James Eustace Bagnall

James Eustace Bagnall was born in Birmingham on 7 November 1830. He was the eldest son of James Bagnall (1804–1874) and his wife Jane Amelia (née Wall, 1806–1888). When younger, he lived with his family in central Birmingham, being educated at Singers' Hill School; from 1881, census returns show him living with his sister Fanny in the Aston district of Birmingham. Initially he worked at his father's warehouse as a brass-founder. Between 1845 and 1897, he worked as a clerk at Hinks and Wells, who were Birmingham manufacturers of steel pen-nibs. He never married. He died on 3 September 1918. == Contributions to Natural History ==

"Bagnall did not discover the delights of botany until the age of 34, when a friend lent him a microscope." He says of himself that "all my work, whether clerical or botanical, has been done in the scant leisure of a manufactory clerk" and that his "knowledge of botany has been self-acquired." Via the collection of specimens and the collation of records, his main contribution was to what is now called biogeography. Bagnall was prominent member of the Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society. His herbarium and papers are held by the Library of Birmingham. The National Museum Cardiff has 125 of his bryological specimens. Local Floras Bagnall made important contributions to the Floras of the counties surrounding his home in Birmingham. One of his earliest publications, in 1874, was a moss Flora of Warwickshire. In 1876, he published a Flora of Sutton Park, now a National Nature Reserve. There were very few plant records from Sutton Park before this account, so that his Flora served as the foundation for all later Floras. A version with updated species names is available online. This was the first Flora of Warwickshire (VC38), and was based on a series of papers Bagnall had published in the Midland Naturalist between 1881 and 1885. The first attempt at a comprehensive Flora of Staffordshire (VC39) was by Robert Garner in 1844. In 1901, when Bagnall was already well known for The Flora of Warwickshire, his Flora of Staffordshire was published. This 74 page work was intended to update Garner's Flora and contains a substantial number of new records, many by Bagnall himself. It was only superseded in 1972. Bagnall also contributed the botanical chapter for the 1908 volume of the Victoria County History of Staffordshire. As with his Flora of Warwickshire, Bagnall divided the county into drainage areas and classified records by these areas. Bryology Bagnall was a noted field bryologist. It describes how to study mosses, including the apparatus needed and the preparation and storage of specimens; their development, habitats (including descriptions of typical species) and geographical distribution; and their classification. It also includes chapters on cultivation and use. Bagnall contributed chapters or sections on bryophytes to a number of works, including the Victoria County History of Worcestershire in 1901, the Victoria County History of Warwickshire in 1904, the Victoria County History of Staffordshire in 1908 and The Botany of Worcestershire in 1909. ==Honours and awards==

• On 15 January 1885, he was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society (ALS). • In 1888, he was awarded the Darwin Prize of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies, with the citation "Botany". The prize (whose title and purposes had been approved by Charles Darwin) was "given annually for a paper indicating original research upon a subject within the scope of the Societies in the Union, contributed by a member for publication in the Journal of the Union," and included a medal. • In 1909, he was elected an honorary member of the Moss Exchange Club. ==List of Bagnall's major publications==

• (January). • . (An updated version is available online.) • He was a regular contributor to the Midland Naturalist, which was published between 1878 and 1893 in Vols 1-16. • . Reprinted/republished in at least 6 editions 1889 (3rd), 1891, 1896 (4th), 1907 (5th), 1910 (6th) (London, Swan Sonnenschein). • • Bagnall, James E. (1901), "Musci, Hepaticae, Lichenes, Algae", in ed Amphlett, J. "Botany", Victoria History of the County of Worcestershire, Vol. 1, pp. 62–69 • (supplement to the Journal of Botany) • • According to Lawley, Bagnall contributed a section on bryophytes in • . Bagnall is listed as having revised this work. • • . A facsimile reproduction was published in 1978 (Wakefield : EP Pub.). Bagnall is credited by Lawley with the section on bryophytes. ==Notes and references==