biology

John Bretland Farmer

John Bretland Farmer is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Bretland Farmer rather than just read about it. In short: Sir John Bretland Farmer FRS FRSE (5 April 1865 – 26 January 1944) was a British botanist. He believed that chromomeres not chromosomes were the unit of heredity.

Key takeaways

John Bretland Farmer belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Bretland Farmer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Bretland Farmer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sir John Bretland Farmer FRS FRSE (5 April 1865 – 26 January 1944) was a British botanist. He believed that chromomeres not chromosomes were the unit of heredity. Farmer and J. E. S. Moore introduced the term meiosis in 1905.

Life John Bretland Farmer was born at Atherstone in Warwickshire, the son of John Henry Farmer and his wife Elizabeth Corbett Bretland. He attended the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Atherstone. He won a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating MA in 1887. During this period he was greatly influenced by Isaac Bayley Balfour. He was made a Fellow of Magdalen College 1889–1897, demonstrator of botany in 1887–1892, and assistant professor of biology in 1892–1895 at Oxford, and then became professor of botany at Imperial College London. He received the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) from the University of Oxford in March 1902. He was appointed Governor of The John Roan School and member of the council of Hartley University College by the Senate of the University of London in January 1903. In 1892, he married Edith May Gertrude Pritchard, the daughter of Charles Pritchard, Savilian professor of astronomy at the University of Oxford. They had a daughter. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900, was awarded its Royal Medal in 1919 and was its vice-president from 1919 to 1921. He was also President of the Alpine Climbers Club 1910–12. He was knighted in 1926 for services to botany and scientific education. He died in Exmouth on the southern English coast on 26 January 1944.

Research and publications Farmer published particularly on cytology, with his earliest paper on the topic appearing in 1893. He coined the term "meiosis" in a 1904 paper with J. E. S. Moore. His other collaborators included C. E. Walker. In addition to his botanical work, he published several papers on cytology in human cells, especially malignant cancer cells. With Lettice Digby, he published a study of the dimensions of chromosomes in 1914. His other botanical research interests included liverworts. He also published on water movement in trees, measuring the rate of conduction and showing that this was lower in evergreens than in deciduous trees. Farmer was an editor of the Annals of Botany (1906–1922). He was also editor of the John Murray–published journal, Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1909–1912), and Gardeners' Chronicle (1904–1906). His books include:

Flowering Plants (1899) Elementary Botany (1904) The Book of Nature Study (6 vols) (1908 onwards) Translation of Die Mutationstheorie (1911) co-written with Arthur Dukinfield Darbishire Plant Life (1913) Nature and Development of Plants (1918)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Bretland Farmer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Bretland Farmer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Bretland Farmer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Bretland Farmer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Bretland Farmer

In research: John Bretland Farmer appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Bretland Farmer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Bretland Farmer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1865 births, 1944 deaths, Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Bretland Farmer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study John Bretland Farmer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Bretland Farmer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Bretland Farmer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Bretland Farmer in simple terms?

Sir John Bretland Farmer FRS FRSE (5 April 1865 – 26 January 1944) was a British botanist. He believed that chromomeres not chromosomes were the unit of heredity.

Why does John Bretland Farmer matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Bretland Farmer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Bretland Farmer.