Richard Parnell

Richard Parnell FRSE MWS (4 March 1814–28 October 1882) was a British physician as well as an amateur zoologist, ichthyologist and agrostologist. He gives his name to Parnell's moustached bat. The grass Parnelli is also named after him.^[1]

Richard Parnell by Norman Macbeth

He was born at Bramford Speke in Devon in 1810 the son of John Ratcliffe Parnell (1774-1826).^[2] He went to the University of Edinburgh in 1834 to study medicine. He won Professor Robert Graham's gold medal for practical botany and Professor John Lizars' silver medal for anatomy. On 8 February 1836 he was one of the founding members of the Edinburgh Botanical Society. He finished his medical training with postgraduate study in London and Paris.^[3]

In 1837 (aged 27) he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Sir William Jardine.^[4]

From April 1839 well into 1840 he collected specimens in Jamaica and the West Indies, taking extensive notes and making many illustrations. He also made a tour of the museum collections of the United States.^[5]

He returned to Edinburgh in the 1850s living in the Leith area at 7 James Place.^[6] He was married to a daughter of James Curle of Evelaw.^[3] He died at home, 17 Merchiston Avenue^[7] in west Edinburgh on 28 October 1882.

His collection of fish is held by the National Museum of Scotland.^[8]

Publications

• Essay on the Natural and Economic History of the Fishes (Marine, Fluviatile and Lacustrine) of the River District of the Firth of Forth (1838)
• The Grasses of Britain vol 1 (1842)
• The Grasses of Britain vol 2 (1845)

The standard author abbreviation Parn. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[9]