Lindsay Stuart Smith

{{Short description|Australian botanist (1917–1970)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2023}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Lindsay Stuart Smith | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1917|11|27}} | birth_place = Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1970|9|12|1917|11|27}} | death_place = Mount Barney, Queensland, Australia | citizenship = | ethnicity = | fields = {{Unbulleted list|Botany}} | workplaces = Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock | alma_mater = University of Queensland | awards = }}

'''Lindsay Stuart Smith''' (27 November 1917 – 12 September 1970) was an Australian botanist, naturalist and public servant.

==Early years== Lindsay Smith was born in Bundaberg, Queensland, and attended Bundaberg South State School and later Bundaberg State High School. In 1933 he began work as a clerk in the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Except for war service with the Second Australian Imperial Force in World War II, he remained in that department, rising through the ranks to the position of Senior Botanist. After the war, he studied science in the evenings and in 1948 was awarded the degree of First Class Honours in Botany.<ref name=ANU>{{cite web|last1=Everist|first1=Selwyn Lawrence|title=Smith, Lindsay Stuart (1917–1970)|url=http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/smith-lindsay-stuart-15225|publisher=Australian National University|accessdate=14 August 2015}}</ref>

==Career== During World War II, Smith made collections of rainforest species in New Guinea and subsequently studied these species with the help of Cyril Tenison White and William Douglas Francis and some of his collections become the nucleus of the herbarium at Lae. He made extensive studies of the genus ''Lantana'', a group of invasive species in Australia, collecting many specimens in Australia and overseas. His notes on the biological control of ''Lantana'' were published after his death by his wife, Doris Alma Goy. The family Myoporaceae (now Scrophulariaceae) was a particular interest as were the mangroves.<ref name="ANU" /><ref name=EOAS>{{cite web|last1=Alafaci|first1=Annette|title=Goy, Doris Alma (1912–1999)|url=http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004768b.htm|publisher=Australian Encyclopedia of Science|accessdate=14 August 2015}}</ref>

Smith was an active field naturalist, a member, occasional President and Honorary Treasurer of the Queensland Naturalists' Club and his biographer, Selwyn Everist noted that he will be "remember[ed] [for] his vast knowledge of plants and his patient courtesy in answering the many questions put to him by fellow naturalists at meetings and excursions".<ref name="ANU" />

The species named by Smith include ''Austromyrtus dulcis'', ''Elaeocarpus stellaris'', ''Myoporum betcheanum'', and ''Xanthostemon verticillatus'', and the genera ''Peripentadenia'', ''Neorites'' and ''Neostrearia''. The species named in his honour are ''Eremophila linsmithii'' R.J.F.Hend., ''Elaeocarpus linsmithii'' Guymer and ''Grevillea linsmithii'' McGill.<ref name=ANBG>{{cite web|title=Smith, Lindsay Stuart (1917–1970)|url=http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/smith-lindsay-stuart.html|publisher=Australian National Botanic Garden|accessdate=14 August 2015}}</ref>

Smith suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 52, doing his work collecting plants at Mount Barney with his wife.<ref name="ANU" />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Lindsay Stuart}} Category:1917 births Category:1970 deaths Category:People from Bundaberg Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Category:20th-century Australian botanists Category:Botany in Queensland