Elizabeth Andrew Warren, Botanist and Algologist of Flushing: Botanist and Algologist of Flushing

Elizabeth Andrew Warren, 1786 - 1864 was a self-taught botanist, working in the Cornish village of Flushing. Losing her father when 11, and in obscurity in Kent for many years, she bursts on the scene aged 48 as a fully fledged botanist. From there, through her world-wide array of family and friends, she played a significant part in the identification and classification of the myriad of flora - plants, mosses, lichens, grasses, trees - which were being recognised and collected all round the globe, and found their way to her house in this small Cornish village..

We see her principally through her side of a 24 year correspondence with William Hooker, first in Glasgow then at Kew, showing a growing friendship and mutual respect, and mourning each other’s family losses.

We present a picture of the social system in which she operated, her extended family, and her connections in the Cornish society which enabled her work.