(Born: Rochester, Kent, England, 6 February 1796; Died: Hitcham, Suffolk, England, 16 May 1861) English botanist.

Born into a large family, Henslow was educated in the country, where he developed a love for nature. He kept this interest when he entered in 1814, Cambridge University, where he studied mathematics, chemistry, and mineralogy (under Clarke). Botany was his true interest, however. He eventually became a professor of Botany at Cambridge, a position which he kept the remainder of his professional life.

Biographical references: Allibone, Dictionary of English Literature, 1859-71. • BBA: I 542, 218-228. • Boase, Modern English Biography, 1892-1921. • Catalogue of Portraits of Naturalists: 568 [4 portraits listed]. • DSB: 6, 288-9 [by M.V. Mathew]. • Jenyns, Leonard. Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow. London, J. van Voorst, 1862. ix, 278 p., frontispiece (portrait of Henslow). [BL Shelfmark, 10825.cc.5.]. • Proceedings of the Geological Society, London: 1862, p. xxxv-xxxvii. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 1, 1240. • WBI.

1. English, 1823.
A | Syllabus | Of | A Course of Lectures | On | Mineralogy. | [ornate rule] | By | John Stevens Henslow, | [...3 lines of titles and memberships...] | [double rule] | Cambridge: | Printed by J. Hodson, Trinity-Street, | And Sold By J. Deighton And Sons. | [rule] | 1823.

8°: [2], [v]-xxii, [2], 1-119 p., illus. Bibliography, p. [xxiv]. Page size: 212 x 128 mm.

Very rare. In 1818 Henslow was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society and in 1819 a fellow of the Geological Society of London. He prepared an extensive geological survey of the Island of Anglesea that was published as "Geological Description of Anglesea," (Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1 (1822), 359-452). This led to his election to the chair of mineralogy at Cambridge in 1822. In that capacity he gave lectures on the subject to his students, of which the present work is the accompanying text to those classes. However, Henslow was more interested in botany, and in 1825 when the position opened, he offered himself as a candidate and was elected unopposed to the chair of botany. So Henslow's Syllabus was in use at Cambridge for only a few years.

Bibliographical references: Berry, Arthur John. "A sketch of the study of crystallography and mineralogy in Cambridge, 1808-1931," International Union Crystallographers (Cambridge, England 15-24 August 1960), 16 p. • BL [no copy listed]. • Challinor, History of British Geology, 1971: p. ??. • NUC: 241, 278 [NH 0290515]. • Smith, Early Mineralogy in Great Britain, 1978: p. 64.

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