Parfitt Papers

The notebooks make up volumes 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 of his notes on Devonshire Fungi. Loose sheets contain similar material. Notebooks and loose sheets all contain a list with suggestions made by Miss Elsie Wakefield and Dr Richard Dennis as to the identification of the fungi.

Edward Parfitt (1820-1893), Librarian of the Devon and Exeter Institution; botanist and horticulturalist, was born at East Tuddenham near Norwich in 1820, the son of Edward Parfitt (1800-1875) and Violet Howlet (1800-1836). He worked with his father, who was gardener to Lord Hastings at Melton Constable, Norfolk. He was for two years Curator of Taunton Museum, and Librarian at the Devon and Exeter Institution from 1861 to his death. From 1863 he contributed some fifty papers to the Transactions of the Devonshire Association on plants, insects and geology. He died in the Devon and Exeter Institution on 15 January 1893. (See Notes and Queries, 5th series, IV, 262-263 for his full autobiographical letter to George Boase in 1884.)

The papers remain bound in the five notebooks. Each drawing and description was numbered by Dr Dennis at Kew in 1949.

Usual EUL arrangements apply

Mr FA Brockenshire of Barnstaple donated the collection.

Usual EUL arrangements apply

The collection of notes on Devon Funghi originally extended to 12 volumes, including 1,530 illustrations painted by the author. Five of these were donated in 1950; the others are thought to be in Torquay Museum.