Mary Johnstone Lynn

Mary Johnstone Lynn
Born	9 January 1891 Carrickfergus
Died	after 1959 Carrickfergus
Nationality	Irish
Other names	M. J. Lynn
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast
Known for	plant ecology of tidal zones, cell biology, algology
Scientific career
Fields	Botany

Mary Johnston(e) Lynn (9 January 1891 – died after 1959) was an Irish botanist known for her phyto-ecological studies in Northern Ireland.

Early life and education

Lynn was born at Albany Cottage, Carrickfergus to Henry Lynn and Mary Johnstone Rodgers. She attended Queens University, Belfast for undergraduate and postgraduate studies, earning a bachelor's degree in 1914 and a doctorate in 1937.[1][2]

Career

Lynn taught at Queens University, Belfast.[2][3] In the 1920s and 1930s, she was a senior demonstrator in the botany department.[4] She was an active member of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club[5] and the Botanical Society of Northern Ireland,[6] and studied plant cell biology,[7] including the effect of carbon dioxide and rotation on the curvature of sunflower stems.[8] She published articles in The Irish Naturalists' Journal[9][10] and The New Phytologist.[4]

In 1934 she was the first to record the alga C. peregrina in Ireland;[11] she also studied the scarcity of Zostera marina in Strangford Lough.[12] James Small thanked her for help in reading the proofs of his A Textbook of Botany (1937).[13] In 1947, she gave a lecture on seaweeds to the Belfast Naturalists Field Club.[14] In 1949, she described "a rare form of Ascophyllum nodosum" she found at Larne Lough.[15] She was publishing her research as late as 1960, when she updated a coastal survey of Larne Lough,[16] and reported on the appearance of Datura stramonium in Ireland.

Algae specimens collected by Lynn were part of the Algal Herbarium at Queens University, Belfast.[17]

References

1. Ray Desmond, LYNN, Mary Johnstone (1891–1930s) in Dictionary of British And Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists, CRC Press, Sep 11, 2002
2. Praeger, R. Lloyd. "Some Irish Naturalists: A Biographical Note-book". National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
3. Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (1 January 2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415920407.
4. Lynn, M. J. (1921). "The Reversal of Geotropic Response in the Stem I. The Effects of Various Percentages of Carbon Dioxide". The New Phytologist. 20 (3): 116–123. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1921.tb05778.x. ISSN 0028-646X. JSTOR 2427930.
5. Belfast Naturalists' Field Club (1913–1914). "Report of the Fiftieth Anniversary Subcommittee". Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club. Robarts - University of Toronto. Belfast.
6. Lynn, M. J.; McGurk, J. (1932). "Botanical Society of Northern Ireland. Coastal Survey: VI. Ardglass: From The Pill to St. Patrick's Well". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 4 (6): 114–117. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25532109.
7. Small, James; Wiercinsky, Floyd J. (6 December 2012). The pH of Plant Cells The pH of Animal Cells. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-3-7091-5451-9.
8. Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society (1923). Proceedings and Report of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. London Natural History Museum Library.
9. Lynn, M. J. (1933). "Initials in Timber". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 4 (9): 173–175. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25532175.
10. Lynn, Mary J. (1937). "Notes on the Algae of the District of Whiterock, Strangford Lough". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 6 (8): 192–195. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25532686.
11. Blackler, Helen (1937). "The Alga Colpomenia sinuosa Derb. et Sol. in Ireland". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 6 (8): 196–197. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25532691.
12. Lynn, Mary J. (1936). "The Scarcity of Zostera marina (Slitch, Eelgrass or Grass-Wrack) in Strangford Lough". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 6 (5): 107–117. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25532620.
13. Small, James (1937). A textbook of botany for medical, pharmaceutical and other students. J. & A. Churchill. pp. viii.
14. "News of the Societies". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 9 (2): 55–56. 1947. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25533536.
15. Lynn, Mary J. (1949). "A Rare Alga from Larne Lough". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 9 (11): 301–304. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25533757.
16. Lynn, M. J. (1960). "Coastal Survey X (New Series) Southern End of Larne Lough, Co. Antrim". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 13 (7): 159–163. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25534711.
17. Kertland, M. P. H. (1967). "Some Early Algal Collections in the Queen's University Herbarium". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 15 (12): 346–349. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25537152.

External links

• “Handwriting sample: Mary J. Lynn” Special Collections, USDA National Agricultural Library. Accessed March 22, 2020.