The New International Encyclopædia/Fries, Elias Magnus

FRIES, Elias Magnus (1794-1878). An eminent Swedish botanist. He was born in the parish of Femsjö, and studied at the University of Lund, where he became demonstrator in botany in 1828. In 1834 he went to the University of Upsala as professor of economic science, to which chair, after the death of Professor Wahlenberg, in 1851, was united the chair of botany. In the latter year he was also appointed director of the Upsala Botanic Garden, and in 1859 he retired from active work. Fries made important contributions to all departments of systematic botany, but especially to the knowledge of lichens, fungi, and mosses, upon which groups of plants he wrote many important works. Some of his publications are: Systema Mycologicum (3 vols., 1820-32); Elenchus Fungorum (2 vols., 1825); Lichenographia Europæa Reformata (1831); Flora Scanica (1835); Sind die Naturwissenschaften ein Bildungsmittel? (1844); Summa Vegetabilium Scandinaviæ (2 vols., 1846-49); Novæ Symbolæ Mycologicæ (1851); Monographia Hymenomyoetum Sueciæ (2 vols., 1857-63); Epicrisis Generum Hieraciorum (1862); Sveriges ätliga och giftiga svampar, Fungi Esculenti et venenati Scandinaviæ (1862-69), with 93 colored plates; Botaniska utflygter, three volumes of collected short papers (1843-64).