Fries

Fries, ELIAS, a Swedish botanist, was born, 15th August 1794, in the district of Femsjö in Småland, and studied at Lund, where he early taught botany. In 1834 he was called to the chair of Practical Economics at Upsala, with which in 1851 that of Botany was conjoined. Fries introduced into Sweden the morphological theory in his Systema Orbis Vegetabilis (1825). His Systema Mycologicum (3 vols. 1820-32) was long the standard work on the classification of fungi, of which he gave a relatively complete catalogue in Summa Vegetabilium Scandinavie (2 vols. Stockholm, 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 the Symbolæ ad Historiam Hieraciorum (Upsala, 1848) deserves especial mention. In 1851 Fries was appointed director of the botanical museum and garden at Upsala, and in 1853 rector of the university. He resigned in 1857, and died there, 8th February 1878.