Leicestershire bookbinder who was the younger brother of John Plant. Lott (2009) states ‘He is first mentioned in 1854 as a collecting companion of Frederick Bates, but it is not known when he started collecting, nor when he was born. He was probably one of the ‘brothers Plant’ mentioned as present at Henry Bates’s farewell party at Bradgate Park in 1848, and it is tempting to speculate that he could have been the ‘young entomologist’ who provided Kirby with records of Donacia from Misterton in 1845 although there is no direct evidence for this. He was obviously a highly gifted collector and succeeded in adding Tropideres sepicola to the British list. Only 30 his records have been passed down to us but it is clear that he had a knack of finding cryptic species... He also tended to be more wide-ranging in his collecting localities... Perhaps his greatest contribution to knowledge was the discovery of Buddon Wood as a site of outstanding entomological interest...’ Plant died of smallpox within five years of sailing to Madagascar, no doubt inspired by Bates and his brother Nathaniel who had followed Bates to Brazil in the 1850s. A letter he wrote to Samuel Stevens after arrival was published by Stevens in Zool., 21, 1863, p.8398. Plant published 'Captures of Coleoptera in Leicestershire' in Zool., 15, 1857, pp. 5544-5545. Of his collection Lott quotes from Frederick Bates’ paper on ‘Midland Entomology’ in Midland Naturalist, 2 :‘the neat and handsome little collection of Mr Plant was offered at a cheap rate to our Museum, but was not taken; the committee I suppose not being able to discern any value in ‘beetles’, even though they were a part of our local fauna, the obtaining of which ought to be one of the prime considerations in the formation and management of a local museum.’ The whereabouts of the collection are now unknown. (MD 9/04)
Dates
d. c.1865