|
Charles Wesley Powell (5 May 1854 - 18 August 1927) was an American hobbyist turned horticulturist specializing in the study of orchids (Orchidaceae) He is credited with providing scientists the first large-scale collection of orchid specimens found in Panama. In the early 1900s, he became internationally famous for his new discoveries and valuable contributions to orchidology by gathering, ''rediscovering'', cultivating, preserving, documenting, and submitting-for-study a diverse assortment of hundreds of distinct specimens: yielding many new to science species. Powell's specimen records (also known as herbarium specimens) and his Panama garden were studied by researchers at the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Berlin Botanical Garden, the Orchid Herbarium of Oakes Ames at Harvard University, the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, and the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG). Dozens of orchid species were named in his honor.〔 In 1922, German botanist Rudolf Schlechter published his 95-page ''Orchidaceae Powellianae Panamenses'' (Panama orchid collections by C. Powell): principally on the basis of Powell's efforts. Powell's work remains relevant not only because his records document valuable scientific data, but they continue to provide material for study – many of his digitized herbarium specimens are freely available online via virtual herbaria. In 1926, Powell donated his world-class orchid garden (orchidarium) to the renowned MBG of St. Louis, Missouri. Under Powell's direction, a Tropical Station was created by the MBG in Balboa, Panama; 7,000 plants from Powell's orchid garden populated the satellite operation. For the MBG, a snowball effect occurred in the tropics; orchid collecting began there in earnest and over the next 13 years, orchids from its Tropical Station would appreciably augment the collection of the parent garden in St. Louis. "Today, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s orchid collection represents one of the largest and finest in the United States."〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/our-garden/notable-plant-collections/orchids.aspx )〕 ==Early life== Known to orchid enthusiasts as C. W. Powell, he was born Charles Lesslie Pullen in Richmond, Virginia, to Benjamin King Pullen Sr. and Minerva "Minnie" Anner (née Smith) Pullen.〔 He was the first-born of eight children. In a letter to Minnie dated July 29, 1854, from Richmond, Ben Pullen writes about his son: In 1860, 6 year old Lesslie and his family moved, by train, southwest to Memphis, Tennessee, for the opening of his father's china store. Shortly thereafter, Lesslie was uprooted again when his family relocated south for several years. There they struggled to survive on a cousin’s farm near Sardis, Mississippi, during the Union Army's occupation of Memphis in the American Civil War and Ben Pullen Sr.'s service as a Confederate Army officer.〔 Perhaps this experience was Lesslie's introduction to agriculture. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles Wesley Powell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|