author
William Griffith
1810–1845
A surgeon-turned-botanist, he explored India, Burma, Assam, and Afghanistan in the early 1800s, collecting and describing plants with unusual energy. His travels and posthumous papers helped secure his place in the history of British botany.
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About the author
Trained in medicine in London, William Griffith became a doctor in the East India Company service, but botany quickly became the work he is best remembered for. Born in 1810, he studied under leading botanists and then carried that knowledge into the field, where he combined medical duties with constant plant collecting and observation.
Much of his work was done across South and Southeast Asia. He served in Madras and Tenasserim, explored parts of Assam, and later traveled with the Army of the Indus during the First Anglo-Afghan War. He also worked in Malacca and was eventually appointed to take charge of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, building a reputation as a remarkably active naturalist.
He died in Malacca in 1845, still young, but his influence lasted through the specimens, notes, and papers he left behind. His writings were published after his death, and his name remains familiar in botanical history through the plants he described and the abbreviation used for his authorship.