Lettice Digby

Lettice Digby (31 July 1877 – 27 November 1972) was a British cytologist, botanist and malacologist. Her work provided the first demonstration that a fertile polyploid hybrid had formed between two cultivated plant species. Education and personal life She was born 31 July 1877 in Chelsea, London, UK. She was the second of the four children of Sir Kenelm Edward Digby and Hon. Caroline Strutt who had married on 30 August 1870. She studied at the Royal College of Science. By 1907 she was living in Kingsford, Colchester, and she died in Colchester, Essex, UK on 27 November 1972. Scientific career Digby was active in research within both botany and malacology, where she applied the technologies of cytology. Her application of cytology to the Kew primrose (Primula kewensis) provided the first example of a polyploid hybrid to be recorded. This fertile polyploid species arose through chromosome doubling in an otherwise infertile hybrid. The fertile polyploid with 36 chromosomes was formed at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew among infertile hybrids between P. verticillata, originating from Africa and Asia, and P. floribunda, from the Himalayas. The hybrids had been noticed in 1899 by staff at Kew, particularly Frank Garett, and were awarded a First Class certificate at a Royal Horticultural Society meeting in 1900. They were large plants with attractive flowers. The lack of fertile seeds despite repeated efforts at crossing the parents was a problem until some were obtained in 1905. Digby was thus able to compare both fertile and infertile hybrids. P. kewensis continued to be cited into the 21st century as an example of a new species originating from human activities.