Elias Magnus Fries


Elias Magnus Fries FRS FRSE FLS RAS was a Swedish mycologist and botanist.

Career

Fries was born at Femsjö, Småland, the son of the pastor there. He attended school in Växjö.
He acquired an extensive knowledge of flowering plants from his father. In 1811 Fries entered Lund University where he obtained a doctorate in 1814. In the same year he was appointed an associate professorship in botany. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1824, became a full professor. In 1834 he became Borgström professor in applied economics at Uppsala University. The position was changed to "professor of botany and applied economics" in 1851. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1849. That year he was also appointed director of the Uppsala University Botanical Garden. In 1853, he became rector of the University.
Fries most important works were the three-volume Systema mycologicum, Elenchus fungorum, the two-volume Monographia hymenomycetum Sueciae and Hymenomycetes Europaei.
Fries is considered to be, after Christian Hendrik Persoon, a founding father of the modern taxonomy of mushrooms. His taxonomy of mushrooms was influenced by Goethe and the German romantics. He utilized spore color and arrangement of the hymenophore as major taxonomic characteristics.
He died in Uppsala on 8 February 1878.
When he died, The Times commented: "His very numerous works, especially on fungi and lichens, give him a position as regards those groups of plants only comparable to that of Linnaeus". Fries was succeeded in the Borgström professorship by John Erhard Areschoug, after whom Theodor Magnus Fries, the son of Elias, held the chair.

Publications

His son was Theodor Magnus Fries.