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Beatrix Potter - the unknown years Find!

 Reading the blog about Harriet Martineau and her connection with the Armitt Collection reminded me of the other treasures there, Beatrix Potter's paintings of fungi.  While Beatrix Potter is well known for her children's books it is not generally known that in her younger days she had an interest in fungi which grew into full-scale scientific research. Her first studies of fungi are dated 1888 and she went on to produce almost three hundred water colours which she bequeathed to the Armitt Library and Museum in Ambleside. 

During her family holidays in Dunkeld, Beatrix had met Charles McIntosh, the local postman and amateur naturalist whose expertise was acknowledged when he was invited to become an Associate Member of the Perthshire Society for Natural Sciences.  In 1892, Beatrix was able to show Charles some of her drawings which he was able to identify, and after she returned to London they corresponded (in the third person!) and exchanged specimens and drawings.

In 1896 the Potter family stayed in Lakefield on Esthwaite Water for their summer holiday and while there she wrote in her journal that she had 'had further ideas about fungi. It stands to reason, all such as grow on fresh manure for a few weeks in summer must have some other form to take them over the winter months. I think that may be why different Boleti  have different moulds, not parasitical but their own spore. I think all the higher fungi have probably a mould,'   What Beatrix called a 'mould' was the underground threads or mycelium from which the toadstool is produced.  She eventually succeeded in growing mycelium from fungus spores and discussed the results with her uncle Sir Henry Roscoe, the eminent chemist.  He took her to meet the botanist William Thistleton-Dyer, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.  He dismissed her work out of hand and Beatrix told him 'it would all be in the books in 10 years time whether or no'.  He then complained to her uncle about her effrontery. 

She wrote a paper about her work 'On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricinaea' which was read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London on 1 April 1897. Being a woman, Beatrix was not allowed to read it in person or even attend .  It may have been presented just by title and was not accepted for publication.  After this disappointment her excitement and zest for scientific discovery waned and she turned her attention to activities which could earn her some money and independence .

The story of Beatrix's scientific endeavours is told in a charming little book by Elizabeth Battrick  published by the Armitt Library and Museum Centre. It contains many excerpts from her letters and journal but the highlights are the reproductions of many of her wonderful botanical watercolours.

13 October 2009 from ChrisS

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