botany in India by I.H. Burkill, in this journal 51:846-878 A correction| author=Agharkar, S.P. | journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society| volume=52| year=1958}}</ref> Burkill similarly wrote a study on the history of the Singapore botanic garden.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Wong, K.M.| title=A hundred years of the Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore|pages=1–32|url=https://archive.org/stream/gardensbulletins4641unse#page/n3/mode/2up| journal=Gardens' Bulletin Singapore| volume=64|issue=1| year=2012}}</ref> * {{Cite journal|title=Chapters on the history of botany in India. I. From the beginning to the middle of Wallich's service| author=Burkill, I.H. | pages=846–878| journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society| volume=51| year=1954| url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48203024}} * {{Cite journal|title=Chapters on the history of botany in India. II. The advances, and in particular the plant collecting, of the thirties and the forties of the 19th century| author=Burkill, I.H. |pages=42–86| url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48182674| volume=54 |year=1956 |journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society}} * {{Cite journal|volume=58|issue=3| pages= 678–706|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47541298 |title=Chapters on the History of Botany in India. III. At the middle of the 19th century | year=1961|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|author=Burkill, I.H.}} * {{Cite journal|title=Chapters on the History of Botany in India. IV. The Royal Gardens at Kew begin to guide the direction of Botany in India|author=Burkill, I.H. |pages=335–359 |volume=59|issue=2 | year=1962|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47855008|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society}} * {{cite journal|title=Chapters on the history of botany in India V. The undertaking of two great enterprises, the flora of the higher plants and the forest service |volume=59| issue=3|pages= 747–777 |year=1962 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/47855478| journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society| author=Burkill, I.H.}} * {{cite journal|author=Burkill, I.H. | title=Chapters on the history of botany in India. VI. The publication of Hooker's Flora of British India and what its publication released | pages=49–83 | volume=60| issue=1| url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48053123| journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|year=1963}} * {{cite journal|year=1963 |volume=60|issue=2| pages=356–370|url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48053527|title=Chapters on the history of botany in India. VII. Epilogue| author=Burkill, I.H.|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society}}
==Awards and Distinctions== * Honorary Fellow of the [http://www.tropicalbio.org Association for Tropical Biology (and Conservation)] 1963. * Linnean Medal in 1952.<ref>"[http://www.linnean.org/fileadmin/images/Awards/Recipients_of_the_Linnean_Medal.pdf Recipients of the Linnean Medal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607052409/http://www.linnean.org/fileadmin/images/Awards/Recipients_of_the_Linnean_Medal.pdf |date=7 June 2011 }}" (PDF). Linnean Society of London. Retrieved on 22 December 2008.</ref> {{botanist|Burkill}}
==Notes and references== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Isaac Henry Burkill}} *[http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/fmcollectors/b/burkillih.htm Isaac Henry Burkill] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212231004/http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/fmcollectors/b/burkillih.htm |date=12 February 2012 }} at National Herbarium Nederland
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkill, Isaac Henry}} Category:1870 births Category:1965 deaths Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:Botanists active in India Category:Botanists active in Kew Gardens Category:English botanical writers Category:Scientists from Leeds Category:Botanists from British India Category:British people in British India Category:British people in British Malaya