High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 1934) was a US botanist and taxonomist who founded the New York Botanical Garden in Bronx, New York. Britton was born in New Dorp in Staten Island, New York. His parents wanted him to study religion, but he was attracted to nature study at an early age. He was a graduate of the Columbia University School of Mines and afterwards taught geology and botany at Columbia. Britton was the first director of the New York Botanical Garden. He engendered substantial financial support for the botanical garden by naming plants after wealthy contributors. He married Elizabeth Gertrude Knight, a bryologist and fellow member of the Torrey Botanical Club. They were life-long collaborators in botanical research. Much of his field work was done in the Caribbean, where he visited frequently when the winter weather in New York City became too severe. His contributions to Caribbean flora are undisputed.