Adeline May Cowan
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Adeline May Cowan (26 December 1892 – March 1981) was a Scottish botanist. She was active in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and was mainly interested in
Spermatophytes A seed plant or spermatophyte (; New Latin ''spermat-'' and Greek ' (phytón), plant), also known as a phanerogam (taxon Phanerogamae) or a phaenogam (taxon Phaenogamae), is any plant that produces seeds. It is a category of embryophyte (i.e. la ...
.


Life

Born Adeline May Organe in
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
in 1892, she was the youngest daughter of the missionary Stephen Walker Organe. She studied Botany at
Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...
, from 1912 until 1915, after her secondary education at
Walthamstow Hall Walthamstow Hall is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for girls in the centre of Sevenoaks, Kent, England. It was founded by Dorothea Foulger as a school for the daughters of missionaries in 1838. History Walthamstow ...
. She was unable to take her degree until the University of Oxford awarded degrees to women in 1920. From 1915 to 1919 she taught science subjects at
Sherborne School for Girls Sherborne Girls, formally known as Sherborne School for Girls, is an independent day and boarding school for girls, located in Sherborne, North Dorset, England. There were 485 pupils attending in 2019–2020, with more than 90 per cent of them ...
and at
Polam Hall School Polam Hall School is a mixed all-through school located in Darlington, County Durham, England. Polam Hall was founded as a Quaker "boarding school" for girls. It is now mixed-gender and inter-denominational but still retains its Quaker traditio ...
. In 1919 she sailed for India and married the botanist
John Macqueen Cowan John Macqueen Cowan FRSE CBE (1891–1960) was a prominent Scottish botanist in the mid 20th century. He is especially remembered for the recording and classification of trees on the Indian sub-continent. He was also an expert on Spermatophytes ...
the day after she arrived in
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
. For the next two years she and her husband collected and classified plants and caught elephants. Afterwards they settled in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, where she was a member of the Federation of University Women. Later she worked at
Inverewe Garden Inverewe Garden is a botanical garden in Wester Ross in the Scottish Highlands. It is located just to the north of Poolewe in Wester Ross, and is noted for the breadth of its collection. The garden was created from barren land in 1862 by Os ...
, of which she was appointed curator by the
National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...
when her husband died in 1960, but she retired a year later as she found Inverewe lonely. Aged 87, she wrote an unpublished monograph called ''The Forests of Bengal. Life with my husband in the Indian Forest Service''. She was the mother of biochemist
Pauline Harrison Pauline May Harrison (née Cowan, 24 August 1926 – 28 May 2024) was a British protein crystallographer and professor emeritus at the University of Sheffield. She gained her chemistry degree from Somerville College, Oxford in 1948, followed by ...
, who also went up to Somerville College.


Publications

* 1929. ''The trees of northern Bengal: including shrubs, woody climbers, bamboos, palms and tree ferns.''
Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal, also known as the West Bengal Government, is the Administrative division, principal administrative authority of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal, created by the Constitution ...
, 178 pp. * 1964. ''Inverewe. A Garden in the North-West Highlands''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Adeline May 1892 births 1981 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Scottish women botanists Scientists from Chennai People educated at Walthamstow Hall 20th-century Scottish botanists 20th-century Scottish women scientists