Elias Magnus Fries

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Elias Magnus Fries

| image = Elias_Magnus_Fries.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|1794|8|15|df=y}}

| birth_place = Femsjö, Hylte Municipality, Småland, Sweden

| death_date = {{death date and age|1878|2|8|1794|8|15|df=y}}

| death_place = Uppsala

| field = Mycology, botany

| work_institution = Lund University
(1814–1834),
Uppsala University
(1834–1878)

| alma_mater = Lund University

| known_for = Founder of modern fungal taxonomy

| author_abbreviation_bot = Fr.

| awards = Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

}}

File:Elias Fries.jpg

File:Elias Fries Building located in Femsjö.jpg

Elias Magnus Fries {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE|FLS|RAS}} (15 August 1794 – 8 February 1878) was a Swedish mycologist and botanist. He is sometimes called the "Linnaeus of Mycology".{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/S0007-1528(81)80003-X|title=Aspects of mycological history |year=1981 |last1=Bevan |first1=R.J. |journal=Bulletin of the British Mycological Society |volume=15 |pages=20–25 }} In his works he described and assigned botanical names to hundreds of fungus and lichen species, many of which remain authoritative today.

Career

Fries was born at Femsjö (Hylte Municipality), Småland, the son of the pastor there.{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Nordisk Familjebok |title=Fries, Elias Magnus |url=https://runeberg.org/nfbh/0751.html |access-date=3 September 2010 |language=sv |edition=2 |year=1908 |volume=8 |pages=1393–1397}} He attended school in Växjö.

He acquired an extensive knowledge of flowering plants from his father.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Fries, Elias Magnus |volume=11 |page=229}} In 1811 Fries entered Lund University where he studied under Carl Adolph Agardh and Anders Jahan Retzius.{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/017343a0 |title=Elias Magnus Fries |year=1878 |journal=Nature |volume=17 |issue=435 |page=343 |bibcode=1878Natur..17Q.343. }} He obtained his doctorate in 1814. In the same year he was appointed an associate professorship in botany. Fries edited several exsiccata series, the first starting in 1818 under the title Lichenes Sveciae exsiccati, curante Elia Fries{{Cite web |title=Lichenes Sveciae exsiccati, curante Elia Fries: IndExs ExsiccataID=155274629 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae|publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=155274629 |access-date=28 May 2024}} and the last together with Franz Joseph Lagger under the title Hieracia europaea exsiccata.{{Cite web |title=Hieracia europaea exsiccata: IndExs ExsiccataID=838092032 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae|publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=http://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=838092032 |access-date=28 May 2024}} He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1824, became a full professor. In 1834 he became Borgström professor (Swed. Borgströmianska professuren, a chair endowed by Erik Eriksson Borgström, 1708–1770) in applied economics at Uppsala University. The position was changed to "professor of botany and applied economics" in 1851. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1849.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=15 September 2016}} That year he was also appointed director of the Uppsala University Botanical Garden. In 1853, he became rector of the University.{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Fries, Elias Magnus}}

Fries most important works were the three-volume Systema mycologicum (1821–1832), Elenchus fungorum (1828), the two-volume Monographia hymenomycetum Sueciae (1857 and 1863) and Hymenomycetes Europaei (1874).{{cite encyclopedia|year=2007|title=Elias Magnus Fries|encyclopedia=Store norske leksikon|editor=Henriksen, Petter|first=Gro|last=Gulden|author-link=Gro Gulden|author2=Eckblad, Finn-Egil |author-link2=Finn-Egil Eckblad |publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget|location=Oslo|url=http://www.snl.no/Elias_Magnus_Fries|language=no|access-date=27 March 2009}}

Fries is considered to be, after Christian Hendrik Persoon, a founding father of the modern taxonomy of mushrooms. His taxonomy of mushrooms was influenced by Goethe and the German romantics. He utilized spore color and arrangement of the hymenophore (pores, gills, teeth etc.) as major taxonomic characteristics.{{Cite web|title=Elias Magnus Fries (1794–1878) – a brief biography|url=https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/~biog-fries.php|url-status=live|website=First Nature|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616132203/http://www.first-nature.com/fungi/~biog-fries.php |archive-date=16 June 2015 }}{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Elias Magnus Fries|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/botany-biographies/elias-magnus-fries|date=2018-05-18}} He was one of the most prolific authors of new fungal species, having formally described 3210 in his career.{{cite journal |author-link=Robert Lücking |last=Lücking |first=Robert |title=Three challenges to contemporaneous taxonomy from a licheno-mycological perspective |journal=Megataxa |volume=1 |issue=1 |year=2020 |doi=10.11646/megataxa.1.1.16 |pages=78–103 [85]|url=https://zenodo.org/records/3648989/files/source.pdf }}

Fries died in Uppsala on 8 February 1878.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|access-date=14 June 2016|archive-date=24 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130124115814/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf}} When he died, The Times commented: "His very numerous works, especially on fungi and lichens, give him a position as regards those groups of plants comparable only to that of Linnaeus."The Times, Thursday, 21 February 1878; p. 6; Issue 29184; col. C Fries was succeeded in the Borgström professorship (from 1859 to 1876) by Johan Erhard Areschoug,[https://runeberg.org/sbh/a0042.html Areschoug, John Erhard] in Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson, 1906, Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm, pp. 42–43. (In Swedish) after whom Theodor Magnus Fries, the son of Elias, held the chair (from 1877 to 1899).[https://runeberg.org/sbh/a0361.html Fries, Teodor (Thore) Magnus] in Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson, 1906, Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon, Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm, pp. 361–362. (In Swedish)

Publications

Monographia Pyrenomycetum Sueciae (1816)
Systema Mycologicum (1821)
Systema Orbis Vegetabilis (1825)
Elenchus Fungorem (1828)
Lichenographia Europaea Reformata (1831)
Epicrisis Systematis Mycologici: seu synopsis hymenomycetum (1838)

Botanical reference

Family

His wife was Christina Wieslander (1808–1862), with whom he raised nine children. His son Theodor Magnus Fries became a botanist and lichenologist, eventually holding the Borgström professorship himself, and another son, Oscar Robert Fries, became a physician in Gothenburg while maintaining a keen interest in mycology.{{cite journal|doi=10.5598/imafungus.2015.06.01.04|title=The mycological legacy of Elias Magnus Fries |year=2015 |last1=Petersen |first1=Ronald H. |last2=Knudsen |first2=Henning |journal=IMA Fungus |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=99–114 |pmid=26203415 |pmc=4500089 }} Theodor "Thore" Magnus's sons Thore Christian Elias Fries and Robert Elias Fries also became botanists.{{cite web

|url = http://www.systbot.uu.se/information/history/fries.htm

|title = The Fries Family of Botanists

|author = Anders Backlund

|access-date = 2008-05-06

|date = 2006-02-03

|publisher = Uppsala University

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071209081753/http://www.systbot.uu.se/information/history/fries.htm

|archive-date = 2007-12-09

}}

References

External links

{{Internet Archive author |sname=Elias Magnus Fries}}
[http://www.mushroomthejournal.com/greatlakesdata/Authors/Fries10.html "Elias Magnus Fries"], Authors of fungal names, Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.
[http://www.eliasfries.org Web site of the Descendants of Elias Fries Association]
{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Fries, Elias Magnus |year=1906 |short=x}}