Alice Marguerite Pegler (21 July 1861 – 17 June 1929) was a South African teacher and botanical collector. The daughter of S. Mackin Pegler, Alice was educated at the Dominican Convent in

King William's Town Qonce, formerly known as King William's Town, is a city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River (Eastern Cape), Buffalo River. The city is about northwest of the Indian Ocean port of East London, South ...

. Although trained as a teacher, she abandoned this career and settled at

Kentani Centane, formerly Kentane or Kentani is a settlement in Amathole District Municipality Amathole is one of the 7 districts of Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of Amathole is East London. Over 90% of its 892,637 people speak ...

where she raised and educated her nieces. She suffered health problems throughout her life and endured chronic trouble with her eyesight. While in Kentani she started an extensive collection of all flora within a radius of 5 miles of the village. Her collecting led to a regular correspondence with botanists such as

Peter MacOwan Peter MacOwan (14 November 1830 in Hull, England – 30 November 1909 in Uitenhage, Cape Province) was a British colonial botanist and teacher in South Africa. Early life and education He was the son of Peter McOwan, a Wesleyan minister fr ...

Harry Bolus Harry Bolus (28 April 1834 – 25 May 1911) was a South African botanist, botanical artist, businessman and philanthropist. He advanced botany in South Africa by establishing bursaries, founding the Bolus Herbarium and bequeathing his library and ...

, HHW Pearson,

Selmar Schonland Selmar Schonland (15 August 1860 – 22 April 1940), originally spelt ''Schönland'', the founder of the Department of Botany at Rhodes University, was a German immigrant, who came to the Eastern part of the Cape Colony in 1889 to take up an app ...

and Illtyd Buller Pole-Evans. Her meticulous notes on the Kentani plants throughout the seasons were published in ''Ann. Bol. Herb''. 5: 1-32 (1918). She did not confine herself to the flora, but also collected beetles, gall flies, spiders, and scorpions. In 1903, she travelled to the Transvaal and collected between

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 20 ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. Her failing health eventually caused her to specialise in algae and

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

. An enumeration of the fungi she collected in 1911-14 in the Kentani district was published in ''Ann. Bol. Herb''. 2: 184-93 (1918). Bolus paid tribute to her collecting in Vol. 2 of his ''Orchids of South Africa'' (1911) and described her as someone ''"who, in spite of delicate health, has been indefatigable in exploring the flora of her neighbourhood."'' In the seven years preceding her death, she became a helpless invalid. Her specimens which numbered 2 000 were donated to the South African National Botanical Institute in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

. In 1912, she was paid the exceptional honour of being made a member of the

Linnaean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

. She was commemorated in '' Aloe peglerae'', the genus ''Peglera'' Bolus (which became a synonym for ''Nectaropetalum'' Engl.), ''Chironia peglerae'' Prain, ''

Chionanthus ''Chionanthus'' , common name: fringetrees, is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with three species extending north into te ...

peglerae'' (C.H. Wr.) Stearn, and the fungi ''

Puccinia ''Puccinia'' is a genus of fungi. All species in this genus are obligate plant pathogens and are known as rusts. The genus contains about 4000 species. The genus name of ''Puccinia'' is in honour of Tommaso Puccini (died 1735), who was an Itali ...

pegleriana'' Doidge, ''Ravenalia peglerae'' Pole-Evans, ''

Uromyces ''Uromyces'' is a genus of rust fungi in the family Pucciniaceae. The genus was described by Franz Unger in his 1833 work ''Die Exantheme der Pflanzen''. They have a worldwide distribution but large occurrences happen in North America and Europe ...

peglerae'' Pole-Evans, '' Ustilago peglerae'' Bubak & Syd., and many more.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pegler, Alice Marguerite 1861 births 1929 deaths 19th-century South African botanists People from Keiskammahoek 20th-century South African botanists South African women botanists 20th-century South African women scientists 19th-century South African women scientists