John Muir (South African naturalist)

John Muir (18 June 1874, Castle Douglas, Scotland – 3 August 1947, Riversdale, Cape Province) was a medical doctor, naturalist and cultural historian.

John Muir spent the years 1890-1892 studying Arts and Medicine at the University of St Andrews.

At this time he developed an interest in folklore and historical objects and published a number of papers on the subject, besides contributing vernacular names of birds, plants and shells to the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal.

He donated his collection of shells to the South African Museum, some particularly minute species exciting a large amount of interest.

Besides his botanical writings, he contributed a number of articles to popular scientific and socio-historical publications, a fair portion of these written in Afrikaans.