King, Philip Parker (1793-1856)

Born at Norfolk Island, 13 th December, 1793; died at�Grantham,� North Sydney 25 February, 1856.

Captain, R.N. Rear-Admiral 1855. F.L.S. 1824; F.R.S. 1824.

�Narrative of the Survey of Australia,� 1818-22 (with Allan Cunningham), 1827. �Narrative of the voyages of H.M.S. �Adventure' and �Beagle,' 1826-36.� �Icones Plantarum,� 1082.

Plants at British Museum, Kew and Edinburgh. Pritzel 164; Royal Society's Catalogue iii, 655; Proc. Linn. Soc., 1856-7, xxviii; Gentleman's Magazine, 1856, i, 426 ; Dict . Nat. Biog. xxxi, 149. The above is from (1).

He was buried at St. Mary's, South Creek, N.S.W. With Mr. Bidwill and Mr. William Macarthur he did much work in the hydridization of bulbous plants. I possess his annotated copy of De Candolle's Prodromus; this shows in some measure how he studied Australian plants.

He is commemorated in:
the genus Kingia, R.Br., and also in the species
Dodonaea kingii, G. Don = D. viscosa L. var. angustifolia;
Acmena kingii, G. Don = Eugenia smithii, Poir.
Dendrobium kingianum, Bidw.

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists- (a) General, (b) New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1908 . 42:60-132