Edward Morell Holmes

Edward Morell Holmes FLS (29 January 1843 – 10 September 1930) was a British botanist, curator and lecturer in materia medica. Most of the specimens he collected are marine algae, lichens, or bryophytes. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to Mr. S. S. Hayward, a pharmacist in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London. He then worked for Mr T.Vicary in Plymouth, and while there collected a herbarium of British plants which won the Society's bronze medal in 1863.

Holmes edited and distributed two exsiccatae, one under the title Algae Britannicae rariores exsiccatae, curante E. M. Holmes (1883-1910).

Honours He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society. He was awarded the Fluckiger Medal in 1897 and the Pharmaceutical Society's Hanbury Gold Medal in 1915, both in recognition of his contribution to the field. He was President of the British Pharmaceutical Conference in 1900.

Personal life In 1882, he married Catherine "Kate" Appleford (b. 1842), who also collected British plants. In 1921 an automobile hit him, necessitating the amputation of part of one leg. In 1935, she donated his papers to the Wellcome Library. There were no children from the marriage.