Ah yes, I hear you say. Beatrix Potter. That nice lady with the cute bunny watercolours.

NO!

Well yes. But today we are not focusing on her charming, classic children’s tales, but on her scientific endeavours, in the first part of…

EMBER’S SCIENCE HEROES!

Helen Beatrix Potter was born in 1866 in London, to a well-off family from a manufacturing background. She and her younger brother, Walter (see featured image), grew up rather isolated and each developed a love of nature after spending holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. Her parents, both educated people and artists, encouraged her studies of the natural world.

Her particular interest was in mycology, but the establishment rejected her work due to her gender. She published and submitted a paper about the germination of spores, rejecting the established idea that mushrooms reproduced through symbiosis with other creatures. The gorgeous paintings that accompanied these, and other, works are still used to identify fungi by the Armitt Museum and Library. Potter supported herself and her studies though illustrated Christmas cards, largely featuring mice and rabbits, which later became the inspiration for her books.

Much has been written about Potter’s life; her farm in the Lake District, the loss of her fiancé Norman Warne and subsequent happy marriage to her solicitor, William Heelis. Potter died at 77 at her beloved Hill Top Farm, and left the majority of her land to the National Trust. I can recommend a trawl through her Wikipedia page, but let’s face it, we’re really here for the mushrooms.