Eldred John Henry Corner, a British botanist specializing in mycology (the study of fungi), was Assistant Director of the Botanic Gardens from 1929 to 1945. Corner developed the use of ‘botanical monkeys’ to collect botanical specimens from tall forest trees, and propounded the controversial ‘Durian Theory’ which posits the durian as one of the most primitive of fruiting trees.
Corner helped establish the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in the 1930s and popularized local flora through public lessons and the writing of books such as Wayside Trees of Malaya, published in 1940. In 2013, his son John K Corner wrote a book about his life, My Father in His Suitcase: In Search of E J H Corner the Relentless Botanist.
Corner House was home to a fascinating man who made critical contributions to Singapore’s history. Throughout its 150-year history, the Singapore Botanic Gardens has been a center for the study of tropical plants from South East Asia, and the locus of important innovation in commercial horticulture, especially in orchid hybridization.
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