Background and career

Charles Crossland was born in Halifax

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. His parents ran a general store and Charles left school at 13 to help them run the business. He trained as a butcher and opened a shop in Wyke

Wyke

Wyke is a Ward in Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England, named after the village of Wyke....

 in 1864, the same year he married Mary Ann Cragg. The couple had four children, two dying in infancy, and Mary Ann herself died in 1869. Charles remarried in 1871 and had two children by his second wife, Clementina Foster. In 1873, the couple returned to Halifax, where they opened a butcher's shop which they continued to run till Charles largely retired from the trade (leaving the shop mostly in the hands of a managing partner) in 1890. He was treasurer of the Halifax Butchers' Association from 1881 to 1908 and often referred to himself as a "Knight of the Cleaver".

He spoke and was interested in the local Halifax dialect, publishing a number of papers on local place-names and surnames in the Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, of which he was a member, eventually becoming the society's president. In later years, he also compiled a bibliography of Halifax, parts of which were published in the Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, as well as a local guide book, Pleasant walks around Halifax (1910).

Mycology

Crossland initially became interested in botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 in 1880, whilst helping one of his daughters with a Sunday school wild flower project. He joined the Halifax Scientific Society to pursue his new-found enthusiasm, and subsequently the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. In 1888, at a YNU fungus foray, Crossland met George Edward Massee

George Edward Massee

George Edward Massee was an English mycologist, plant pathologist, and botanist.-Background and education:George Massee was born in Scampston, East Yorkshire, the son of a farmer...

 who encouraged him to take an interest in fungi. As a result, he developed an expertise in mycology

Mycology

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...

, with a particular interest in the discomycetes

Discomycetes

Discomycetes is a former taxonomic class of Ascomycete fungi which contains all of the cup, sponge, brain, and some club-like fungi. It includes typical cup fungi like the scarlet elf cup and the orange peel fungus, and fungi with fruiting bodies of more unusual shape, such as morels, truffles and...

, making extensive local collections, often in the company of Henry Thomas Soppitt and fellow mycologist and bryologist James Needham. Crossland produced many papers on Yorkshire fungi, including several describing species new to science. His two major works were the cryptogamic section of the Flora of the parish of Halifax, jointly authored with botanist W.B. Crump in 1904, and The Fungus Flora of Yorkshire, a substantial volume co-authored with Massee, in 1905. His collections of fungi, drawings, and notes are now in the mycological herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

.

Charles Crossland became the first secretary of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Mycological Committee in 1892, becoming president of the union itself in 1907. He was a founder member of the British Mycological Society

British Mycological Society

The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi.-Formation:The Society was formed based on the efforts of two local societies, the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. The curator of the Hereford...

, becoming its first treasurer in 1896. He was made a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1899.

Taxa

Crossland described several new species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of fungi from Yorkshire, either individually or with Soppitt or Massee. These included several agarics, notably Lactarius glaucescens Crossl., but were mostly discomycetes

Discomycetes

Discomycetes is a former taxonomic class of Ascomycete fungi which contains all of the cup, sponge, brain, and some club-like fungi. It includes typical cup fungi like the scarlet elf cup and the orange peel fungus, and fungi with fruiting bodies of more unusual shape, such as morels, truffles and...

, including Ascophanus globosopulvinatus (Crossl.) Boud.

Jean Louis Émile Boudier

Jean Louis Émile Boudier was a pharmacist who lived in Montmorency, France. He published a fair amount about the Discomycetes and other areas of mycology...

 ex Ramsb.

John Ramsbottom (mycologist)

John Ramsbottom was a British mycologist.He was Keeper of Botany at the British Museum . He served as general secretary and twice as president of the British Mycological Society, and was long editor of its Transactions. He was president of the Linnean Society from 1937 to 1940 and was awarded...

, Niptera pilosa (Crossl.) Boud., Melastiza contorta (Massee & Crossl.) Spooner & Y.J. Yao, and Scutellinia citrina (Massee & Crossl.) Spooner & Y.J. Yao. A number of species were named in Crossland's honour, including Clavaria crosslandii Cotton

Arthur Disbrowe Cotton

Arthur Disbrowe Cotton was an English plant pathologist, mycologist, phycologist, and botanist.A.D. Cotton was born in London and educated at King's College School and the Royal College of Science, where he completed a degree in botany in 1901...

, Ascobolus crosslandii Boud.

Jean Louis Émile Boudier

Jean Louis Émile Boudier was a pharmacist who lived in Montmorency, France. He published a fair amount about the Discomycetes and other areas of mycology...

, and Octospora crosslandii (Dennis & Itzerott) Benkert.

Selected publications

• Crossland, C. (1892). New and rare fungi near Halifax. The Naturalist 1892: 371-372
• Crossland, C. (1899). Mollisia cinerea and its varieties. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 1: 106-109.
• Crump, W.B. & Crossland, C. (1904). The flora of the parish of Halifax. Halifax Scientific Society http://www.archive.org/stream/floraofparishofh1904crum#page/n5/mode/2up
• Massee. G. & Crossland, C. (1905). The fungus flora of Yorkshire. London: A. Brown http://www.archive.org/stream/fungusfloraofyor00mass#page/n0/mode/2up