Philip Furley Fyson was a botanist and educator who worked in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He is noted as the author of the first illustrated volumes on the flora of the South Indian hills

Western Ghats

The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...

. The Fyson prize is instituted in his honour by the Presidency College, Chennai

Presidency College, Chennai

Presidency College is an arts, law and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. Established as the Madras Preparatory School on October 15, 1840 and later, upgraded to a high school and then, graduate college, the Presidency College is one of the oldest government arts colleges...

  for work in the area of Natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

.

Early life

Fyson was born in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 to British missionary parents and his early education was in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. He earned a first class in the Natural Science tripos at Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

 and in 1904 he moved to Madras in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

 to join the Presidency College of Madras.

Botany in India

From 1920 to 1925 he served as Inspector of Schools for Vishakapatnam and Ganjam

Ganjam

Ganjam is a town and a notified area committee in Ganjam district in the state of Orissa, India.-Geography:Ganjam is located at . It has an average elevation of 3 metres .-Demographics:...

 districts. He later returned to the Presidency college in and became its Principal from 1925-1932.

He wrote a textbook of botany in 1912 for college students. He also wrote a book on Madras flowers with 100 illustrated plates, a Flora of the South Indian Hills and a monograph on the genus Eriocaulon

Eriocaulon

Eriocaulon is a genus of about 400 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Eriocaulaceae. The genus is widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical regions, particularly southern Asia and the Americas. A few species extend to temperate...

. He helped establish and launch the Journal of Indian Botany through the Indian Botanical Society

Indian Botanical Society

The Indian Botanical Society is the national learned society for botanists of India. It was founded in 1920.The Society's activities include lectures, symposia, field excursions, field projects and an annual society meeting for exchange of information between botanists working in different...

 (started in 1919). The journal was later to become Journal of the Indian Botanical Society.

From 1906, he took great interest in the botany of the hills and spent time in the Sacred Heart College at Shembaganur, near Kodaikanal, working along with Fr. E. Gombert, on the local botany. In 1910 some 30 amateur women naturalists in the Kodaikanal

Kodaikanal

-Climate:Kodaikanal has a monsoon-influenced subtropical highland climate . The temperatures are cool throughout the year due to the high elevation of the city.-Economy:...

 and Ooty area were illustrating the local flora under the guidance of Lady Bourne. Sir Alfred Gibbs Bourne

Alfred Gibbs Bourne

Sir Alfred Gibbs Bourne KCIE, DSc, FRS, FLS was a zoologist, botanist and educator....

 and Lady Bourne were interested in the botany of these hills and approached him for adding information on these plants. This led him to study the local flora and the 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...

 collections.

He took leave for this study and in 1915 this resulted in The Flora of the Nilgiri and Pulney Hill-tops with 286 illustrated pages and 483 species.
A supplement followed in 1921 with species from the lower elevations and notes on the Shevaroy Hills

Shevaroy Hills

Shevaroys is the anglicised name for the Servarayan which lie near the town of Salem in Tamil Nadu, India. It is a detached hill range, covering an area of 50 sq. m., with plateaus from 4000 to 5000 ft. above sea-level. They include the sanatorium and several old coffee plantations...

.
This was followed in 1932 by The Flora of the South Indian Hill Stations covering 877 species. His wife Diana Ruth Fyson also illustrated the book, with nearly 320 of the 611 plates contributed by her. She was interested in art and nature and also wrote a guide to the Mahabalipuram area.

Professor Fyson retired and returned to England in 1932 and settled at Ruswick, Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

. He died in a road accident on 26 December 1947. His wife Diana died on 16 December 1969 at Hexham

Hexham

Hexham is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, located south of the River Tyne, and was the administrative centre for the Tynedale district from 1974 to 2009. The three major towns in Tynedale were Hexham, Prudhoe and Haltwhistle, although in terms of population, Prudhoe was...

, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

.

Although modern botanists have not been impressed by the works, his was the first major illustrated flora. This work created a lot of interest in the flora and stimulated many new botanical works. He also encouraged many naturalists including Madhaviah Krishnan.

External sources

• The Flora of the South Indian Hill Stations: Ootacamund, Coonoor, Kotagiri, Kodaikanal, Yercaud and the Country Round, 2008 (In 3 Volumes), P.F. Fyson ISBN 8187067470 Hardcover, xxix+258p., iv+259-485p., iv+486-697p., Figures; Appendices; Index; 24 cm., Dec 2008 , Asiatic Publishing House.
• Article with portrait