Thomas Andrew Knight

1759-1838 English

Thomas Andrew Knight

Pioniere della fisiologia vegetale

Thomas Andrew Knight era un orticoltore e botanico britannico. Ha servito come secondo presidente della Royal Horticultural Society (1811–1838). Nacque a Wormesley Grange, cinque miglia a nord-ovest di Hereford nell'Herefordshire, secondo figlio del reverendo Thomas Knight (1697–1764) di Wormsley Grange, rettore di Bewdley nel Worcestershire, e di sua moglie Ursula Nash, figlia di Frederick Nash di Dinham nello Shropshire. He attended Balliol College, Oxford. After graduation, he took up the study of horticulture. Attention was first called to his work in 1795 by the publication of the results of his research into the propagation of fruit trees and the diseases prevalent among them. He used 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land he inherited to conduct breeding of plants including strawberries, cabbages and peas and built an extensive greenhouse. In 1797 he published his Treatise on the Culture of the Apple and Pear, and on the Manufacture of Cider and Perry, a work which passed through several editions. He was one of the leading students of horticulture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but his personal papers disappeared after his death. Knight ha condotto esperimenti fisiologici di base sulle piante, un'attività svolta in precedenza solo raramente. Ha chiarito gli effetti della gravità sulle piantine e come il marciume negli alberi da frutto si trasmettesse attraverso l'innesto.

Artworks by this artist (30 total)