Ralph Tate (1840 - 1901)

Tate was a British-born botanist and geologist, who was later active in Australia. In 1875 Tate was appointed Elder Professor of natural science at the University of Adelaide, teaching botany, zoology and geology. He became vice-president and then as president (1878–1879) of the Philosophical Society which changed its name to the Royal Society of South Australia in 1880, with Tate as its first president. In 1882 Tate first travelled to the Northern Territory and made a valuable report on its geological and mineralogical characteristics. In 1883 he became a fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1888 was president of the biological section at the meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

He published his valuable Handbook of the Flora of Extratropical South Australia in 1890. In 1893 he was awarded the Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales. In 1894 he was a member of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia, writing the palaeontology report in collaboration with J. A. Watt, the general geology report, and the botany report with Joseph Maiden.