George Newton Best

George Newton Best
George Newton Best
	American
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania
Known for	Plant taxonomy
	Scientific career
Fields	Bryology, Medicine
Institutions	Riegelsville High School
Author abbrev. (botany)	Best

George Newton Best (October 16, 1846 – June 18, 1926) was an American

Sullivant Moss Society.^[1]^[2]

Biography

Best attended Lafayette College for three years before leaving to teach high school in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania. He resumed his education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in medicine in 1875. He took up his medical practice in the Rosemont section of Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.^[2]

Best was also a prominent bryologist, contributing often to

Torrey Botanical Club publications. He was instrumental in revising and reclassifying many moss genera, including Thuidium, Claopodium, Heterocladium, Leskea, and Pseudoleskea.^[3]

Best served as associate editor of The Bryologist from 1911 until his death, and as president of the Sullivant Moss Society from 1901 to 1902.^[1]^[4] Best was also a member of the Medical Society of New Jersey, American Medical Association, and Torrey Botanical Club. He died on June 18, 1926.^[5]

Legacy

Best's personal herbarium of mosses and publications were absorbed into the collection of the New York Botanical Garden.^[5]

In 1906, botanist

Broth. published Bestia, which is a genus of mosses belonging to the family Lembophyllaceae and it was named in George Newton Best's honour.^[6]

Selected publications

Best, G. (1896). Revision of the North American Thuidiums.
doi:10.2307/2478118

Best, G. (1897). Revision of the Claopodiums. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 24(9), 427–432.
doi:10.2307/2477924

Best, G. (1900). Revision of the North American Species of Pseudoleskea. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 27(5), 221–236.
doi:10.2307/2485378

Best, G. (1901). Revision of the North American Species of Heterocladium. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 28(2), 123–131.
doi:10.2307/2477888

Best, G. (1901). Vegetative Reproduction of Mosses. The Bryologist, 4(1), 1º3.
doi:10.2307/3238870

Best, G. (1903). Revision of the North American Species of Leskea. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 30(9), 463–482.
doi:10.2307/2478535

The standard author abbreviation Best is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b Presidents of ABLS, The American Bryological and Lichenological Society, retrieved 2019-09-28.
^ ^a ^b Snell, James P., and Franklin Ellis. History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Everts & Peck, 1881.
^ Leonard, John W., and Albert N. Marquis. Who's who in America, Volumes 2-4. Marquis Who's Who, 1906.
JSTOR 3238019

^ ^a ^b Beals, A. T. Dr. George N. Best, 1846-1926. The Bryologist, vol. 30, no. 2, 1927, pp. 20–22. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3238332

S2CID 246307410
. Retrieved January 27, 2022.

^ International Plant Names Index. Best.

v
t
e
Presidents of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society
1899-1949

Abel Joel Grout (1899–1900)

George Newton Best (1901–1902)

John Michael Holzinger (1903–1904)

Edward Blanchard Chamberlain (1905–1907)

Theodore Christian Frye (1908–1909)

Bruce Fink (1910)

Alexander William Evans (1911–1915)

Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (1916–1919)

Annie Morrill Smith (1920–1921)

Albert LeRoy Andrews (1922–1923)

Robert Statham Williams (1924–1930)

Edwin Bunting Bartram (1931–1932)

Aaron John Sharp (1933–1935)

William Campbell Steere
(1936–1937)

George Elwood Nichols (1938–1939)

Hugo Leander Blomquist (1940–1941)

Henry Shoemaker Conard (1942–1945)

Richard T. Wareham (1946–1947)

Paul Morrison Patterson (1948–1949)

1950–1999

Lewis Edward Anderson (1950–1951)

Geneva Sayre (1952–1953)

Winona H. Welch
(1954–1955)

Ruth Schornherst Breen (1956–1957)

John Walter Thomson (1958–1959)

Roy Franklin Cain (1960–1961)

Betty Wilson Higinbotham (1962)

Howard Alvin Crum (1962–1963)

Harvey A. Miller
(1964–1965)

Seville Flowers (1965–1967)

Wilfred B. Schofield
(1967–1969)

William Alfred Weber (1969–1970)

Paul Leslie Redfearn (1971–1973)

Emanuel David Rudolph (1974–1975)

Ronald A. Pursell (1975–1977)

Irwin M. Brodo (1977–1979)

William D. Reese (1979–1981)

Thomas Hawkes Nash III (1981–1983)

Norton G. Miller
(1985–1987)

William Louis Culberson (1987–1989)

Dale H. Vitt
(1989–1991)

Vernon Ahmadjian (1992–1993)

Barbara J. Crandall-Stotler (1993–1995)

Chicita Frances Culberson
(1995–1997)

Brent D. Mishler
(1997–1999)

2000-present

Robert S. Egan
(1999–2001)

William Russel Buck (2001–2003)

James Donald Lawrey (2003–2005)

Nancy G. Slack
(2005–2007)

Theodore Lee Esslinger (2007–2009)

Karen S. Renzaglia (2009–2011)

Roger Rosentreter (2011–2013)

A. Jonathan Shaw (2013–2015)

Larry L. St. Clair (2015–2017)

Catherine La Farge (2017–2019)

Doug Ladd (2019–2021)

Scott Schuette (2021-2023)

Authority control databases
International

VIAF

National

United States

Academics

International Plant Names Index

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Newton_Best&oldid=1137803431"

[abls-1] Presidents of ABLS, The American Bryological and Lichenological Society, retrieved 2019-09-28.

[snell-2] Snell, James P., and Franklin Ellis. History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey: with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. Everts & Peck, 1881.

[3] Leonard, John W., and Albert N. Marquis. Who's who in America, Volumes 2-4. Marquis Who's Who, 1906.

[4] JSTOR 3238019

[obit-5] Beals, A. T. Dr. George N. Best, 1846-1926. The Bryologist, vol. 30, no. 2, 1927, pp. 20–22. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3238332

[6] S2CID 246307410
. Retrieved January 27, 2022.

[7] International Plant Names Index. Best.

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