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A. J. Bliss
Arthur John "A.J." Bliss (1862–1931) was a British iris (plant), iris breeder who is credited with greatly improving the genetics of many modern strains, especially those descending from his Dominion cultivar. Early life and education Arthur John Bliss was the eldest son of Rev. William Bliss of Oxford. He was educated at Stonyhurst. He earned his living as a mining engineer in New Zealand (1881-89) and then in South Africa, retiring early due to ill health. Career Bliss began breeding irises in about 1902, when he was living in Kent. A decade later he moved to Morwellham Quay in Devon—probably because a brother lived there—and grew his irises on an allotment. He also bred gladiolus and daffodils, but he is best known for his irises. Bliss kept meticulous records of his breeding program, recording details on every cross from 1902 on. He believed that knowledge of genetics, careful selection, and long-term planning were the keys to success and kept only a fraction of the se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris (plant)
''Iris'' is a flowering plant genus of 310 accepted species with showy flowers. As well as being the scientific name, ''iris'' is also widely used as a common name for all ''Iris'' species, as well as some belonging to other closely related genera. A common name for some species is 'flags', while the plants of the subgenus '' Scorpiris'' are widely known as 'junos', particularly in horticulture. It is a popular garden flower. The often-segregated, monotypic genera '' Belamcanda'' (blackberry lily, ''I. domestica''), '' Hermodactylus'' (snake's head iris, ''I. tuberosa''), and ''Pardanthopsis'' (vesper iris, '' I. dichotoma'') are currently included in ''Iris''. Three Iris varieties are used in the Iris flower data set outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1936 paper ''The use of multiple measurements in taxonomic problems'' as an example of linear discriminant analysis. Description Irises are perennial plants, growing from creeping rhizomes (rhizomatous irises) or, in drier cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morwellham Quay
Morwellham Quay is an historic river port in Devon, England that developed to support the local mines. The port had its peak in the Victorian era and is now run as a tourist attraction and museum. It is the terminus of the Tavistock Canal, and has its own copper mine. The open-air museum includes the restored 19th-century village, the docks and quays, a restored ship, the George and Charlotte copper mine which is toured by a small train, a Victorian farm and a nature reserve with trails. In July 2006, UNESCO (the cultural arm of the United Nations) awarded World Heritage Site status to the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape area. Morwellham is strategically sited at the centre of the Tamar Valley Mining District which, together with nearby Tavistock, forms the easternmost gateway area to the rest of the World Heritage Site. The industrial Heritage museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. History Morwellham Quay was originally set ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gladiolus
''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae). It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''gladioli''). The genus occurs in Asia, Mediterranean Europe, South Africa, and tropical Africa. The center of diversity is in the Cape Floristic Region.Goldblatt, P. &, J.C. Manning. ''Gladiolus'' in Southern Africa : Systematics, Biology, and Evolution. Fernwood Press, Cape Town; 1998. The genera ''Acidanthera'', ''Anomalesia'', ''Homoglossum'', and ''Oenostachys'', formerly considered distinct, are now included in ''Gladiolus''. Description Gladioli grow from round, symmetrical corms (similar to crocuses) that are enveloped in several layers of brownish, fibrous tunics. Their stems are generally unbranched, producing 1 to 9 narrow, sword-shaped, longitudinal grooved leaves, enclosed in a sheath. The lowest leaf is shortened to a catap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daffodils
''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plant, perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as ''Sternbergia'', ''Ismene (plant), Ismene'' and ''Fritillaria meleagris''. It has been suggested that the word "Daffodil" be restricted to the wild species of the British Isles, ''N. pseudonarcissus''. narcissus, and jonquil are used to describe all or some members of the genus. ''Narcissus'' has conspicuous flowers with six petal-like tepals surmounted by a cup- or trumpet-shaped Corona (plant structure), corona. The flowers are generally white and yellow (also orange or pink in garden varieties), with either uniform or contrasting coloured tepals and corona. ''Narcissus'' were well known in ancient civilisation, both medicinally and botanically, but formally described by Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus in his ''Species Plantarum'' (1753). The genus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Sturtevant
Robert Swan Sturtevant (December 30, 1892 – February 22, 1955) was an American landscape architect and iris breeder. He taught for many years at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, and he helped to found the American Iris Society. Early life Sturtevant was born in Framingham, Massachusetts on December 30, 1889. He was the only child of noted agronomist Edward Lewis Sturtevant, the first director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and his second wife, Hattie ( Mann) Sturtevant. He had four half-siblings from his father's first marriage to Hattie's sister Mary Elizabeth ( Mann) Sturtevant. Sturtevant was especially close to his much older half-sister Grace, who would become a noted iris breeder. In 1901, they co-purchased an estate in Massachusetts, Wellesley Gardens, which Grace made the center of her iris-breeding operations and where she educated her half-brother in horticulture. Sturtevant attended Wellesley High School and Milton Academy. He gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Caspar Wister
John Caspar Wister (March 19, 1887 – December 27, 1982) was one of the United States' most highly honored horticulturists. Early life A member of Philadelphia's prominent Wister family, John was the youngest of five children born to William Rotch Wister and Mary Rebecca Eustis in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. His sister Mary Channing Wister would marry her cousin Owen Wister, the author of "The Virginian". As a small boy, John followed his family's gardener around their Belfield and Wister Estates, trying to learn anything and everything he could about plants. In 1909, Wister graduated from Harvard University. He continued his studies at Harvard's School of Landscape Architecture, supplemented with courses at the New Jersey Agricultural College. He worked in landscape architecture offices in New York and Philadelphia until he enlisted on July 10, 1917, as a private in the Army. World War I Wister trained at the University of Pennsylvania and at Augusta Arsenal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethel Anson Peckham
Ethel Anson (Steel) Peckham (1879–1965) was an American horticulturist and botanical artist who bred plants that grow from bulbs and rhizomes such as iris and daffodil. She was a founding member and early director of the American Iris Society (AIS), editor of its first major checklists, and author of its iris-judging rules. She bred iris herself and is credited with helping to introduce a new class, the miniature tall bearded iris. She is one of only a dozen people to have received the AIS Gold Medal, the society's highest honor, and she was also awarded the Gold Medal of the British Iris Society for her paintings of iris. Biography Ethel Anson Steel was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on November 30, 1879, to William White Garrigues Steel and Juliet (Rauch) Steel. She was educated at private schools in England. In 1906, she married Wheeler Hazard Peckham, with whom she had two children, Content and Anson. They lived in New Rochelle, New York. In 1920 Peckham helped to establi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rickatson Dykes
William Rickatson Dykes (4 November 1877 – 1 December 1925) was an English amateur botanist who became an expert in the field of iris breeding and wrote several influential books on the subject. He was also interested in tulips, amaryllis, and other plants. Early life and education William Rickatson Dykes was born on 4 November 1877 at Bayswater in London, the second son of Alfred Dykes.Ray Desmond He was a clever student and a talented athlete who attended City of London School and then Wadham College, Oxford. In 1900, he obtained an M.A. in classics. Later he received Licence-ès-lettres from the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Between 1903 and 1919, Dykes was a schoolmaster at Charterhouse School in Godalming. He taught Greek and Latin and occasionally football. Botanical work While studying at Oxford, Dykes had met Sir Michael Foster, who instilled in him a passion for studying irises. After he moved to Godalming, he created a large garden to grow irises. When Fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Foster (physiologist)
Sir Michael Foster (8 March 1836 – 29 January 1907) was an English physiologist. He was instrumental in organizing the Cambridge Biological School and acted as Secretary of the Royal Society. Biography Foster was born in Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, in March 1836, the son of Michael Foster, FRCS. He was educated at Huntingdon Grammar school and University College School, London. After graduating in medicine in 1859, he began to practise in his native town, but in 1867 he returned to London as teacher of practical physiology at University College London, where two years afterwards he became professor. In 1870 he was appointed by Trinity College, Cambridge, to its praelectorship in physiology, and thirteen years later he became the first occupant of the newly created chair of physiology in the university, holding it till 1903. One of his most famous students at Cambridge was Charles Scott Sherrington who went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1932. He married first, in 1864, Georg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grace Sturtevant
Grace Sturtevant (1865–1947) was an early 20th century iris breeder and horticulturalist who has been called "America's first lady of iris." She was a founding member of the American Iris Society. Early life and education Grace Sturtevant was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1865, one of four children of noted agronomist Edward Lewis Sturtevant (first director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station) and Mary Elizabeth (Mann) Sturtevant. Grace's mother died when she was 12; her father remarried in 1883, to Mary Elizabeth's sister Hattie. Grace was close to her much younger half-brother from this second marriage, Robert Sturtevant, who also became an iris fancier as well as a landscape architect. Grace had artistic ability and as a young woman illustrated some of her father's papers on peppers and sweet potatoes. Career E. Lewis Sturtevant died in 1898, and in 1901 Grace Sturtevant and her half-brother Robert jointly bought a property named Wellesley Gardens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1862 Births
Year 186 ( CLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 939 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 186 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Peasants in Gaul stage an anti-tax uprising under Maternus. * Roman governor Pertinax escapes an assassination attempt, by British usurpers. New Zealand * The Hatepe volcanic eruption extends Lake Taupō and makes skies red across the world. However, recent radiocarbon dating by R. Sparks has put the date at 233 AD ± 13 (95% confidence). Births * Ma Liang, Chinese official of the Shu Han state (d. 222) Deaths * April 21 – Apollonius the Apologist, Christian martyr * Bian Zhang, Chinese official and gene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1931 Deaths
Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. * January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is again released from imprisonment in India. * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France. February * February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. * February 10 – O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
