Bailey, Frederick M.  (1827 - 1915)

Father of John Bailey (Government Botanist of South Australia, and first curator of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens). Settled in Brisbane, in 1861, setting up a seedsman's business, and selling plant collections to British and European herbaria. He was appointed in 1875 to a Government Board set up to investigate diseases of livestock and plants, and travelled extensively throughout Queensland in search of poisonous plants. He became Acting Curator of the Queensland Museum in 1880-1881, and was appointed Queensland Colonial Botanist in 1881, a position he held until his death. He conducted numerous collecting expeditions, the most important being to 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). He published many papers on the Queensland flora, and several books, including Handbook of the Ferns of Queensland (1874), Illustrated Monograph of the Grasses of Queensland (1878) and the 7-volume The Queensland Flora (1899-1902, 1905). The latter is still the only State-wide Flora to have been produced, and was compiled by extracting Queensland-related material from Bentham's Flora Australiensis, and supplementing this with information from Mueller's two Censuses, and Bailey's own local knowledge. A full bibliography of Bailey's work is given by Johnston (1916). Over 50 species have been named in his honour. The majority of his specimens are in BRI, with some Types at BM. Small quantities of material are also at A, AK, B, BM, CGE, DS, H, HO, K, L, M, MANCH, MEL, MO, NSW, OXF, P, PC, US.

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Extracted from: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references]