Katharine Murray Lyell

Katharine Murray Lyell (1817–1915) was a British botanist, author of an early book on the worldwide distribution of ferns, and editor of volumes of the correspondence of several of the era's notable scientists.

She traveled to India with Henry, where she collected plants in several regions including the Ganges delta, and she corresponded with such eminent Victorians of her day as the scientists Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin and the missionary Harriette Colenso (who collected ferns for her).

[2] Her fern collection is shared between Kew Gardens and The University of Reading Herbarium (RNG), while her other plants went to the British Museum.

Lyell undertook the editorship of volumes of correspondence and memoirs of three of her era's outstanding scientists.

When her brother-in-law Charles died in 1875, she became the compiler and editor of a two-volume edition of his life, letters, and journals.