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The Feminist Botanist

A 19th-century tale of hermaphrodite flowers, Charles Darwin, and women’s right to vote.

A steady stream of publications on the science of more exotic plant specimens, sent by other scientists and those which Becker ordered, fell through her letter box with a frequency which raised the eyebrows of her family. In what appeared to be an unassuming overview, she set out basic botanical principles, featured her favorite plants—“I love the English Yew with its thousand years of gloom!”—and daringly discussed her growing interest in plant sexuality and hermaphroditism. She wrote once again to Darwin, this time telling him that she “had not been able to pursue my study of the Lychnis flowers nor my endeavour to penetrate the mystery of their variation of form, for since then we have ceased to reside in the country and now [I am] surrounded by acres of bricks and mortar.” The family had moved into burgeoning, urban Manchester.

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