Hugh Falconer: Botanist, palaeontologist, controversialist

Though mostly based on the analysis of Falconer’s work and that of his contemporaries such as Sir Charles Lyell (1797–1876), Sir Joseph Prestwich (1812–1896), Sir John Evans (1823–1908) and Sir John Lubbock (1834–1913), my very brief observations sample some of Falconer’s letters, and those of his niece (and companion) Grace Milne (1832–1899), later Lady Prestwich, and the correspondence of scientific luminaries such as Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Sir Joseph Hooker (1817–1911), to gain a clearer picture of his complex social and cultural milieu. Given the range of Falconer’s interests, this chapter represents only a very brief portrayal of what really amounts to the several lives of a Victorian polymath.