Frederick Manson Bailey CMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 (8 March 1827 – 25 June 1915) was a botanist active in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, who made valuable contributions to the characterisation of the flora of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

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Early life

Bailey was born in London, the second son of John Bailey, horticulturist, and his wife, née Manson. Frederick was educated at the foundation school of the Independent Church at Hackney, London. The family went to Australia in 1838 arriving at Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

 on 22 March 1839 in the Buckinghamshire. John Bailey was appointed colonial botanist soon afterwards, and was asked to form a botanic garden. John Bailey resigned in 1841, began farming, and subsequently started a plant nursery at Adelaide In these ventures he was assisted by his son, Frederick.

Career

In 1858 Bailey went to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and took up land in the Hutt Valley. In 1861 Frederick started a seedsman's business in Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

. For some years he was collecting in various parts of Queensland, and he also contributed articles to the newspapers on plant life. Bailey married Anna Maria, eldest daughter of the Rev. T. Waite in 1856.

In 1874 Bailey published a Handbook to the Ferns of Queensland, and in the following year was made botanist to the board appointed to investigate diseases of live stock and plants. Consequently, Bailey in 1879 published An Illustrated Monograph of the Grasses of Queenslandwith Karl Staiger

Karl Theodor Staiger

Karl Theodor Staiger was a German chemical analyst, naturalist and museum curator.Karl Theodor Staiger worked as a chemist for the Queensland Government 1873-80 and worked with Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay...

. He was afterwards put in charge of the botanical section of the Queensland Museum

Queensland Museum

The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland. The museum currently operates four separate campuses; at South Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Townsville.The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.-History:...

, in 1881 was made colonial botanist of Queensland, and held this position until his death. He published in 1881 The Fern World of Australia, and in 1883 appeared A Synopsis of the Queensland Flora, a work of nearly 900 pages to which supplementary volumes were added in later years. This work was superseded by The Queensland Flora, published in six volumes between 1899 and 1902 with an index published three years later. In the meantime there had been A Companion for the Queensland Student of Plant Life and Botany Abridged (1897), a revised reissue of two earlier pamphlets. Among other works of Bailey was A Catalogue of the Indigenous and Naturalised Plants of Queensland (1890). This was expanded into a Comprehensive Catalogue of Queensland Plants, Both Indigenous and Naturalised (1912), which appeared with many illustrations.

Bailey travelled widely, important expeditions included Rockingham Bay, Seaview Range and the upper Herbert River (1873), western Queensland, Roma and Rockhampton (1876), Cairns and the Barron River (1877), Bellenden Ker (1889), Georgina River (1895), Torres Strait (1897) and British New Guinea (1898). Bailey was awarded the Clarke Medal

Clarke Medal

The Clarke Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of New South Wales for distinguished work in the Natural sciences.Named in honour of the Reverend William Branwhite Clarke, one of the founders of the Society...

 of the Royal Society of New South Wales

Royal Society of New South Wales

The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. It was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June 1821...

 in 1902, and was created C.M.G. in 1911. Bailey died on 25 June 1915 at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane.

Legacy

A son, John Frederick Bailey, who survived him was director of the Brisbane and then Adelaide botanic gardens. His name has been attached to about 50 species of plants by fellow botanists,such as Acacia baileyana and Grevillea baileyana

Grevillea baileyana

Grevillea baileyana, also known as White Oak, is a tree of the family Proteaceae that is native to the rainforests of north-east Queensland in Australia and Papua New Guinea.-Taxonomy:...

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