William Philip Hiern

William Philip Hiern FRS FLS (19 January 1839, in Stafford – 28 November 1925, in Barnstaple)[1] was a British mathematician and botanist.

[2] Hiern attended St. John's College, Cambridge, from 1857 to 1861 and attained a "first class degree" in mathematics.

Hiern was quite taken with the country squire role and he assumed many public duties including those of the Lord of the Manor of Stoke Rivers, northeast of Barnstaple, and he was one of the original aldermen of the County of Devon.

[3] His botanical specimens are stored at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum, at Kew Gardens, and at Cambridge.

[5] The African figwort genus Hiernia [6] was named in his honor, as was the Ixora hiernii (a tropical evergreen shrub), the Pavetta hierniana (an evergreen shrub) and the Coffea canephora var hiernii (a species of coffee plant).