Franklin Sumner Earle (September 4, 1856 – January 31, 1929) was an American

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

who specialized in the diseases and cultivation of

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

. He was the first mycologist to work at the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

, and was the author of ''The Genera of North American Gill Fungi''.

Life

Frankin Sumner Earle was born in

Dwight, Illinois Dwight is a village located mainly in Livingston County, Illinois, with a small portion in Grundy County. The population was 4,032 at the 2020 census. Dwight contains an original stretch of U.S. Route 66, and from 1892 until 2016 continuously us ...

, on September 4, 1856, to Parker Earle and Melanie Tracy. He spent much of his early youth at the Earle farm. Later he attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

sporadically in the 1880s, but never earned a degree. He studied with the mycologist

Thomas Jonathan Burrill Thomas Jonathan Burrill (April 25, 1839 – April 14, 1916) was an American botanist, plant pathologist, and college administrator who first discovered bacterial causes for plant disease. He introduced ''Erwinia amylovora'' (called by him ...

. Soon after college, Earle served as the superintendent of the Mississippi Agriculture Experiment Station (1892–1895). Soon after that Earle worked as a biologist and horticulturist of the Alabama Agriculture Experiment Station (1895–1900). Earle worked as an Assistant Curator in charge of mycological collections at the

in 1901. His sister was the fiction writer,

Mary Tracy Earle Mary Tracy Earle (October 21, 1864 – September 7, 1955) was an American fiction writer. She contributed short stories and occasional essays to various periodicals. Among her published works can be counted ''The Wonderful Wheel'' (1896), ''The Ma ...

References

External links

Franklin Sumner Earle Records- New York Botanical Garden

1856 births 1929 deaths American mycologists American botanists People from Livingston County, Illinois University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni New York Botanical Garden {{mycologist-stub