author
Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden) Masters
1833–1907
A Victorian botanist with a doctor’s training, he helped shape how readers understood unusual plant forms and new species from around the world. His long editorial work for Gardeners’ Chronicle made him an important voice in nineteenth-century horticulture and botany.
1 Audiobook
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
by Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden) Masters
About the author
Born in Canterbury in 1833, Maxwell Tylden Masters became an English botanist, taxonomist, and physician. He studied at King's College London and the University of St Andrews, and he grew up in a family already closely connected with botany through his father, the nurseryman William Masters.
He is especially remembered for his work on plant structure and abnormal growth, including Vegetable Teratology, a major study of unusual forms in plants. Alongside his scientific writing, he taught botany and built a wide reputation through his editorial work on Gardeners’ Chronicle, where he influenced botanical and horticultural discussion for decades.
Masters was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and remained active in scientific and horticultural circles well into the later part of his life. He died in 1907, leaving behind a body of work that helped connect careful scientific observation with a broader reading public.