Michael Pakenham Edgeworth (24 May 1812 – 30 July 1881) was an Irish botanist who specialized in seed plants and ferns,[1] and spent most of his life working in India.

[2] Although he is known to have had an estate of 1,659 acres (671 ha)[5] in County Longford, Ireland, he joined the Bengal Civil Service of the British Colonial regime in India.

He was initially based at Ambala, Muzaffarnagar, then Saharanpur and finally Banda until 1850 in a series of judicial and administrative posts covering an area from Lahore to Madras.

[6] Being possessed of a curious spirit, Edgeworth travelled widely especially in northern India[6] where he collected plants and made notes.

Hooker mentions a conversation held between himself, Edgeworth and biologists John Lubbock and George Charles Wallich, at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London (18 April 1861) less than two years after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (22 November 1859).

It chronicles the broadening of British imperial influence in the Indian territories and is principally of cultural and political interest.