William Herbert: The Dean Who Renamed Your Christmas Bulbs

May 28, 1847

Today marks the departure of William Herbert from our mortal garden—a man whose taxonomic meddling continues to vex gardeners nearly two centuries hence.

This distinguished botanist, scholar, poet, and clergyman—who rose to become the first Dean of Manchester Cathedral—left behind a legacy as complicated as the Latin names he so loved to bestow upon unsuspecting flora.

In 1837, our dear departed Herbert published his treatise on the Amaryllidaceae ("am-uh-ril-id-AY-see-ee"), concerning those striking bulbs that grace our winter windowsills. The Amaryllis, named for Virgil's shepherdess from Greek mythology, means "to sparkle"—how delightfully appropriate!

Yet Herbert, in his infinite botanical wisdom, had already split this happy family nearly two decades prior. He created one genus for Linnaeus' original Amaryllis and another for what he termed Hippeastrum ("hip-ee-ASS-trum"). The man had the audacity to explain himself thusly:

"Many years ago,...when I distinguished this genus,... I retained for it the name Amaryllis, and proposed that of Coburghia for Belladonna and Blanda.

I was not then aware that Linnaeus had given the name Amaryllis to Belladonna, with a playful reason assigned; but as soon as I learned it, I felt, ... that the jeu d'esprit of a distinguished man ought not to be superceded, and that and that no continental botanist would submit to the change.

I therefore restored the name Amaryllis to Belladonna, and gave that of Hippeastrum or Equestrian star to this genus, following up the idea of Linnaeus when he named one of the original species equestre."

Hippeastrum, derived from Greek—Hippeus for rider and Astron for star—gives us "horseman's star." Some gardeners claim the closed buds resemble a horse's ear, while the blossoms form six-pointed stars. How terribly clever.

Yet as so often happens in the capricious world of horticulture, the more popular name failed to attach itself to the more significant genus. The original Amaryllis ended up with a mere two species, while Herbert's Hippeastrum boasts a whopping 90 species and over 600 cultivars.

The latter, after extensive 19th-century hybridization, now provides those magnificent bulbs we pot up in winter and stubbornly call by their common name: Amaryllis... though they are, botanically speaking, Hippeastrum.

So this November, when arranging your holiday blooms, perhaps you'll exclaim, "Hip Hip Hooray—it's Hippeastrum day!"

What's the likelihood of that actually occurring in polite gardening society?

Indeed. It hardly trips off the tongue, does it?

The ongoing confusion stems from a simple truth: gardeners despised—and continue to despise—saying "Hippeastrum." When the change was announced, that eminent horticultural empire-builder Harry Veitch challenged it with characteristic eloquence:

"Are we wrong in continuing to call these grand flowers after the name of the Virgilian nymph, and should we, therefore, drop the pleasing appellative with which they have been almost indissolubly connected from our earliest memory, and substitute the rougher Hippeastrum for the softer Amaryllis?"

Veitch was hardly alone in his resistance. The century growers from the infamous Dutch bulb families flatly refused this botanical rechristening. To this very day, these bulbs depart the Netherlands in crates boldly labeled "Amaryllis," taxonomy be damned.

Yet Herbert remains fondly remembered through the ages. The genus Herbertia of Sweet—a modest member of the Iris family—commemorates his contributions. Charles Darwin wrote glowingly of Herbert in On the Origin of Species (1859):

In regard to plants, no one has treated this subject with more spirit and ability than W. Herbert, Dean of Manchester, evidently the result of his great horticultural knowledge.

The International Bulb Society further honors his legacy with The Herbert Medal, bestowed upon those who advance our understanding of bulbous plants—presumably even those with names most gardeners refuse to pronounce.