Charles Noyes Forbes (September 24, 1883 – August 9, 1920) was an American botanist who primarily worked on Hawaii.
[2] During his senior year, on December 30, 1907, in Cedar Cañon, San Diego County, California, Forbes discovered a new species of cypress tree.
[1] During that time he made several expeditions to the bogs, cliffs, mountain ranges and valleys in the Hawaiian islands and collected many plant taxa which were new to science.
[3] Among the plants which were scientifically described by Forbes are several which are either very rare or even extinct, including Portulaca molokiniensis, Cyanea parvifolia, Hibiscadelphus bombycinus and Clermontia tuberculata.
In 1922, Willis Linn Jepson, then a full professor at the university and President of the California Botanical Society,[4] named the new species Forbes discovered during his senior year, Cupressus forbesii, in memory of his former student.