Job Bicknell Ellis (January 21, 1829 – December 30, 1905) was a pioneering North American mycologist known for his study of

ascomycetes Ascomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The de ...

, especially the grouping of

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

called the Pyrenomycetes (known today as the Sordariomycetes). Born and raised in New York, he worked as a teacher and farmer before developing an interest in mycology. He collected specimens extensively, and together with his wife, prepared 200,000 sets of dried fungal samples that were sent out to subscribers in series between 1878 and 1894. Together with colleagues William A. Kellerman and Benjamin Matlack Everhart, he founded the ''Journal of Mycology'' in 1885, forerunner to the modern journal '' Mycologia''. He described over 4000 species of fungi, and his collection of over 100,000 specimens is currently housed at the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

of the New York Botanical Gardens. Ellis had over 100

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

of fungi named in his honor.

Life

Ellis was born in Potsdam, New York, on January 21, 1829, to parents Freeman Ellis and Sarah Bicknell. He was the tenth child of fourteen. In 1851, he graduated from Union College in

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

, the same institution attended by lichenologist Edward Tuckerman ( A.B. 1837) and mycologist Charles Horton Peck (A.B. 1859). Bicknell began an erratic career as a

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

teacher and farmer in New York,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, and

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. He became the principal of the Canton Academy in 1856, the same year he married Arvilla Jane Bacon, who became his lifelong assistant and collaborator. Their daughter Cora was born on January 12, 1857; she later became a professional musician in New York. It was around this time that Bicknell started developing his interest in botany, by collecting plants with fellow teachers on weekends. He saw a copy of Henry William Ravenel's ''Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati'', a set of dried specimens (

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae are numbered collections of dried herbarium Biological specimen, spe ...

) collected and distributed from

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and area. Ellis initiated a correspondence with Ravenel, and established a friendship that lasted until Ravenel's death in 1887. Ellis taught in a public school in Potsdam village in 1863, and later served on the Union side in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

from 1864 to 1865. He served on the steam frigate USS Susquehanna of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was present during the bombardment of Fort Fisher on December 24–25, 1864 and January 13–15, 1865, when the Fort was captured. The war took its toll on his spirits; his April 22, 1865, diary entry reads: "I have felt degraded ever since I have been here & no amount of money & I might perhaps safely say no motive not even patriotism will ever induce me to put myself in the like position again." He was discharged from the Navy on May 18, 1865, and returned to Potsdam. After the war Ellis settled in Newfield, New Jersey, where he lived until his death. Although he did not have any formal training as a botanist or mycologist, Ellis gradually took up mycological fieldwork and ultimately dedicated his life to the collection and exchange of dried fungal specimens. He created four

series as reference collections that were sold in sets of one hundred, or "centuries".Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2024 ''IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae''. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany. The most important of these were the ''Fungi Nova-Caesarienses'' (Fungi of New Jersey) (1878) and the ''North American Fungi'', issued in Series I and Series II from 1878 to 1898. The complete set of ''North American Fungi'' numbered 3600 specimens. The obituary of his wife, who died on July 18, 1899, elaborated her devotion to his work:

Besides binding many of her husband's books and pamphlets, she prepared some three thousand blank books in which the ''North American Fungi'' were issued and in which the greater part of the Ellis collection was mounted. Besides this she arranged at least three fourths of the 200,000 specimens which were issued in this exsiccata series and in the ''Fungi Columbiani'', folding papers, inserting specimens, pasting labels and inserting in their places.

Based in Newfield, New Jersey, Ellis maintained an extensive correspondence with many renowned American and European mycologists. In 1880, Ellis began to receive financial support from Benjamin Matlock Everhart, a wealthy merchant of

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in the Delaware Valley, Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,671 at the 2020 census. West ...

. Together they co-authored ''North American Pyrenomycetes'' (1892). With William A. Kellerman, Ellis and Everhart founded the ''Journal of Mycology'' in 1885, a forerunner to '' Mycologia''. Most of the articles in the first issues were written by Ellis. He published many of his newly discovered species in the journal, as well as the ''Botanical Gazette'', '' Torrey Bulletin'', '' American Naturalist'', and ''Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy''. In 1896, near the end of his life, Ellis sold his collection of over 100,000 specimens to the New York Botanical Garden for its Cryptogamic Herbarium, including the

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

of 4,000 new species described by Ellis and his collaborators. The Garden Library also received a "large cache" of his letters in 1983. Ellis was one of the most prolific authors of new fungal species, having formally described about 3520 in his career. He was also a prolific author, and published over 500 scientific articles. He died December 30, 1905, in Newfield.

Memberships and societies

Ellis was honored by several scientific societies. In 1878, he was elected a corresponding member of Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. In August 1882 he was elected a corresponding member of the Cryptogamic Society of Scotland and in December of the same year was elected a corresponding member of "Die Kaiserlich-Königliche Zoologisch-Botanische Gesellschaft in Wien".

Eponymous taxa

*'' Ellisiella'' Bat. 1956 *''Ellisiella'' Sacc. 1881 (now '' Colletotrichum'') *''Ellisiellina'' Sousa da Câmara 1949 (now ''Colletotrichum'') *''Elisiodothis'' Theiss 1914 *''Ellisiopsis'' Bat. 1956 (now '' Beltraniella'') *'' Ellisomyces'' Benny & R.K. Benj. 1975 *'' Ellisius'' Gray. 1821 *'' Jobellisia'' M.E. Barr 1993 *''Acanthostigma ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Aecidium ellisii'' Tracy & L.D. Galloway 1888 *''Albatrellopsis ellisii'' (Berk.) Teixeira 1994 *''Albatrellus ellisii'' (Berk.) Pouzar 1966 *''Alternaria ellisii'' Pandotra & Ganguly 1964 *''Annellophorella ellisii'' Reisinger & Kiffer 1970 *''Anthostoma ellisii'' Sacc. *''Ascochyta ellisii'' Thüm. *''Asterina ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Atractobolus ellisiella'' (Rehm) Kuntze 1898 *''Bactridium ellisii'' Berk. 1874 *''Bipolaris ellisii'' (Danquah) Alcorn 1983 *''Botrytis ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Bullaria ellisii'' (De Toni) Arthur & Mains *''Calathella ellisii'' Agerer 1983 *''Caliciopsis ellisii'' Sacc. *''Calycina ellisii'' (Dennis) Raitv. 2004 *''Capnodium ellisii'' Sacc. *''Cenangium ellisii'' Sacc. *''Cercospora ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Ceuthospora ellisii'' Sacc. & Trotter 1913 *''Chaetendophragmia ellisii'' (Piroz.) B. Sutton & Hodges 1978 *''Chaetomium ellisianum'' Sacc. & P. Syd. *''Chaetoplea ellisii'' (Sacc. & P. Syd.) M.E. Barr 1990 *''Chaetosphaeria ellisii'' (M.E. Barr) Huhndorf & F.A. Fernández 2005 *''Chalara ellisii'' Nag Raj & W.B. Kendr. 1975 *''Clasterosporium ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Clathrosphaerina ellisii'' Purohit, Panwar & N.L.Vyas 1974 *''Cochliobolus ellisii'' Alcorn 1983 *''Collybia ellisii'' (Murrill) Murrill 1917 *''Comatricha ellisii'' Morgan 1894 *''Coniochaeta ellisiorum'' P.F. Cannon *''Coniophora ellisii'' (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) Sacc. 1888 *''Coprinellus ellisii'' (P.D. Orton) Redhead, Vilgalys & Moncalvo 2001 *''Coprinus ellisii'' P.D. Orton 1960 *''Corticium ellisii'' (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) Cooke 1880 *''Coryne ellisii'' Berk. 1873 *''Cucurbitaria ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. *''Curvularia ellisii'' S.I. Ahmed & M. Qureshi 1960 *''Cylindrosporium ellisii'' Halst. *''Cylindrotrichum ellisii'' Morgan-Jones 1977 *''Dacrymyces ellisii'' Coker 1920 *''Dacryopsis ellisiana'' Massee 1891 *''Dasyscyphus ellisianus'' (Rehm) Sacc. 1889 *''Dendryphion ellisii'' Cooke 1878 *''Diaporthe ellisii'' Rehm *''Dicaeoma ellisianum'' (Thüm.) Kuntze 1898 *''Dicaeoma ellisii'' (De Toni) Kuntze 1898 *''Didymostilbe ellisii'' A.S. Saxena & Mukerji 1970 *''Dimerosporium ellisii'' Sacc. *''Diplodina ellisii'' Sacc. *''Dothiora ellisii'' (M.E. Barr) Shoemaker & C.E. Babc. 1987 *''Dothiorella ellisii'' Arx 1957 *''Drechslera ellisii'' Danquah 1975 *''Endophragmiella ellisii'' S. Hughes 1979 *''Engizostoma ellisii'' Kuntze 1898 *''Entoleuca ellisii'' Y.M. Ju, J.D. Rogers & H.M. Hsieh 2005 *''Entyloma ellisii'' Halst. 1890 *''Entylomella ellisii'' (Halst.) Cif. 1959 *''Erynia ellisiana'' Ben Ze'ev 1986 *''Erysiphe ellisii'' (U. Braun) U. Braun & S. Takam. 2000 *''Fomes ellisianus'' F.W. Anderson 1891 *''Furia ellisiana'' (Ben Ze'ev) Humber 1989 *''Fusicoccum ellisianum'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Fusicoccum ellisii'' Petr. & Died. 1913 *''Glabrocyphella ellisiana'' W.B. Cooke 1961 *''Gloniopsis ellisii'' Cash 1939 *''Gymnopus ellisii'' Murrill 1917 *''Gymnosporangium ellisii'' Berk. 1879 *''Hamaspora ellisii'' (Berk.) Körn. 1877 *''Haplaria ellisii'' Cooke 1889 *''Helicosporium ellisii'' Cooke *''Hemiarcyria ellisii'' Massee 1889 *''Herpotrichia ellisii'' (Sacc. & P. Syd.) M.E. Barr 1992 *''Hydnum ellisianum'' Thüm. 1878 *''Hydnum ellisianum'' (Banker) Sacc. & Trotter 1912 *''Hymenochaete ellisii'' Berk. & M.A. Curtis 1876 *''Hymenoscyphus ellisii'' Dennis 1964 *''Hyphopolynema ellisiorum'' B. Sutton & Alcorn 1984 *''Kylindria ellisii'' (Morgan-Jones) DiCosmo, S.M. Berch & W.B. Kendr. 1983 *''Lachnella ellisiana'' (Rehm) Seaver 1951 *''Lasiosphaeria ellisii'' M.E. Barr 1993 *''Leptosphaeria ellisiana'' Berl. *''Lyophyllum ellisii'' (P.D. Orton) Cons. & Contu 2001 *''Macroplodia ellisii'' (Sacc.) Kuntze 1898 *''Melanopsamma ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Meliola ellisii'' Roum. 1880 *''Microscypha ellisii'' Dennis 1971 *''Microsphaera ellisii'' U. Braun 1982 *''Monochaetia ellisiana Sacc. & D. Sacc. 1906 *''Myxosporium ellisii'' Sacc. 1884 *''Nectria ellisii'' C. Booth 1959 *''Niptera ellisii'' Rehm *''Nodulisporium ellisii'' (Sacc. & P. Syd.) S. Hughes 1958 *''Odontia ellisiana'' (Thüm.) Rick 1933 *''Ophiobolus ellisianus'' Berl. *''Peniophora ellisii'' Massee 1889 *''Perenniporia ellisiana'' (F.W. Anderson) Gilb. & Ryvarden 1985 *''Periconia ellisii'' P.Rag. Rao & D. Rao 1964 *''Periconiella ellisii'' Merny & B. Huguenin 1962 *''Pestalotia ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Peziza ellisiana'' Rehm *''Phellodon ellisianus'' Banker 1906 *''Phillipsiella ellisii'' M.E. Barr 1993 *''Phragmidium ellisii'' (Berk.) Sacc. 1888 *''Phyllosticta ellisiana'' Lambotte & Fautrey 1894 *''Phyllosticta ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Pithomyces ellisii'' V.G. Rao & Chary 1972 *''Pleospora ellisii'' Wehm. 1961 *''Pleurage ellisiana'' Griffiths 1901 *''Plochmopeltis ellisii'' Arx 1959 *''Podisoma ellisii'' (Berk.) Mussat 1874 *''Podospora ellisiana'' (Griffiths) Mirza & Cain 1970 *''Polynema ellisii'' B. Sutton *''Polypilus ellisii'' (Berk.) Teixeira 1992 *''Polyporus ellisianus'' (Murrill) Sacc. & Trotter 1912 *''Polyporus ellisii'' Berk. 1878 *''Polystictus ellisianus'' Lloyd 1920 *''Poria ellisiana'' (F.W. Anderson) Ginns 1984 *''Pseudocercospora pamelae-ellisiae'' (G.P. Agarwal & N.D. Sharma) U. Braun 1999 *''Psilachnum ellisii'' (Dennis) E. Weber & Baral 1992 *''Puccinia ellisiana'' Thüm. 1878 *''Puccinia ellisii'' De Toni 1888 *''Pyrenopeziza ellisii'' Massee 1896 *''Rhabdospora ellisii'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1899 *''Rhinocladiella ellisii'' D. Hawksw. 1977 (now Zasmidium cellare) *''Roestelia ellisii'' Peck 1875 *''Scindalma ellisianum'' (F.W. Anderson) Kuntze 1898 *''Sciniatosporium ellisii'' (M.B. Ellis) Morgan-Jones 1971 *''Scutiger ellisii'' (Berk.) Murrill 1903 *''Septoria ellisiana'' Sacc. & P. Syd. 1902 *''Septoria ellisii'' Berl. & Voglino 1886 *''Sordaria ellisiana'' (Griffiths) Sacc. & D. Sacc. 1905 *''Sorosporium ellisii'' G. Winter *''Sphaeropsis ellisii'' Sacc. 1884 *''Sporidesmium ellisii'' Piroz. 1972 *''Sporisorium ellisii'' (G. Winter) M. Piepenbr. 2003 *''Stigmina ellisiana'' B. Sutton 1972 *''Stigmina ellisii'' M.B. Ellis 1959 *''Stigmina pamelae-ellisiae'' G.P. Agarwal & N.D. Sharma 1974 *''Tephrocybe ellisii'' P.D. Orton 1988 *''Tetrabrunneospora ellisii'' Dyko 1978 *''Tetraploa ellisii'' Cooke 1879 *''Tomentella ellisii'' (Sacc.) Jülich & Stalpers 1980 *''Torula ellisii'' Yadav & Lal 1966 *''Trametes ellisiana'' Henn. 1895 *''Tyromyces ellisianus'' Murrill 1907 *''Uromyces ellisianus'' Henn. 1898 *''Volutella ellisii'' Langl. 1887 *''Wettsteinina ellisii'' M.E. Barr 1972 *''Zoophthora ellisiana'' (Ben Ze'ev) Balazy 1993 *''Zygodesmus ellisii'' Sacc. 1886

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Job Bicknell American mycologists 1829 births 1905 deaths People from Gloucester County, New Jersey Union College (New York) alumni Scientists from New York (state)

Life

Memberships and societies

Eponymous taxa

See also

References

External links