Abstract
AUGUSTINE HENRY was bom on July 2,1857, coming of an old Derry family, and possessing to the full the delightful characteristics of the Irish race. He was educated at Queen's College, Galway and Belfast, and was trained as a medical man, being L.R.C.P., Edinburgh. He began his career as an attached medical officer of the Chinese Imperial Customs at Shanghai. In 1882 he was appointed in this capacity to the Customs Station at Ichang on the Yangtze, where he remained for seven years. Here he commenced to interest himself in the flora, following in the footsteps of earlier medical officers in India, such as Wallich, Falconer, Cleghorn, Hooker, etc. As with these officers, it was doubtless the medicinal possibilities of the many unknown plants which aroused Henry's interest at the outset. Even more than in India, China is the home of the materia medica, the great therapeutic value of many bulbs, roots, and leaves of common plants being known to the Chinese. The legendary Emperor, Chennung, was, so tradition has it, a great exponent of the medicinal values of plants. So keen was this interest that it is said that Chennung had a glass window fitted into the wall of his stomach in order to study the reactions of different plants on the alimentary system! Henry will be remembered in horticultural circles as the introducer of the beautiful Lilium Henryi and many other Chinese plants.
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STEBBING, E. Prof. Augustine Henry. Nature 125, 606–607 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/125606a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/125606a0