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William Deans Cowan William Deans Cowan (1844, Newbattle -1924) was a Scottish naturalist. He was a member of the London Missionary Society who was sent to Madagascar (1874-1881), where he taught Malagasy students at Fianarantsoa. He was an authorities collector of natural history material including lemurs, birds, reptiles, molluscs and insects that were sent to the zoology department of the British Museum (Natural History) under Albert Günther (a total of 13,000-14,000 specimens).[1] [2][3] Much of his plant collection, is also held by that institutions herbarium then under William Carruthers. He also collected insects for John Obadiah Westwood,[4] birds for Alfred Newton[5] and orchids for Henry Nicholas Ridley.[6] [7] He was a Member of the Royal Geographical Society. Publications
 Species named for him include
TributesCharles Price another missionary wrote of him "Naturalists are born not made.. .But Cowan was both born and made one. He has always had an instinctive love of hunting out birds' nests, watching the habits of animals, seeking their lairs, and making himself one with them, so that he would think nothing of carrying a few snakes in his pocket, a dozen beetles or so in his hat, and a frog or lizard carefully tied up in his best handkerchief."[13] Arthur G. Butler wrote "The Lepidoptera here enumerated [On a Collection of Lepidoptera recently received from Madagascar. By Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., F.Z.S.] were collected by the Rev. William Dean Cowan. The series of butterflies in the collection represents rather less than one third of those hitherto recorded as occurring in Madagascar and, owing to the careful manner in which Mr. Cowan has recorded upon each envelope all facts known to him respecting the species therein contained, not a little information respecting the habits and distribution of the Mascarene forms has been gained." "The greater part of the plants herein described were collected by the Rev. Wm. Deans Cowan in the east and centre f the island during the past few years. Mr. Cowan's attention, among plants, was especially directed to the Orchideae, of which, besides dried and spirit-specimens, he has brought home a good collection of coloured drawings, of no small value in a group of plants so difficult to preserve as Orchideae. In addition to these plants, I have added notes or descriptions of interesting plants from the collections of the late J. M. Hildebrandt, and of Hilsenberg and Bojer.All the plants, except where otherwise stated, are in the herbarium of the British Museum at South Kensington".Ridley, H. N. (1883). Descriptions and Notes on new or rare Monocotyledonous Plants from Madagascar See alsoReferences
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