Early life and family background George Valentine Nash was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 6, 1864. He was the son of Scotto Clark Nash and Alice Valentine, who were married in Brooklyn, NY on February 2, 1863. Scotto was the son of Rev. John Adams and Mary Moody (Clark) Nash, whose ancestry is traced back to Pilgrim William Brewster, who came from England on the Mayflower in 1620. In addition, he studied botany with Britton.
Later life and career Nash first became employed by the
New York Botanical Garden in 1896, during its preliminary organizational phase. Beginning in 1900, he was promoted to Curator of the Plantations; then in 1901 he became Head Gardener. That same year, the NYBG was invited by Sir
William Thiselton-Dyer, Director of the
Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, to visit and acquire plant species to transplant for their initial collections. Nash went on the trip. The accession he selected included over 1000 species. Nash went on several other collecting and plant-exchanging trips. In late 1901, he and Dr.
John K. Small connected over 1200 specimens of living plants in Florida. In 1902, Nash made a second European trip for further study and to exchange plants with several other institutions, including a return visit to Kew, and others in Edinburgh, Cambridge, Brussels, Paris, and Utrecht. Between 1903 and 1905, Nash made collecting expeditions to many islands in the Caribbean. Starting in 1906, Nash remained at the NYBG, supervising the creation and maintenance of the gardens, developing and cataloging the institution's plant collections, giving public lectures and demonstrations, and replying to inquiries about plants. Starting in 1909, Nash was Secretary of the Horticultural Society of New York. He edited its journal for a while, and helped with exhibitions. == Selected publications ==