author
Charles R. Barnes
Best known as the botanist who coined the word “photosynthesis,” he helped shape American plant science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work ranged from mosses and liverworts to teaching, editing, and building the field itself.
1 Audiobook
On the Sweeny wire
by Charles R. Barnes
About the author
Born in Madison, Indiana, in 1858, Charles Reid Barnes was an American botanist whose research focused especially on bryophytes—mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. He studied at Hanover College and later at Harvard, then went on to teach botany at Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin before joining the University of Chicago.
Barnes was more than a specialist researcher. He spent over 25 years as co-editor of the Botanical Gazette, helping guide one of the leading botanical journals of his day, and he became an important voice in plant physiology as well as taxonomy and teaching. He is widely remembered for introducing the term “photosynthesis” in 1893.
He died in Chicago in 1910 after an accidental fall, but his influence lasted well beyond his lifetime. Between his scientific writing, editorial work, and teaching, he helped give American botany a clearer language and a stronger professional foundation.