Jean Paton

This article is about the British botanist. For the American adoptee rights activist, see Jean M. Paton.

Jean Annette Paton MBE
Born	(1929-01-04) 4 January 1929 (age 95)
Alma mater	Bedford College for Women
Awards	Jill Smythies Award (2000)
Scientific career
Fields	Bryology
Institutions	University of Southampton
Author abbrev. (botany)	Paton

Jean Annette Paton MBE (née Comins^[1] or Comyn;^[2] born 4 January 1929) is a British botanist, bryologist and botanical illustrator. She has written many books on the bryology of the United Kingdom and the flora of Cornwall, and described several new species.

Paton has been called the "queen of vice-county recording" for her prolific records of bryological specimens in the second half of the 20th century.^[3] She was president of the British Bryological Society in 1976 and 1977.^[4]

Early life

Paton was born on 4 January 1929.^[5] She is dyslexic and could not read until she was nine.^[5] Paton taught herself to draw and paint flowers when she was young, which later helped her to learn their names.^[6]

She attended Bedford College in London from 1947, and later completed an MSc, doing a dissertation on the bryophytes of the sandstone rocks of Kent and Sussex.^[5]

Career

Paton began work at the University of Southampton's Botany Department in 1952 as a research and herbarium assistant, and later became a lecturer there.^[5] In 1959, she moved to Cornwall with her husband Pat.^[5] There, she wrote Wild Flowers in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and Flowers of the Cornish Coast published in 1968 and 1969 respectively.^[5]

Paton was president of the British Bryological Society in 1976 and 1977 and was elected an honorary member in 1987.^[4]

Her The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles was published in 1999 and was described as the "best liverwort flora ever published in Europe".^[7] Eric Vernon Watson called it a "landmark in the study of British liverworts".^[1] Paton won the Linnean Society's Jill Smythies Award in May 2000 for her illustrations in the book, and the International Association of Bryologists Sinske Hattori Prize for the best publication of 1999/2000.^[8][9] Paton published a supplement to The Liverwort Flora in 2022.^[10][11]

In 2001, she and Pat published Magnolias in Cornish Gardens and in 2005, she published Bryophyte Flora of the Isles of Scilly with David Holyoak.^[5]

Paton was awarded an MBE in the 2003 New Year Honours for services to biology and nature conservation.^[12]

Throughout her career, Paton described a number of species new to science, including Anthoceros agrestis,^[13] Ditrichum cornubicum,^[14]: 98 Lophocolea brookwoodiana,^[15] Telaranea murphyae and Fissidens celticus.^[5] In addition to this, she added many species to the list of bryophytes known in Britain, including Southbya tophacea, Lophocolea semeteres, and Marsupella profunda.^{[5][14]: 127–128}

Between 1947 and 1999, Paton was the top recorder of specimens in Britain, recording 1,924 of the 22,532 specimens in the period.^[3] Her herbariums have been added to the collections of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh,^[5][16] and to the Natural History Museum, London.^[17]

Personal life

Paton married Valentine 'Pat' Paton in October 1952.^[5]

References

1. Stephen L. Jury (Christmas 1999). "Herbarium News No. 37" (PDF). University of Reading. pp. 9–10. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
2. T. C. G. Rich; S. J. Richardson; F. Rose (1995). "Tunbridge Filmy-Fern Hymenophyllum tunbrigense (Hymenophyllaceae Pteridophyta) In South East England In 1994/1995" (PDF). The Fern Gazette. 15 (2). British Pteridological Society: 51-63. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
3. Mark Hill (May 2010). "Sixty years a Queen: vice-county recording since 1947, with observations on where Jean Paton went and what she found" (PDF). Field Bryology (101): 46–47. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
4. "History of the BBS". British Bryological Society. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
5. "Jean Paton MBE (b. 04.01.29)" (PDF). Field Bryology. 98: 49–54. June 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
6. "Jean Paton". International Association of Bryologists. July 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
7. Rowena Millar (Summer 2003). "Trust stalwarts receive honours". Wild Cornwall (91). Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
8. "The Jill Smythies Award". The Linnean Society. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
9. The Liverwort Flora of the British Isles. Brill. 15 November 2014. ISBN 9789004285385. Retrieved 23 September 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
10. Paton, Jean A. (10 November 2023). A supplement to the liverwort flora of the British Isles / Jean A. Paton. Jean A. Paton. ISBN 9781399908580. Retrieved 23 September 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
11. British Bryological Society [@BBSbryology] (28 March 2022). "Jean Paton, who at over 90 years of age has just published the supplement to her liverwort flora, taking a rest today on a bank of Leucobryum on the Trebartha estate during the BBS Spring Meeting in Cornwall. #WomenInBryology @IAB_Bryology" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
12. "No. 56797". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2002. pp. 1–28.
13. "Jean Annette Paton 1929- (Skupina: B)". Flora Croatica Database. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
14. Ron D. Porley (2013). England's Rare Mosses and Liverworts : Their History, Ecology, and Conservation. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691158716.
15. Jean A. Paton; Mary Clare Sheahan (2006). "Lophocolea brookwoodiana (Jungermanniales: Geocalycaceae), a new species in Britain". Journal of Bryology. 28 (3): 163–166. doi:10.1179/174328206X119952. S2CID 85345944.
16. "Herbarium catalog - Paton, Jean". Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
17. "Ditrichum cornubicum Paton - Natural History Museum, London". Google Arts and Culture. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
18. International Plant Names Index.  Paton.