File:John_Ray_from_NPG.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
John Ray
Sign in to saveAlso known as John Wray, Ray, Raius, Raii, Joannes Raius, Johannes Raius
British botanist (1627–1705)
John Ray was an influential British botanist from the 1600s who made major contributions to how scientists classify and understand plants. His work laid important groundwork for modern biology and the way we organize knowledge about the natural world.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- John
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom
- Place of birth
- Black Notley
- Place of death
- Black Notley
- Occupation
- naturalist
- Educated at
- St Catharine's College
- Employer
- University of Cambridge
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- natural history
- Image
- John Ray from NPG.jpg
- Residence
- England
- Voice type
- soprano
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- John Ray
- date of birth
- 1627-11-29
- date of death
- 1705-01-17
- Commons gallery
- John Ray
- member of
- Royal Society
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- name in native language
- John Ray
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Sculpture of Ray by Louis-François Roubiliac, housed at the British Museum John Ray (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was an English Christian naturalist and one of the earliest English parson-naturalists. Until 1670 he wrote his name as John Wray; from then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him". He published important works in the fields of botany, zoology and natural theology.
His classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division, by which species were classified by repeated sub-division into groups according to a pre-conceived series of characteristics they have or have not, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences that emerged from observation. He was among the first to attempt a biological definition for the concept of species, as "a group of morphologically similar organisms arising from a common ancestor". Another significant contribution to taxonomy was his division of plants into those with two seedling leaves (dicotyledons) or only one (monocotyledons), a division used in taxonomy today.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “John Ray” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.