James Stirton

James Stirton (1833 – 14 January 1917) was a Scottish physician and one of Scotland's leading experts on cryptogamic botany. His investigations in bryology and lichenology earned him a world-wide reputation.

Biography Stirton was born in Coupar Angus, Perthshire, in 1833.

Stirton taught mathematics from 1856 to 1858 at the Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh. At the University of Edinburgh he graduated in 1857 L.R.C.P.Edin and in 1858 M.D.Edin. and held the professorship for about fifteen years. including 8 new lichen species from Tasmania.

He contributed the section Cryptogamic Flora (an account of mosses and lichens) to the 1876 book Notes on the Fauna and Flora of the west of Scotland (edited by Edward R. Alston). Stirton served as President of the Glasgow Society of Field Naturalists and contributed numerous articles to the Report and Transactions of the Glasgow Society of Field Naturalists, Glasgow Naturalist, Grevillea, the Scottish Naturalist, the Annals of Scottish Natural History, and other periodicals.

In 1859 he visited Egypt and in 1872 published The Climate of Egypt and Nubia, with Medical Hints to Invalids, &c..

In 1860 he married Jessie McLaren. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Watson (1861) and later Margaret Campbell. Eponyms Genus Both lichens Stirtonia A.L.Sm.

Species Bryum stirtonii Schimp., 1876 synonym of Bryum elegans Nees, 1827 Cryptothecia stirtonii A.L.Sm., 1926 Grimmia stirtonii Schimp., 1876 synonym of Grimmia trichophylla Grev., 1824 Lecidea stirtoniana Zahlbr., 1925 Melanotheca stirtoniana Müll.Arg., 1894 Opegrapha stirtonii Zahlbr., 1923 synonym of Patellaria stirtonii (Zahlbr.) Ertz, 2009 Parmelia stirtonii Zahlbr., 1929 synonym of Menegazzia stirtonii (Zahlbr.) Kantvilas & Louwhoff, 2004 Usnea stirtoniana Zahlbr., 1930 Zygodon stirtonii Schimp., 1871 synonym of Zygodon viridissimus'' Dicks.) Brid., 1826

Selected publications