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Phoebe Lankester

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A portrait of Phoebe Lankester

Phoebe Lankester (aka Phebe Lankester, née Pope; 10 April 1825 – 9 April 1900) was an English botanist, journalist, lecturer, and author of popular science books on botany, including wildflowers, parasitic plants, and ferns. She was the wife of the surgeon and naturalist Edwin Lankester and the mother of eight children, including the famous zoologist E. Ray Lankester.

Quotes

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  •       YELLOW WATER-LILY.
             NUPHAR LUTEA.
    This beautiful water plant is familiar to all who have ever enjoyed a season of river life, or even to those who make occasional boating excursions on our rivers. It belongs to the same natural order as its more modestly attired sister the White Water-Lily, though of a different genus. "In golden armour glorious to behold," it forms a glorious object on the surface or lake or river, and is seen more frequently seen than the White Water-Lily. The golden blossom of this species has a more powerful and not very refined smell resembling ardent spirits, hence it has the common name of Brandy-Bottle. The Greeks prepare a cordial from the flowers.
  •    Henry.—I once saw our common almost like a field of gold when the gorse was in full blossom.
       Granny.—Although it grows so well in England and in some parts of Scotland, it is not so common everywhere, as it is here, Henry. Linnæus, the great botanist, had never seen it in Sweden, his own country; and when he first saw it here in full golden blossom, he knelt down and thanked God for making anything so beautiful. Then its delicious scent, like pleasant cocoa-nuts, is very refreshing and nice, is it not? Linnæus is said to have lamented that he could not keep this beautiful plant alive in Sweden, even in a greenhouse. Severe frosts even in England are apt to kill it. In many places the furze is used to make fires, and is cut down and kept as fuel, especially to heat bakers' ovens. Cattle also will eat it, and in some parts of Wales it is grown expressly to feed the horses during winter.
       Alice.—But, Granny, how the thorns must prick the horses' mouths and throats!
       Granny.—Ah, Alice, the Welsh people are wiser than you think. They cut the gorse when very young, and bruise it in a mill so as to break all the thorns.
  • Ferns may be successfully cultivated either in a conservatory, a Wardian case, or the open air. To accomplish this, and even to bring something of the verdure of a country lane into the close atmosphere of the city, by means of a closed or Wardian case, in which not only ferns but also some other plants will live and thrive, is perfectly easy. Mr. Ward, the ingenious inventor, succeeded in cultivating many flowers—such as fairy roses, and even the most luxuriant tropical plants, in them. But it must be remembered that the chief object in these closed cases is to secure a moist atmosphere, and freedom from the all-pervading dirt and dust of cities. To many plants the moisture thus secured is injurious, but to nearly all ferns it is peculiarly grateful, and to them, therefore, especially, this mode of culture is chiefly applicable. In Mr. Ward's own book on the subject, he speaks of what may be done to imitate nature in the growth of ferns; how bits of natural scenery may be artificially built up, with water trickling down from elevated portions of rock, and flowing out of the fern-house in one continuous stream.
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