Bayley, Isaac (1853–1922)

Scottish botanist whose main interests were rhododendrons and primulas; he also studied plant propagation and germination.

Bayley was born in Edinburgh and educated first at the Edinburgh Academy and then at the University, where he graduated with a BSc 1873. He then went to Würzburg University where he studied under the influential naturalist, Julius von Sachs.

In 1875 he returned to Edinburgh University to become an assistant to the professor of natural history. Whilst working here he participated in the transit of Venus expedition to Rodriguez Island. He was appointed to the chair of botany at Glasgow University 1879. He then moved to Oxford to take up the post of Sherardian professor of botany 1884. He was also made the king's botanist in Scotland and the keeper of the royal botanical gardens. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society 1884 and knighted in 1920.