Averil Maud Bottomley (1889 – 1984) was a South African

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as w ...

. She was a member of the

Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science The Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3 or S2A3) is a learned society, originally known as the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (SAAAS). Established in 1902, its principal aim is to increase t ...

and a founding member of the South African Biological Society.

Life

Averil Maud Bottomley was born on 23 December, 1889 in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

. She was educated at Huguenot Seminary in Wellington and South Africa College (Cape Town University). In 1911, Bottomley was awarded the Bachelor of Arts degree by the University of the Cape of Good Hope and in 1912 passed college examination for the Teacher's Certificate at the South African College in Cape Town. For two years she taught at Worcester.

Career

In 1913, Bottomley was appointed a mycologist. Since that time, she worked in the Division of Plant Pathology and Mycology of the Department of Agriculture in Pretoria. Bottomley dealt mainly with the '' Gasteromycetes'' of South Africa. She collected fungi mainly around Pretoria (especially Fountain's Valley), Greytown and Cape Town, and deposited them in the Mycological Herbarium (later the National Collection of Fungi of the Plant Protection Research Unit) in Pretoria. In 1916, Bottomley became a member of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science. The same year she became a founding member of the South African Biological Society. In 1926 she attended the International Congress of Plant Sciences in New York. In 1929, Bottomley published a work ''The development of South African mycology and of the mycological herbarium at Pretoria'' in South African Journal of Science. Bottomley retired from the Cryptogamic section of the National Herbarium, Pretoria. After her retirement she settled in Johannesburg. Averil Maud Bottomley died on 23 February 1984 in Johannesburg. She died 23 February, 1984 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Selected publications

* ''A disease of young pepper trees'' (Agricultural Journal (Union of South Africa), 1915); * ''Parasitic attack on Eucalyptus globulus'' (Ibid, 1920, with K.A. Carlson); * ''An account of the Natal fungi collected by J. Medley Wood'' (Report of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, 1916); * ''A preliminary investigation into a disease attacking young Cupressus plants'' (Ibid, 1918); *''The fungus food of certain termites'' (South African Journal of Natural History, 1921, with C. Fuller); *''Some of the more important diseases affecting timber plantations in the Transvaal'' (South African Journal of Science, 1936); *''A'' ''revised list of plant diseases occurring in South Africa'' (1931, 78 pp., with E.M. Doidge); *''Gasteromycetes of South Africa'' (Bothalia, 1948); *''Common edible and poisonous mushrooms in South Africa'' (Department of Agriculture, 1953).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bottomley, Averil Maud 1984 deaths 1889 births South African mycologists Women mycologists