Name Arthur Church | Education University of Oxford | |
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Died April 24, 1937, Oxford, United Kingdom Books Types of Floral Mechanism: A Selection of Diagrams and Descriptions of Common Flowers Arranged as an Introduction to the Systematic Study of Angiosperms | ||
Arthur Harry Church FRS (28 March 1865 – 24 April 1937) was a British botanist and botanical illustrator.
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Biography
Church was born in Plymouth, England, the son of a saddler, and went to school locally. In 1887 his mother died and, with his inheritance of £100, he went to University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. With a first (London external) degree in Botany he won in 1891 a scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford, obtaining a first-class Oxford degree in botany in 1894.
He was a Research Fellow of Jesus College from 1908 to 1912 and University Reader in Botany from 1910 to 1930. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1921. His particular fields of interest were phyllotaxy, the development and arrangement of parts of the flower and one-celled sea plants. He was a fine illustrator and photographer, sometimes illustrating his own publications.
He married Emma Palmer Pratt of Aberystwith. They had three daughters. Each daughter was given as her middle name the name of a plant in flower at the time of her birth: Audrey Althea (hollyhock), Rosemary Doronica (Doronicum orientale) and Grace Coryla (hazel).