John Bellenden Ker

John Bellenden Ker (né Gawler) was an English botanist, born about 1764, Ramridge, Andover, Hampshire, which was where he died in June 1842.

He is noted for having written Recensio Plantarum (1801), Select Orchideae (c. 1816) and Iridearum Genera (1827).

He contributed to Curtis's Botanical Magazine under John Sims, using the initial G.[2] He edited Edward's Botanical Register from 1815 to 1824 and was famous as a wit and botanist as well as being the author of Archaeology of Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes (1837).

The state of Queensland in Australia has named its second highest peak Mount Bellenden Ker.

His work on English nursery rhymes argued in four volumes that they were actually written in "Low Saxon", a hypothetical early form of Dutch.

John Bellenden Ker (r.) as child with his brother Henry Gawler (painted by Henry Bone )
Pitcairnia integrifolia , one of many plants named by John Bellenden Ker