(Source: Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 1: Cyclopaedia of collectors)

Born: 1859, New York City, U.S.A. Died: 1942, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

career:

Lieutenant-Colonel in the U.S. Army, organizer and Chief of the Philippine Bureau of Forestry, 1900-15.¹ Under his direction material of tree species was collected. In 1910 he founded the Forest School in the Philippines. After his return to the U.S.A. on duty at the Army War College, living in Washington.

Canarium ahernianum Merr. was named after him.

collections:

> 850 nos collected under his direction (not by himself) in Luzon, Mindanao, etc. in 1901-02 in Herb. Manila [PNH];² dupl. in Herb.Bog. (600) [BO], Herb. Leiden [L], U.S. Nat. Herb. Washington (> 1800 specim.) [US], in Berl. (210) [B], Herb. N.Y. Bot. Garden [NY]. They were probably partly collected by Quadras (see there). Ahern’s collector (= Ramos, see there) numbered in the F.B. series (cf. sub Forestry Bureau, Manila); material in Herb. Manila [PNH] too.

literature:

(1) G.P. Ahern: ‘Compilation of notes on the most important timber tree species of the Philippine Islands’ (1901, p. 1-112, pl. 1-43).

(2) E.D. Merrill: ‘Plantae Ahernianae’ (Dept of the Interior, Forestry Bur. Bull. 1, 1903, p.9-55). J. Perkins: ‘Enumeration of some recently collected plants of Ahern, etc.’ (Fragm. Fl. Philip. 1904, p. 4-66, 77-202).

biographical data:

Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; portr. in Philip. Journ. Forestry 2, 1939, pl. 1; Amer. Forests 48, 1942, p. 276 + portr.

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