William Saunders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Saunders (December 7, 1822 – September 11, 1900) was a botanist and landscape architect.
Born in Saint Andrews, Scotland, he served as the first Master (President) of the National Grange, and became the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first botanist and landscape architect. Saunders designed the park system in Washington, D.C., and oversaw the planting of 80,000 trees in the city. He was a founder of the Grange Order of Patrons of Husbandry. He also aided in the introduction of the Navel Orange to California agriculture. (Harding, T. Swann, Two Blades of Grass, 1947). One of two remaining original trees stands in the Mission Inn courtyard(s) in Riverside.
An ardent botanist, he designed the cemetery at Gettysburg, for which the Gettysburg Address was written by President Lincoln as a dedication ode to those interred there. Saunders had been previously appointed to Superintendent of the Propagating Gardens in the Department of Agriculture, where he developed hundreds of plants, trees and shrubs that are grown throughout the United States.
The other founders of the Grange were: Oliver Hudson Kelley, Francis M. McDowell, John Trimble, Aaron B. Grosh, John R. Thompson, William M. Ireland and Caroline A. Hall.
The standard botanical author abbreviation W.Saunders is applied to species he described.
