Coulter, John Merle (1851–1928)

US botanist. He specialized in plant physiology, morphology, and ecology. He wrote many books and monographs on North American flowering plants, although he greatest influence was as an educator.

He was born in Ningpo, China, a child of missionary parents, and was taken to Indiana by his mother in 1853 after his father's death. Originally a geologist, he brought back plant specimens after serving with the US Geological Survey in the Rocky Mountains 1872–73. He became a professor of botany at Hanover College 1874–79, and founded the Botanical Gazette (1875), which became a leading American journal. He joined Wabash College 1879–91, then moved to Indiana University 1891–93, but resigned after a difference over fundraising. He became president of Lake Forest University 1893–96, but he felt that administrative duties interfered with his botanical studies, so he moved to the University of Chicago 1896–1935. He became adviser to the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Yonkers, New York 1925–28.

He was called the ‘dean of American botanists’.