Johnson (James Yate)
English naturalist and jurist who settled in Madeira after 1850 for his lung health and died in Funchal in 1900. He published many studies of Madeiran fishes, crustaceans and plants, and his herbarium is kept at the Funchal Seminary museum.
Life and scientific work
A distinguished English naturalist, who died in Funchal on 3 February 1900, aged about 80. He came to Madeira shortly after 1850, having previously visited Algeria and Sicily, in search of relief from his lung complaints. He published a large number of works on Madeiran ichthyology and also devoted himself to the study of the shells, bryozoans, crustaceans, zoophytes and flora of the archipelago. He left a herbarium of flowering plants that is rather incomplete but rich in rare species, now in the Funchal Seminary Museum (Museu do Seminário do Funchal). He collected a large number of Madeiran mosses, which were studied by the English bryologist William Mitten. He was also a distinguished jurist and a great friend of Madeira. It was on this island, where at first he lived only during the winter, that he managed to recover considerably from his long-standing lung complaints.
He published the second and third editions of the work entitled Madeira its climate and scenery (see White), the former in 1857 and the latter in 1885. He wrote several works on the island’s natural history, among which we mention the following:
- Description of some new genera and species of fishes obtained at Madeira (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1863)
- Description of three new genera of marine fishes obtained at Madeira (ibid., 1863)
- Description of a new genus of Trichiuroid Fishes obtained at Madeira (ibid., 1865)
- Description of Trachichthys darwinii (ibid., 1866)
- Description of a new genus of Spinacidae (ibid., 1867)
- Description of a new species of Cancer obtained at Madeira (ibid., 1861)
- Description of a new genus and a new species of Macrurous Decapod Crustaceans... discovered at Madeira (ibid., 1867)
- and Notes on some rare and little known plants of Madeira (Hooker’s Journ. Botany, 1857).
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 04-
James Yate Johnson came to Madeira seeking relief for lung disease.
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James Yate Johnson edited and published the second edition of Robert White's 'Madeira, its climate and scenery'.
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James Yate Johnson published the third edition of 'Madeira its climate and scenery'.
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The naturalist James Yate Johnson died in Funchal, aged about 80.
Place
Places mentioned · 04
Abroad
- Algeria
Visited by Johnson for his health before coming to Madeira.
Visited by Johnson for his health before coming to Madeira.
- Funchal
City where Johnson died.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Funchal Seminary Museum
Funchal. Where Johnson's herbarium is kept.
The Museu do Seminário do Funchal is a museum in Funchal that holds the main botanical collections on the island, including Johnson's herbarium. It also holds valuable zoological collections of birds, fishes, shells and corals, and Stuebel's relief geological map of Madeira.
- Sicily
Italy. Visited by Johnson for his health before coming to Madeira.
Sicily is a foreign place mentioned in the Elucidário as the said source of the first sugar-cane cuttings brought to Madeira. It is compared to Ribeira Brava as the granary of Italy, and James Yate Johnson visited it for his health before coming to Madeira.
People
People mentioned · 03- James Yate Johnson1820–1900
English naturalist and jurist who lived in Madeira from the 1850s and wrote extensively on its ichthyology and natural history.
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Author of 'Madeira its climate and scenery', whose second and third editions Johnson published.
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English bryologist who studied the Madeiran mosses collected by Johnson.