Margaretta Riley, née Hopper (May 4, 1804 - July 16, 1899) was an English

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 ...

. She studied

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

s and was the first British

pteridologist #REDIRECTFern 01 Ferns Pteridologist #REDIRECTFern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The ...

of her sex.

Life

She was born in Castle Gate,

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

on 4 May 1804 to Richard and Margaretta Hopper. She married John Riley in 1826, agent for the Montague family in

Papplewick Papplewick is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England, 7.5 miles (12 km) north of Nottingham and 6 miles (10 km) south of Mansfield. It had a population of 756 at the 2011 census. In the Middle Ages, the village marked ...

, north of Nottingham, where she lived for the rest of her life. Margaretta Riley and her husband worked together as

s studying ferns. They were both members of the

Botanical Society of London The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) is a scientific society for the study of flora, plant distribution and taxonomy relating to Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The society was founded as the Botani ...

− he from 1838, and she from 1839 on. She discontinued her botanical research when she was widowed in 1846.

Legacy

The

Riley (crater) Riley is a crater on Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) ap ...

on the planet Venus was named after her.

Works

Publications by Margaretta Riley include: * ''On the British Genus Cystea'' (1839) * ''On growing ferns from seed, with suggestions upon their cultivations and preparing the speciments'' (1839) * ''Polypodium, Dryopteris and calcareum'' (1841)

References

* Mary R. S. Creese:
Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of their Contributions to Research
', London 1998 {{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, Margaretta English botanists British pteridologists 1804 births 1899 deaths Women botanists 19th-century British botanists 19th-century British women scientists Scientists from Nottingham