Alfred Fryer

Last updated
Alfred Fryer02.jpg

Alfred Fryer (25 December 1826 Cambridgeshire - 26 February 1912 Chatteris, Cambridgeshire), was an English naturalist and authority on the pond weeds or Potamogetons . [1]

The Fryer family had lived in the Fenlands of the Chatteris district for more than 300 years; Alfred's father was a gentleman farmer of considerable means who placed few restrictions on his son. His first schooling was at Leicester where he met Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace. When Bates eventually left England for South America he tried to persuade Fryer, who had just lost his first wife, to do the same.

In the 1840s Fryer's circle of London friends included the Rossetti family and Coventry Patmore, company which encouraged him to pursue his interest in poetry, while urging Dante Gabriel Rossetti to focus on poetry rather than painting.

He returned to his native Fenlands in 1848 and began to devote his prodigious energy to science. At first his attention was taken up by insects, birds, shells and fossils, and it was only after 1860 that he became preoccupied with botany, corresponding with Cardale Babington, John Gilbert Baker and Arthur Bennett. His intimate knowledge of plants led to his considering a flora of Huntingdonshire, but his growing fascination with Potamogetons, or 'Pots' as he termed them, claimed priority. His circle of friends now reflected this single-mindedness - George Claridge Druce of Oxford, Charles Edward Moss of the Cambridge Botany School, Edward Walter Hunnybun (1848-1918) of Huntingdon and A. H. Evans, also corresponding with Thomas Morong (1827–1894), the American authority on the genus. During this period Fryer was growing Potamogetons in tanks placed in his garden, tracking their development together with that of their numerous wild counterparts. His prolific contributions to the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign led to his 1897 election as Associate to the Linnean Society. Until his death, Robert Morgan (1863-1900), also a Linnean Society Associate, illustrated Fryer's copious articles. Morgan's colour plates delighted Fryer and were praised by later critics.

Advertisement for Fryer's book The Potamogetons (pond weeds) of the British Isles Alfred Fryer03.jpg
Advertisement for Fryer's book The Potamogetons (pond weeds) of the British Isles
The standard author abbreviation Fryer is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood</span> Group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member "Brotherhood" modelled in part on the Nazarene movement. The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists of the time, including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John William Waterhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</span> English poet and artist (1828–1882)

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti inspired the next generation of artists and writers, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones in particular. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Walter Bates</span> English naturalist and explorer

Henry Walter Bates was an English naturalist and explorer who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals. He was most famous for his expedition to the rainforests of the Amazon with Alfred Russel Wallace, starting in 1848. Wallace returned in 1852, but lost his collection on the return voyage when his ship caught fire. When Bates arrived home in 1859 after a full eleven years, he had sent back over 14,712 species of which 8,000 were new to science. Bates wrote up his findings in his best-known work, The Naturalist on the River Amazons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wisbech</span> Town and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England

Wisbech is a market town, inland port and civil parish in the Fenland district in Cambridgeshire, England. In 2011 it had a population of 31,573. The town lies in the far north-east of Cambridgeshire, bordering Norfolk and only 5 miles (8 km) south of Lincolnshire. The tidal River Nene running through the town is spanned by two road bridges. Wisbech is in the Isle of Ely and has been described as 'the Capital of The Fens".

<i>La Vita Nuova</i> Text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294

La Vita Nuova or Vita Nova is a text by Dante Alighieri published in 1294. It is an expression of the medieval genre of courtly love in a prosimetrum style, a combination of both prose and verse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Brown (botanist, born 1773)</span> Scottish botanist (1773–1858)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and paleobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope. His contributions include one of the earliest detailed descriptions of the cell nucleus and cytoplasmic streaming; the observation of Brownian motion; early work on plant pollination and fertilisation, including being the first to recognise the fundamental difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms; and some of the earliest studies in palynology. He also made numerous contributions to plant taxonomy, notably erecting a number of plant families that are still accepted today; and numerous Australian plant genera and species, the fruit of his exploration of that continent with Matthew Flinders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">March, Cambridgeshire</span> Town and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England

March is a Fenland market town and civil parish in the Isle of Ely area of Cambridgeshire, England. It was the county town of the Isle of Ely which was a separate administrative county from 1889 to 1965. The administrative centre of Fenland District Council is located in the town.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatteris</span> Human settlement in England

Chatteris is a market town and civil parish in the Fenland district of Cambridgeshire, England, situated in The Fens between Huntingdon, March and Ely. The town is in the North East Cambridgeshire parliamentary constituency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur O'Shaughnessy</span> British poet and herpetologist

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy was a British poet and herpetologist. Of Irish descent, he was born in London. He is most remembered for his poem "Ode", from his 1874 collection Music and Moonlight, which begins with the words "We are the music makers, / And we are the dreamers of dreams", and which has been set to music by several composers including Edward Elgar, Zoltán Kodály, Alfred Reed and, more recently, 808 State and Aphex Twin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Anthony Salisbury</span> British botanist and gardener (1761-1829)

Richard Anthony Salisbury, FRS was a British botanist. While he carried out valuable work in horticultural and botanical sciences, several bitter disputes caused him to be ostracised by his contemporaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Michael Rossetti</span> English author

William Michael Rossetti was an English writer and critic.

Thomas Keightley was an Irish writer known for his works on mythology and folklore, particularly Fairy Mythology (1828), later reprinted as The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People.

<i>Potamogeton</i> Genus of aquatic plants

Potamogeton is a genus of aquatic, mostly freshwater, plants of the family Potamogetonaceae. Most are known by the common name pondweed, although many unrelated plants may be called pondweed, such as Canadian pondweed. The genus name means "river neighbor", originating from the Greek potamos (river) and geiton (neighbor).

Christopher Edmund Broome was a British mycologist. The standard author abbreviation Broome is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Edward Storey, was an English poet, dramatist and non-fiction writer. He was born at Whittlesey, part of the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire. The Fens inspired much of his work.

Alfred Barton Rendle FRS was an English botanist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wisbech & Fenland Museum</span> Museum in England

The Wisbech & Fenland Museum, located in the town of Wisbech in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, is one of the oldest purpose-built museums in the United Kingdom. The museum logo is W&F.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Woodville</span>

William Woodville was an English physician and botanist. Convinced by the work of Edward Jenner, he was among the first to promote vaccination. His four volume book on medical botany published between 1790 and 1794 with 300 illustrations of medicinal plants by James Sowerby was an important reference work for physicians in the nineteenth century with a second edition in 1810 followed by a revision in 1832 by William Jackson Hooker and George Spratt.

Sir John Claud Fortescue Fryer KBE FRS FRSE was an English entomologist. He was president of the Royal Entomological Society from 1938 to 1939 and was a fellow of the Royal Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Knight (critic)</span> English dramatic critic and theatre historian

(John) Joseph Knight (1829–1907) was an English dramatic critic and theatre historian.

References

  1. "Journal of Botany, British and Foreign".
  2. International Plant Names Index.  Fryer.