The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fries, Elias Magnus

FRIES, frēs, Elias Magnus, Swedish botanist: b. Smaland, Sweden, 15 Aug. 1794; d. Upsala, 8 Feb. 1878. He was educated at Lund and in 1828 was appointed demonstrator in botany there. In 1834 he was called to the chair of practical economics at Upsala, with which in 1851 that of botany was conjoined. His botanical investigations deal with the field of systematic botany, but his work is especially valuable in its additions to our knowledge of lichens, mosses, fungi, etc. Fries introduced into Sweden the morphological theory in his ‘Systems of the Vegetable World’ (1825). His work on ‘Mycology’ (1820-32) was long the standard work on the classification of fungi, of which he gave a relatively complete catalogue in ‘Scandinavian Flora’ (1846-49). He wrote a series of useful books on the Hymenomycetæ, on lichens, and on the flora of Scandinavia, more particularly of Sweden. Among his monographs is one on the ‘Hieracieæ’ (1848). In 1851 Fries was appointed director of the botanical museum and garden at Upsala, and in 1853 rector of the university.