Lockhart was born in
Cumberland and became a gardener of the
Royal Gardens, Kew. In 1816, he became the assistant of
Christen Smith, naturalist to the Congo expedition under
James Hingston Tuckey. Lockhart returned alive, but suffering badly from fever, while the expedition's principals and many of the other members died. It was Lockhart who delivered Smith's dried botanical collection to
Sir Joseph Banks. Two years later, Lockhart was put in charge of the Colonial Gardens in
Trinidad, then under the supervision of Sir
Ralph Woodford. He visited England in 1844 with the view of enriching the Trinidad gardens, but he died in 1845 soon after his return to the island. A genus of orchids, which was named
Lockhartia after him by
William Jackson Hooker, was merged into
Fernandezia, by
John Lindley. The "braided orchids", however, as
Lockhartia plants are known, are now taken as distinct from
Fernandezia. ==Notes==