Lettice Digby (31 July 1877 – 27 November 1972) was a British

cytologist Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

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 ...

and

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

. Her work provided the first demonstration that a fertile

polyploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

had formed between two cultivated plant species.

Education and personal life

Digby was born on 31 July 1877 in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, London, UK. She was the second of the four children of Sir

Kenelm Edward Digby Sir Kenelm Edward Digby, (9 September 1836 – 21 April 1916) was a British lawyer and civil servant. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from 1895 to 1903. Biography Digby was born in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucesters ...

and Hon. Caroline Strutt who had married on 30 August 1870. She studied at the

Royal College of Science The Royal College of Science was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Still to this day, graduates from th ...

. By 1907 she was living in Kingsford, Colchester, and she died in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, Essex, UK on 27 November 1972.

Scientific career

Digby was active in research within both botany and malacology, where she applied the technologies of

cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

. Her application of cytology to the Kew primrose (''Primula kewensis'') provided the first example of a polyploid hybrid to be recorded. This fertile polyploid species arose through

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

doubling in an otherwise infertile hybrid. The fertile

with 36 chromosomes was formed at

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

among infertile hybrids between ''P. verticillata'', originating from Africa and Asia, and ''P. floribunda'', from the Himalayas. The hybrids had been noticed in 1899 by staff at Kew, particularly Frank Garett, and were awarded a First Class certificate at a

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

meeting in 1900. They were large plants with attractive flowers. The lack of fertile seeds despite repeated efforts at crossing the parents was a problem until some were obtained in 1905. Digby was thus able to compare both fertile and infertile hybrids. ''P. kewensis'' continued to be cited into the 21st century as an example of a new species originating from human activities. Digby made measurements of chromosome length, width and number during

meiosis Meiosis (; , since it is a reductional division) is a special type of cell division of germ cells in sexually-reproducing organisms that produces the gametes, such as sperm or egg cells. It involves two rounds of division that ultimately resu ...

in both plants (such as smooth hawk's-beard ('' Crepis virens'') and ''

Primula ''Primula'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the primrose ('' P. vulgaris''), a familiar wildflower of banks and verges. Other common species are '' P. auricula'' (auricula), '' P. veris'' (cow ...

'') and animals such as ''

Helix pomatia ''Helix pomatia'', common names the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, edible, air-breathing land snail, a pulmonate gastropod terrestrial mollusc in the family Helicidae.MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. ...

'' and ''

Homarus gammarus ''Homarus gammarus'', known as the European lobster or common lobster, is a species of lobster, clawed lobster from the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Black Sea. It is closely related to the American lobster, ''H.&nbs ...

''. She collaborated with John B Farmer and John E S Moore, early investigators of the units of

heredity Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

. She worked with Farmer on chromosome counts of the

intergeneric hybrid In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents (such as in ...

fern Schneider’s Polypody, ''

Polypodium ''Polypodium'' is a genus of ferns in the family Polypodiaceae, subfamily Polypodioideae, according to the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016 (PPG I). The genus is widely distributed throughout the world, with the highest ...

schneideri''. This was not known to have parents from different genera at the time, and the technology of the time made precise chromosome visualisation in ferns difficult. She analysed the structure and

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of some

gastropods The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. Ther ...

Moore had collected in

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

. This was at a time when the relationship of chromosome structures to inheritance was under active investigation. In addition, after the success of genetic studies in

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many species ...

, the selection of additional model organisms was needed to ascertain whether these findings could be generalised to all plants and animals. Smooth hawk's-beard was proposed as another model organism. Digby had studied its

, determining that it had 3 pairs of chromosomes. Her work on the structure of chromosomes, their changes during mitosis and meiosis and their relationship to the units of heredity was early support for the chromosome theory of inheritance. Digby spent some of her career at the Biological Laboratory, Royal College of Science and at the

Jodrell Laboratory Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections include some of the ...

, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. In 1903 she exhibited her work at the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

's ladies' soireé. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she spent time working as a laboratory assistant at the South African Military Hospital in Richmond Park, London. In 1919-1920 she was working with E.E. Glynn of

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

to study

pneumococcal ''Streptococcus pneumoniae'', or pneumococcus, is a Gram-positive, spherical bacteria, alpha-hemolytic (under aerobic conditions) or beta-hemolytic (under anaerobic conditions), aerotolerant anaerobic member of the genus Streptococcus. They are ...

infections using serological and bacteriological methods, financed by the Medical Research Council.

Awards

* She was elected a member of the Malacological Society of London in 1903. * She was elected an ordinary fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 1918.

Publications

Digby was author or co-author of at least 8 scientific papers: * J. B. Farmer, J. E. S. Moore and Digby L. (1902
On the cytology of apogamy and apospory - 1 preliminary note on apogamy
''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'' 71 (475) 453-457 * Digby, L. (1902
On the structure and affinities of some gastropods from Lake Tanganyika belonging to the genera ''Chytra'' and ''Limnotrochus'' (communicated by Prof G. B. Howes, Sec L.S. and read on her behalf by Mr J. E. S. Moore).
''Linnean Journal of Zoology'' 28 434 - 442 * Digby, L. (1902
On the Nyassa vivipara and its relationship to Neothauma.
Read at the Linnean Society 20 February 1902. *Digby, L. (1903) Preliminary note on the anatomy of the genus ''Cataulus''. ''Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London'' 5 261 * Digby, L. (1905
On the cytology of apogamy and apospory. II. Preliminary note on apospory
''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B'' 76 (512) 463-467 * J. Bretland Farmer and L Digby (1907) Studies in apospory and apogamy in Ferns. ''Annals of Botany'' 21 (81-84) 161-199 * Digby, L. (1909) Observations on 'chromatin bodies' and their relation to the nucleolus in ''Galtonia candicans'', Decsne. ''Annals of Botany'' 23 (89-92) 491-499 * Digby, L. (1910) The somatic, premeiotic, and meiotic nuclear divisions of ''Galtonia candicans''. ''Annals of Botany'' 24 (93 - 96) 727-757 * Digby, L. (1912) The cytology of Primula kewensis and of other related primula hybrids. ''Annals of Botany'' 26 (101-4) 357-U111 * Digby, L. (1914) A Critical Study of the Cytology of ''Crepis virens'' Arch. Zellf. 12 97-146 * J. B. Farmer and Digby L. (1914) On dimensions of chromosomes considered in relation to phylogeny ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B'' 205 * Digby, L. (1919) On the archesporial and meiotic mitoses of Osmunda ''Annals of Botany'' 33 (130) 135-172

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Digby, Lettice 1877 births 1972 deaths British malacologists British women botanists English botanists Scientists from Chelsea, London Alumni of the Royal College of Science People from Colchester 19th-century British botanists 19th-century English scientists 19th-century English women scientists 20th-century British botanists 20th-century English scientists 20th-century English women scientists