Harvey, William Henry (1811-1866)

William Henry Harvey (1811-1866), botanist, was born at Summerville, co. Limerick, into a Quaker family, and joined the family business. From boyhood he was interested in natural history and in 1831 Harvey discovered a minute moss near Killarney that was named Hookeria laetivirens in honour of Professor William Jackson Hooker, with whom he entered into a lifelong correspondence. In 1835 he travelled to South Africa and the following year succeeded his brother Joseph as Treasurer of Cape Colony; he studied the local flora and Harveya, a genus of African root parasites, is named after him. Returning to Ireland, he became curator of the herbarium of Dublin University in 1844 and professor of botany in 1856; also, in 1848 he became professor of botany to the Royal Dublin Society and took on supervision of the society's botanic gardens at Glasnevin. He died of tuberculosis in 1866. For further information see his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.