The English botanist John Lindley (1799-1865) was the first botanist, who took a classification of orchids in hand and he is deemed to be the father of the science of orchids. John Lindley was born as the son of a gardener at 05.02.1799 in Norfolk. 1818 he started to work as a librarian helper in the works of Sir William Jackson Hooker, at that time a famous botanist, who placed him to the orchid collector William Cattley. So John Lindley came in touch with orchids. In honour to his mentor he named an orchid species after him, the Cattleya Lindl..1822 Lindley became assistent secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). He had to identify the plants, which has been sent to the RHS from collectors around the world. The Gardeners Chronicle, a gardener magazin, founded by Lindley amongst others, should become the most important plattform for the science of orchids this time. In his days, John Lindley was the most important expert on orchids in Europe.

A few of John Lindleys Publications:
* Rosarum Monographia, 1820
* Digitalium Monographia, 1821
* A Synopsis of the British Flora, 1829, 1835, 1841
* An introduction to the natural system of botany, 1836
* Sertum Orchidaceum, 1837–1841
* The Genera and Species of Orchidaceos Plants, 1830–1840

His author abbreviation: Lindl.
John Lindley died at the 1.11.1865 in Turnham Green, Middlesex, Great Britain