Henry Fletcher Hance (4 Aug 1827 – 22 June 1886) was a British diplomat who devoted his spare time to the study of Chinese plants.
Born in London, his first appointment was to Hong Kong in 1844. He later became vice-consul to Whampoa, consul to Canton, and finally consul to Xiamen, where he died in 1886. In 1873, Hance published a supplement to George Bentham's 1861 Flora Hongkongensis.[1]
He graduated as Philosophiae Doctor from the University of Giessen on 24 November 1849, during which time he was in China.[1]
He found, named and described (in Latin) Iris speculatrix in 1875.[2][3] He was the taxonomic author of many plants.[4] In 1857 Berthold Carl Seemann named the genus Hancea (family Euphorbiaceae) in his honour.[5]
Hance is buried with his wife Charlotte in Hong Kong Cemetery.[6]
