Arthur Henfrey (botanist)

Henfrey was born of English parents at Aberdeen on 1 November 1819. He studied medicine and surgery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843. Poor health caused him to give up his medical career.^[2]

In 1847, Henfrey lectured on plants at the medical school of St. George's Hospital. He then succeeded Edward Forbes in the botanical chair at King's College London in 1853; and was examiner in natural history to the Royal Military Academy and also to the Society of Arts. He was elected an associate of the Linnean Society in 1843, and a fellow in the next year.^[2] In 1852, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.^[3]

Henfrey died at Turnham Green on 7 September 1859, aged 39. The genus Henfreya of John Lindley, of the Acanthaceæ, was merged into the Asystasia of Blume.^[2]

Henfrey wrote:^[2]

• Anatomical Manipulations, 1844, with Alfred Tulk.
• Outlines of Structural and Physiological Botany, 1847.
• Reports and Papers on Botany, Ray Society, 1849.
• The Rudiments of Botany, 1849; 2nd edit. 1859.
• The Vegetation of Europe, its Conditions and Causes, 1852.^[5]
• The Relations of Botanical Science to other Branches of Knowledge, 1854.
• Introductory Address, King's College, London, 1856.
• An Elementary Course of Botany, 1857; fourth ed. 1884.
• On the Educational Claims of Botanical Science, 1857.

He translated:^[2]

• On Vegetable Cells, by Carl von Nägeli; for the Ray Society, 1846.
• Chemical Field Lectures, by Julius Adolph Stöckhardt, 1847.
• The Earth, Plants, and Man, by Joakim Frederik Schouw, 1847.
• The Plant, by Matthias Schleiden, 1848.
• Principles of the Anatomy of the Vegetable Cell, by Hugo von Mohl, 1851.
• In: Botanical and physiological memoirs…, 1853:
  • The phenomenon of rejuvenescence in nature, especially in the life and development of plants, by Alexander Braun.

Henfrey also edited:^[2]

• Scientific Memoirs (New Series, Natural History), 1837, with Thomas Henry Huxley.
• The Botanical Gazette, 1849.
• Journal of the Photographic Society, vols. i. and ii., 1853.
• Micrographic Dictionary, 1854, with John William Griffith.
• A revised and enlarged edition of George William Francis's Anatomy of the British Ferns, 1855.

Henfrey married Elizabeth Anne Henry, eldest daughter of the Hon. Jabez Henry.^[6] She survived her husband for more than 40 years, and died 86 years old at Hanworth House, Chertsey, on 10 October 1902.^[7] Henry William Henfrey the numismatist was their son.^[2]