This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Linde Lunney. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 31 January 1864, United Kingdom
Died: 27 April 1933
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
Matilda Cullen Knowles (1864–1933) was born 31 January 1864 at Galgorm, near Ballymena; the family regularly visited archeological sites together, but even as a young girl Matilda was more interested in botany, and worked on flowering plants with Robert Lloyd Praeger, who had met her when he visited her father. In 1894 she volunteered to compile a flora of Co. Tyrone for a series entitled ‘Irish topographical botany’, and published on that subject as well as on other aspects of areal botany. She attended natural science classes in the Royal College of Science in Dublin, and in June 1902 went to work in the Botanical Section of the Science and Art Museum (later known as the National Museum) in Dublin; she was appointed to a temporary post as assistant in April 1907, and was in charge of the botanical collections from about 1923. Her Handlist of Irish flowering plants and ferns had two editions; a third edition, in Irish, appeared after her death. Matilda Knowles assisted Annie Lorrain Smith to study lichens as part of the RIA’s important ‘Survey of Clare Island’ after 1908, and concentrated on this group of plants for the rest of her career. She collected specimens all over Ireland, and verified and arranged thousands of existing records almost single-handedly; her lengthy paper on ‘The lichens of Ireland’ appeared in the RIA Proceedings in 1929. It added over 100 species to the Irish flora, dealt with over 800 species and sub-species, and subjected the group to critical ecological and topographical study. She was still at work on lichens, but had just retired from her job in the National Museum, when she became ill, and died, unmarried, in Dublin (27 April 1933).