Sir Daniel Morris was born in Glamorgan on 26 May 1844. He took 1st Class Honours in Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Dublin and was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Ceylon in 1877. Two years later he was appointed Director of the Botanic Department in Jamaica where he remained until his appointment as Assistant Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in 1886. In 1898 he became Imperial Commissioner, West Indian Agricultural Department, and ten years later was made Scientific Advisor in Tropical Agriculture to the Colonial Office, a post he held until 1913. Even when not working in the Caribbean, he visited it on various scientific missions and his substantial output of books and articles on agricultural matters is chiefly concerned with the Caribbean. He became a Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society and of the Royal Empire Society and died on 9 February 1933.