Lily May Perry (1895-1992) was a Canadian-American botanist who worked at

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in ...

and is most known for detailed compilation of information on medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia and her assistance with the ''Flora of New Guinea''. Perry also has the legacy of authoring the third highest number of land plant species among female scientists, in total naming 414 species.

Early life and education

Perry was born in Havelock, New Brunswick, Canada on January 5, 1895. Her early education was in a one-room school. She received teacher training at Provincial Normal School in Fredericton. After a short period of teaching, she attended

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...

and received a B.S. in Biology with honors in 1921. She spent an additional 3 years teaching before being admitted to

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, where she took coursework from Prof. E. C. Jeffries and M. L. Fernald and received her M.A. in 1925. In 1930, she received a fellowship for doctoral study under J. M. Greenman at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University i ...

. She completed her doctoral thesis on North American species of

Verbena ''Verbena'' (), also known as vervain or verveine, is a genus in the family Verbenaceae. It contains about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous or semi-woody flowering plants. The majority of the species are native to the Americas ...

in 1933. She became a U.S. citizen in 1938.

Career

In the summer of 1929, she spent a month collecting plant specimens on

St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) St. Paul Island (french: Île Saint-Paul) is a small uninhabited island located approximately northeast of Cape North (Nova Scotia), Cape North on Cape Breton Island and southwest of Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Labrador, Cape Ray on Newfoundla ...

with Dr. Muriel V. Roscoe, leading to the production of a vascular flora of the island published in 1931. After finishing her Ph.D. she took temporary positions at

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and

Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar College is a private women's college in Sweet Briar, Virginia. It was established in 1901 by Indiana Fletcher Williams in memory of her deceased daughter, Daisy. The college formally opened its doors in 1906 and granted the B.A. de ...

. Upon being unable to locate permanent position in Canada, she was re-hired by M.L. Fernald as an assistant for

Gray Herbarium The Harvard University Herbaria and Botanical Museum are institutions located on the grounds of Harvard University at 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Botanical Museum is one of three which comprise the Harvard Museum of Natu ...

at Harvard. In 1936, E. D. Merrill had her transferred to the Arnold Arboretum to assist with organizing collections from

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and other parts of the Pacific. Perry reached retirement age in 1960, but stayed on at Arnold Arboretum until 1964 to finish ''Medicinal Plants of East and Southeast Asia: Attributed Properties and Uses''.

Awards

*Honorary Doctorate from Acadia University in 1971 In 1997, botanist

T.G.Hartley Thomas Gordon Hartley (9 January 1931 in Beaumont, Texas – 8 March 2016 in Canberra, Australia) was an American botanist. Biography In 1955 Hartley graduated in botany with the academic degree Bachelor of Science at the University of Wisconsin- ...

published ''

Perryodendron ''Perryodendron'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Rutaceae. The only known species is ''Perryodendron parviflorum''. The species is found in New Guinea. The genus name of ''Perryodendron'' is in honour of Lily M ...

'' is a

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s belonging to the family

Rutaceae The Rutaceae is a family, commonly known as the rueRUTACEAE
in BoDD – Botanical Der ...

. The only known species is ''Perryodendron parviflorum''. The name is in honour of Lily Perry.

Selected works

*
Perry, Lily M. (1933). A revision of the North American species of ''Verbena''. "Annals of the Missouri botanical garden." 20(2):239-362.

Perry, Lily M. (1933). The vascular flora of St. Paul Island, Nova Scotia. "Rhodora." 33(389):105-132.H.J.(trans. L.M. Perry). (1945). Fragmenta Papuana: observations of a naturalist in the Netherlands New Guinea. ''Sargentia.'' 5:1-197.
*Perry, Lily M. (1980). ''Medicinal Plants of East and Southeast Asia: Attributed Properties and Uses''. Cambridge: MIT Press. *A collection of her papers are held in the Library of the Arnold Arboretum.

References

External links

Harvard University Herbaria --Lily May Perry (1895-1992)Taxonomic Literature II--Perry, Lily May (1895-?)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Lily May 20th-century Canadian women scientists Botanists with author abbreviations Canadian women academics 1895 births 1992 deaths American women botanists Canadian women botanists 20th-century American women scientists 20th-century American botanists Acadia University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Radcliffe College alumni Canadian emigrants to the United States