| Activity | Guppy was an on-board naval surgeon in his earlier years and had an opportunity to study the floras, faunas, and geology (coral basement) of a good number of Pacific islands. He later investigated the floras of islands in the West Indies and Azores as well. Guppy's findings were published over a thirty-year period in a series of well-received books that mixed science with travel narrative; he also contributed a number of technical papers. As a scientist he is most remembered for his studies on the water-based dispersal of seeds, efforts which were based on a wide range of examples, and which wed experiment to hypotheses concerning both mechanisms and (phytogeographic) results.
Served as a surgeon for the navu on the China and Japan Station 1876 - 1885. Involved in survey work in the West Pacific 1881 - 1884. 1888 studies coral formations in the Keeling Islands and 1896 - 1900 he undertook natural history investigations in Hawaii and Fiji. From 1903 - 1904 he investigated flora along the western South American Coast. From 1907 - 1911 he worked on botanical subjects in the West Indies. From 1913 - 1914 he studied the flora of Mount Pico in the Azores. He received the Linnean Society's Gold Medal in 1917 and was made a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1918. |