Thomas Andrew Knight

1759-1838 English

Thomas Andrew Knight

Pionier in plantenfysiologie

Thomas Andrew Knight was een Britse tuinbouwkundige en botanicus. Hij diende als de tweede voorzitter van de Royal Horticultural Society (1811–1838). Hij werd geboren in Wormesley Grange, vijf mijl ten noordwesten van Hereford in Herefordshire, als tweede zoon van dominee Thomas Knight (1697–1764) van Wormsley Grange, pastoor van Bewdley in Worcestershire, en zijn vrouw Ursula Nash, een dochter van Frederick Nash uit Dinham in 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 voerde basale fysiologische experimenten uit op planten, werk dat eerder slechts zelden was verricht. Hij verduidelijkte de effecten van zwaartekracht op zaailingen en hoe rotting in fruitbomen werd overgedragen door enting.

Artworks by this artist (30 total)