- Richard Relhan
Richard Relhan (1754 – 1823) was a botanist, a fellow of
King's College, Cambridge , and author of a renowned book about the plants aroundCambridge .Relhan, the son of Dr. Anthony Relhan, was born at
Dublin in 1754. He was elected aKing's Scholar atWestminster School in 1767, and was admitted a scholar ofTrinity College, Cambridge , on 7 May 1773. He graduated B.A. in 1776 and M.A. in 1779, and, having taken holy orders, was chosen in 1781 fellow and conduct (or chaplain) of King's College, Cambridge. [http://www.archive.org/details/dictionaryofnati48stepuoft Dictionary of National Biography, volume 48, 1896] ]In 1783 Professor
Thomas Martyn (1735-1825) gave Relhan all the manuscript notes he had made on Cambridge plants since the publication of his "Plantae Cantabrigienses" in 1763. With this assistance Relhan published his chief work, the "Flora Cantabrigiensis" in 1785, de scribing several new plants and including seven plates engraved byJames Sowerby . It appears from his letters that he proposed to issue a "'Flora Anglica", but did not meet with sufficient encouragement. He published supplements to the "Flora Cantabrigiensis" in 1787, 1788, and 1793, and second and third editions of the whole in 1802 and 1820, the last edition being greatly amplified. In 1787 he printed "Heads of Lectures on Botany read in the University of Cambridge".Relhan was made a fellow of the
Royal Society on 12 June 1787 [ [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=3121 List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660 – 2006] , from the Royal Society website, accessed 16 August 2007] , and in 1788 became one of the original fellows of theLinnean Society . In 1791 he accepted the college rectory ofHemingby ,Lincolnshire . Living in retirement there, he devoted himself to the study ofTacitus . In 1809 he published an edition of "Tacitus de Moribus Germanorum et de Vita Agricolse"; and in 1819 an edition of the "Historia". His annotations were largely based upon those of the French Jesuit scholar,Gabriel Brotier . Relhan died on 28 March 1823.As a botanist he showed most originality in dealing with the Cryptogamia. His name was commemorated by L'Heritier in a genus,
Relhania , comprising a few species of South African Composite. Many fungi were named by Richard Relhan.Relhan was also a talented painter. There is a watercolor by him of the
Barnwell Leper Chapel , the oldest complete building in Cambridge. [ [http://www.cpswandlebury.org/page5.html Barnwell Leper Chapel] web page, retrieved 16 August 2007.]References
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