Edith Layard Stephens
Edith Layard Stephens (1884-1966) was a South African botanist, a leading authority on algae and fungi, particularly edible and poisonous mushrooms.[1][2]
Early life and education
Stephens was born on December 6, 1884 in Cape Town, South Africa. She studied at the South African College (which later became the University of Cape Town) and Cambridge. In 1906, Stephans was awarded with the gold medal for science and the Queen Victoria Scholarship and the 1881 Exhibition Scholarship in 1907, which led her to Cambridge University.[3]
Career
Stephens became a lecturer in botany at the University of Cape Town (1911-1940), and honorary reader in plant taxonomy at Bolus Herbarium in 1952.[4] She made a special study in freshwater algae and fungi, known for her two illustrated booklets on poisonous and edible fungi and also contributed the Pennaeaceae.[3]
Awards
The Cape Tercentenary Foundation awarded Stephens for her contribution towards preservation of natural fauna and flora in the Cape in 1957. She used this grant to buy an area called Isoetes Vlei, which she then presented to the National Botanic Gardens, known as the Edith Stephens Cape Flats Flora Reserve.[3]
Bibliography
- Notes on the Aquatic Flora of South Africa, Cape Town : University of Cape Town, 1924.
- The Botanical Features of the South Western Cape Province Cape Town : Specialty Press of S.A. Ltd., 1929. (With Robert Harold Compton; Robert Stephen Adamson; Paul Andries van der Byl and Margaret R Levyns, Mrs.)
- Some South African Edible Fungi, Longmans, Green and Co., Cape Town, 1953
- Some South African Poisonous and Inedible Fungi, Longmans, Green and Co., Cape Town, 1953
References
- ^ Brown, A. C. (1977). A History of Scientific Endeavour in South Africa: A Collection of Essays Published on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Royal Society of South Africa. Royal Society of South Africa. p. 249.
- ^ Creese, Mary R.S. Creese, with contributions by Thomas M. (2010). Ladies in the laboratory III South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian women in science : nineteenth and early twentieth centuries : a survey of their contributions. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. pp. 18–22. ISBN 9780810872899.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Gunn, Mary; Codd, L. E. (1981). Botanical exploration of southern Africa : introductory volume to the Flora of southern Africa : an illustrated history of early botanical literature on the Cape flora, biographical accounts of the leading plant collectors and their activities in southern Africa from the days of the East India company until modern times. Cape Town: publ. for the Botanical research institute by A. A. Balkema. pp. 334–335. ISBN 0869611291.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. Vol. 5. p. 895. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Stephens.
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