John Ramsbottom (mycologist)

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John Ramsbottom (1885–1974) was a British mycologist. He was Keeper of Botany at the British Museum (Natural History). He served as general secretary and twice as president of the British Mycological Society, and was long editor of its Transactions. He received the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London in 1965.

"In reading the old accounts one finds a strange mixture of fact and fantasy. Some are so fantastic that if they had not been accepted by other authors they would not find a place in even a most detailed historical summary. Then there comes an observation of such merit that all seems set for real progress. But these facts, even when accepted, are often misinterpreted, almost as if in a superfluity of naughtiness, and again there is confusion." – John Ramsbottom, Mushrooms & Toadstools, 1953, p. 17

Selected Publications:

• "George Edward Massee" in Journal of Botany (1917)
• A handbook of the larger British Fungi (1923)
• Mushrooms and Toadstools - a Study of the Activities of Fungi (1953)