Edwin John Butler

Sir Edwin John Butler FRS (1874 in Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland, - 4 April 1943) was a plant pathologist in India and England, and director of the Imperial Mycological Institute. He was knighted in 1939.Mason, E.W. (1943) Edwin John Butler: 1874-1943. "Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society" 4(12):455-474.]

Life and work

Butler was the son of Thomas Butler, a Resident Magistrate. He initially went to school in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire but returned to Ireland in 1887 due to illness and studied under a tutor. A library in Cahiraveen where his father was transferred helped him develop an interest in many topics.

In 1890 his health improved and he went to Queen's College, Cork and in 1898 he took the degrees of M.B.,B.Ch. and B.A.O. He took an interest in botany thanks to Marcus Hartog, a Professor of Natural History. Hartog was interested in "Saprolegnia" a genus of mould and Butler learnt study techniques which he applied to "Pythium". He went to Paris, Antibes, Freiburg and Kew, spending time in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris in the laboratory of P. van Tiegheim, the mycologist. At the recommendation of Kew, in 1900, he was appointed as the first Cryptogamic Botanist to the Government of India at Calcutta.

In 1902, Butler was transferred to Dehra Dun under the Imperial Agricultural Department. During a visit to Coorg he studied spike disease of sandalwood which was later studied by L. C. Coleman, the Government Botanist in the State of Mysore.

In 1905 he became Imperial Mycologist at the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa. He worked on a monograph of the Indian wheat rusts in 1906. Between 1910 and 1912 he additionally held the office of Director and Principal at the Agricultural College in Pusa.

Among his later studies were the Panama disease of bananas, Witchbroom disease of cacao in Trinidad and the Yellow Leaf disease of tea in Nyasaland.

In 1921 his services to India were recognised and he was awarded the CIE. In 1930 he published the "Fungi of India" along with G. R. Bisby.

Several species of fungal pathogens were named by him and many have been named in his honour. He died in 1944 following an attack of influenza.

The standard botanical author abbreviation Butler is applied to plants and protists described by this mycologist, who should also appear on this list.

elected publications

* 1903. Report on 'Spike' disease among sandalwood trees.
* 1906. (With J. M. Hayman and W. H. Moreland) Indian wheat rusts. Mem. Dep. Agric. India, Bot. Ser. (2) 1, 58 pp. 1 graph, 5 pls. (4 col.).
* 1908. Report on coconut palm disease in Travancore. Bull. Agric. Res. Inst. Pusa, no. 9, 23 pp.
* 1909. "Fomes lucidus" (Leys) Fr. a suspected parasite. Indian Forester, 35, 514-518, 1 col. pl.
* 1918. Fungi and disease in plants. Thacker, Spink & Co. Calcutta. vi+547 pp. 206 figs.
* 1924. Bud-rot of coconut and other palms. Rep. Imp. Bot. Conf. Lond. July 1924, 145-147.
* 1925. Meteorological conditions and plant diseases. Int. Ree. Sci. Pract. Agric. n.s. (2) 3, 369-384.
* 1926. The wilt diseases of cotton and sesamum in India. Agric. J. India, (4)21,268-273, 1pl.
* 1931. (With G. R. Bisby) The fungi of India. Scientific Monograph Imperial Council of Agric. Research no. 1, xviii+237 pp. 1 map.

References