Frederick Eyles

Frederick Eyles (10 May 1864, Wick, Gloucestershire - 28 May 1937, Gatooma, Southern Rhodesia) was an English-born Rhodesian botanist, politician and journalist.

[2] Eyles was probably resident in Natal for some time, since J.C. Juta & Co., published his book, "Zulu Self-Taught" in Cape Town in 1900.

At first Eyles collected insects, being particularly fond of the Coleoptera or beetles, a selection of which he presented to the Association's museum in 1900.

The following year his interest had been captured by prehistory, so that in March 1901 he wrote a paper on "The origin of the native races of South Africa", a collation from various philological and anthropological sources - this work was published in the Proceedings (Vol.

The following year he announced that he was compiling a catalogue of Rhodesian plants, to which end he had put together an extensive herbarium.

Indeed, for the remainder of his life he concentrated on Rhodesian flora, culminating in the publication of "A record of plants collected in Southern Rhodesia", issued in the Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa (1916, Vol.

He also published two papers in the South African Journal of Science: "Constituents of the flora of Southern Rhodesia" (1920, Vol.

[4] In 1923 he was appointed Department of Agriculture botanist and mycologist, spending six months at the University of Stellenbosch where he studied mycology and plant pathology under P.A.

The following year the mycological side of his work was transferred to John Collier Frederick Hopkins, while he carried on as the departmental botanist.

In his presidential address he presented "A preliminary list of the plants of Southern Rhodesia" (Report, 1911, pp. 277–321).

He died of pneumonia contracted on a collecting trip to the Gatooma district, and was survived by his wife, Ann Eyles.