Arber, Agnes (1879–1960)

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Arber, Agnes (1879–1960)

English botanist. Born Agnes Robertson in 1879; died in 1960; granted B.Sc., London, 1899; attended Newnham College, Cambridge, 1901–02; was Quainstudent in biology, 1903–08; awarded D.Sc., London University, 1905; married E.A.N. Arber, 1909.

Hailed as the most distinguished as well as the most erudite British plant morphologist, Agnes Arber was granted a D.Sc. from London University in 1905 for research on fertilization. She was a lecturer in botany from 1908–09 at University College, London, before researching plant anatomy in Balfour Laboratory, Newnham, from 1909 to 1927. Arber then continued her research at home. Her published works include Herbals: Their Origins and Evolution (1912), Waterplants (1920), Monocotyledons (1935), Gramineae (1934), The Natural Philosophy of Plant Form (1950), and The Mind and the Eye (1954).

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