Collie, Robert (1839 - 1892)

Born on the banks of the Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1839. Died Sydney, 18th April, 1892.

Was ordained into the Presbyterian Ministry in 1866. He arrived in New South Wales in 1876, and was in charge of the church at Newtown, Sydney, until his death, which occurred on 18th April, 1892. He took a great interest in NSW botany and wrote a paper on "The influence of bush fires on the distribution of species." (Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, xxi., 103, 1887). He bequeathed his herbarium and botanical library, together with a terracotta plaque of himself, to the Linnean Society of New South Wales. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London for some years.

See a list of specimens of plants collected by him at King George's Sound and named by Woolls, Proc. Linn. Soc . N.S.W., xiv, 317 and; xv, 295; see also xvii, 668 (1892); also these Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales xxvi, 14 (1892). [For portrait see Plate 11.]

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists- (a) General, (b) New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1908. 42:60-132
Portrait Photo: Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists- (a) General, (b) New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales for 1908.Plate XI