John Ramsbottom (mycologist)

John Ramsbottom
File:John Ramsbottom.jpg John Ramsbottom c.1923
Born	1885
Died	1974
Nationality	British
Fields	Mycology
Known for	Mushrooms and Toadstools
Notable awards	Linnean Medal (1965)

John Ramsbottom (1885–1974) was a British mycologist.

Biography

Ramsbottom was Keeper of Botany at the British Museum (Natural History). He served as general secretary and twice as president of the British Mycological Society, and was long editor of its Transactions. He was president of the Quekett Microscopical Club from 1928 to 1931 and was elected an Honorary Member in 1937. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1937 to 1940 and was awarded their Linnean Medal in 1965. Dr Ramsbottom was President of the Society for the History of Natural History from 1943-1972. He was made an Honorary Member in 1972.

Legacy

Dr Ramsbottom made a bequest to the Society in his will and it was decided to utilise this to establish The Ramsbottom Lecture, to be given at the Society’s International Meetings, the first being delivered in April 1976.

Works

Ramsbottom had a lively style both in his lectures and in his writing, which spanned both popular and technical publications. He could write:

In reading the old accounts one finds a strange mixture of fact and fantasy. Some are so fantastic that if they had not been accepted by other authors they would not find a place in even a most detailed historical summary. Then there comes an observation of such merit that all seems set for real progress. But these facts, even when accepted, are often misinterpreted, almost as if in a superfluity of naughtiness, and again there is confusion.

— John Ramsbottom, Mushrooms & Toadstools, 1953, p. 17

Notable among his published works are:

• (1917) "George Edward Massee" Journal of Botany 55: p. 225
• (1923) A handbook of the larger British Fungi British Museum, Dep't of Botany, London, OCLC 4142558 illustrated with engravings by Worthington George Smith.
• (1945) Poisonous fungi Penguin Books, London, OCLC 220637
• (1953) Mushrooms and Toadstools: A Study of the Activities of Fungi Collins, London, OCLC 657799

References

• "John Ramsbottom" Illinois Mycological Association

External links

• The Ramsbottom Lecture for the Society for the History of Natural History