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

Born: 1767, Ross-shire, Scotland. Died: 1848, Sydney, Australia.

career:

Amateur entomologist; 1798-1825 secretary of the Linnean Society, 1825-36 (or ‘37) Colonial Secretary of N.S. Wales. In the early days the Sydney Botanic Garden was under his official care.

The genus Macleaya R.Br. and many other Australian plants were named after him.

collections:

Entomological collections in the Brit. Mus. and p. p. at Sydney. Herb. Kew [K]: Tasmania plants (pres. 1859-73), including 357 ferns and 630 Algae.

A certain MacLeay is cited as the collector of Hymenolepis callifolia Christ var. paltonioides from Borneo,¹ material of which at Kew [K] too. According to Backer (Verkl. Woordenb., 1936), A. MacLeay is the collector of Lecanopteris macleayii Baker in Java. He might have collected both plants on the way to or from Australia.

literature:

(1) cf. Dansk Bot. Ark. 6, 1926, p. 67.

biographical data:

Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 2, 1849, p.45; MacLeay Memorial Volume, Sydney 1893, p. vii-ix; J.D. Milner, Catalogue portraits at Kew, 1906, p. 81; Maiden in Journ. & Proc. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. 42, 1908, p. 112-113; in Biogr. Index Britten & Boulger, 2nd ed. by Rendle, 1931; Backer, Verkl. Woordenb., 1936; Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 67, 1942, p. v-vii.

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