Jean Annette Paton (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Comins or Comyn; born 4 January 1929) is a British

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

, bryologist and botanical illustrator. She has written many books on the bryology of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and the flora of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, and described several new species. Paton has been called the "queen of vice-county recording" for her prolific records of bryological specimens in the second half of the 20th century. She was president of the

British Bryological Society The British Bryological Society is an academic society dedicated to bryology, which encourages the study of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts). It publishes the peer-reviewed ''Journal of Bryology''. History The Society developed from ...

in 1976 and 1977.

Early life

Paton was born on 4 January 1929. She is

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

and could not read until she was nine. Paton taught herself to draw and paint flowers when she was young, which later helped her to learn their names. She attended Bedford College in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

from 1947, and later completed an MSc, doing a dissertation on the bryophytes of the sandstone rocks of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Career

Paton began work at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

's Botany Department in 1952 as a research and

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

assistant, and later became a lecturer there. In 1959, she moved to Cornwall with her husband Pat. There, she wrote ''Wild Flowers in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly'' and ''Flowers of the Cornish Coast'' published in 1968 and 1969 respectively. Paton was president of the

in 1976 and 1977 and was elected an honorary member in 1987. Her ''The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles'' was published in 1999 and was described as the "best liverwort flora ever published in Europe". Eric Vernon Watson called it a "landmark in the study of British liverworts". Paton won the Linnean Society's Jill Smythies Award in May 2000 for her illustrations in the book, and the

International Association of Bryologists The International Association of Bryologists (IAB), established in 1969, is a professional association promoting bryology (the study of mosses, liverworts and hornworts) globally for both amateurs and professionals. IAB was established in 1969 at t ...

Sinske Hattori Prize for the best publication of 1999/2000. Paton published a supplement to ''The Liverwort Flora'' in 2022. In 2001, she and Pat published ''Magnolias in Cornish Gardens'' and in 2005, she published ''Bryophyte Flora of the Isles of Scilly'' with David Holyoak. Paton was awarded an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

in the

2003 New Year Honours The 2003 New Year's Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British monarch's honours system, where 1 January is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. A number of ot ...

for services to biology and nature conservation. Throughout her career, Paton described a number of species new to science, including ''

Anthoceros agrestis ''Anthoceros agrestis'', commonly called field hornwort, is a bryophyte of the genus ''Anthoceros''. It has complicated taxonomies. Taxonomy This species of ''Anthoceros'' is known for having enzymes like cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase (EC 1.1 ...

'', ''

Ditrichum cornubicum ''Ditrichum cornubicum'', commonly known as the Cornish path-moss, is a moss endemic to Cornwall, United Kingdom. First discovered in 1963, on a roadside west of Lanner, Cornwall by Jean Paton, it has since been found in two other places within ...

'', '' Lophocolea brookwoodiana'', '' Telaranea murphyae'' and ''

Fissidens celticus ''Fissidens celticus'', also known by its common name Welsh pocket-moss, is a species of moss in the family ''Fissidentaceae''. It was discovered in 1958 in Pembrokeshire by A.H. Norkett and was first described as a new species by Jean Paton in ...

''. In addition to this, she added many species to the list of bryophytes known in Britain, including '' Southbya tophacea'', '' Lophocolea semeteres'', and ''

Marsupella profunda ''Marsupella profunda'', the western rustwort, is a liverwort native to Europe and known only from Portugal (Mainland, Azores and Madeira) and Great Britain (Cornwall) and has been sighted in the Canary Islands. It is a small reddish liverwort a ...

''. Between 1947 and 1999, Paton was the top recorder of specimens in Britain, recording 1,924 of the 22,532 specimens in the period. Her

s have been added to the collections of the

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is a scientific centre for the study of plants, their diversity and conservation, as well as a popular tourist attraction. Founded in 1670 as a physic garden to grow medicinal plants, today it occupies ...

, and to the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

Personal life

Paton married Valentine 'Pat' Paton in October 1952.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paton, Jean 1929 births Living people Bryologists Women bryologists Botanical illustrators Members of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Bedford College, London 20th-century British botanists 21st-century British botanists British women botanists British women illustrators 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British women scientists Scientists with dyslexia