Francis Robert Muter Wilson (1832–1903), Presbyterian minister at
Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, was arguably Australia's first lichenologist. He came to Australia in 1862 to minister at Kew, but developed an interest in the natural world. He discovered many Australian and Pacific Island species of
lichens
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus, fungi species in a mutualism (biology), mutualistic relationship.Lorne,
Lakes Entrance
Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is situated approximately east of Melbourne, near a managed, artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to Bass Strait. At the 2016 census, Lakes Ent ...
,
Ferntree Gully
Ferntree Gully is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, 30 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Kn ...
,
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
,
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
Suva
Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...
,
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
. Between 1897 and 1900 he wrote at least 20 articles on lichens, publishing many new species. After his death his collections were purchased by the
National Herbarium of New South Wales
The National Herbarium of New South Wales was established in 1853. The Herbarium has a collection of more than 1.4 million plant specimens, making it the second largest collection of pressed, dried plant specimens in Australia,Thiers, B. ...
and the National Herbarium of Victoria. However the latter set was sent to the Italian botanist Giacomo Albo to be studied, and was lost in transit, never to be recovered.
The lichen genus ''
Franwilsia
''Franwilsia'' is a genus of lichen-forming fungi in the family Teloschistaceae. It has three species.
Taxonomy
The genus was circumscribed in 2014 by lichenologists Sergey Kondratyuk, Ingvar Kärnefelt, John Alan Elix, Arne Thell, and Jae-Seo ...
'' was named in his honour in 2014.
Works
*“Notes on a Few Victorian Lichens” (Vict. Nat., iv., 83, 1887)
*“Descriptions of two New Lichens, and a List of Additional Lichens New to Victoria (ib., v., 19, 1888)
*“An Hour on a Coral Island, by a Student of Lichenology” (ib., v., 141, 1888);
*“A Hunt for Lichens in East Gippsland, Victoria” (ib., vi., 57, 1889);
*“An Additional List of Lichens New to Victoria” (ib., vi., 60, 1889);
*“A Description of Forty-one Victorian Lichens New to Science” (ib., vi., 61, 1889)
*“An Additional List of Lichens New to Victoria” (ib., vi., 76 ic; 77 1889)
*“Notes on Lichens in New South Wales” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Q., vi., 85, 1889);
*“List of Lichens Found in New South Wales” (ib., vi., 89 1889);
*“Notes on a Remarkable Growth in Connection with a New Species of Sticta, with Description of both” (ib., vii., 8, 1889)
*“Lichens from the Victorian Alps” (Vict. Nat. vi., 178, 1890);
*“Lichens from Western Australia” (ib., vi., 180, 1890);
*“Australian Lichenology” (Trans. A.A.A.S., ii., 549, 1890);
*“A List of Queensland Lichens New to Science” (Bailey's Botany Bulletin, No. 7, 28, 1891);
*“On Lichens Collected in Victoria, Australia” Journ. Linn. Soc. (Botany), xxviii., 353, 1891);
*“The Climate of Eastern Tasmania as Indicated by its Lichen Flora” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 131, 1892);
*“Tasmanian Lichens” (ib., 133, 1892);
*“The Lichens of Victoria, Part. i. “(Proc. Roy Soc. Victoria, vol. v., 2nd Series, 141, 1892);
*“On Mr. Robert Hall’s Collection of Lichens from Kerguelen Island” (Vict. Nat., xv., 41, 1898);
*“Lichenes Kerguelenses a Roberto Hall, Anno 1898, Prope Royal Sound in Kerguelen insula lecti, et in Herbario Nationali, Melbourniensi, depositi” (Mem. de L’Herbier Boissier, No. 18, 87, 1900)