Biography

British zoologist from Leytonstone, the son of Arthur Lister and brother of Gulielma Lister, both mycologists. J.J. Lister was educated at St John's College, Cambridge and appointed Demonstrator in Animal Morphology (1881) and later Senior Lecturer in Animal Morphology (1892). He volunteered as naturalist during a voyage to the Indian Ocean and South Pacific with H.M. Surveying Vessel Egeria. Together with other officers of HMS Egeria, he made botanical collections at least on Christmas Islands in the Indian Ocean in 1887, and is commemorated by the orchid Phreatia listeri Rolfe. The type is described as being collected by 'J.P. Maclear, J.J. Lister & Officers of HMS Egeria but Maclear collected on Christmas Island eight months earlier and it is doubtful that they ever collected together. The combination of names indicates that the misleading information originated from a publication by W.B. Hemsley. This J.J. Lister is not the same person as Joseph Jackson Lister (1786-1869), inventor of the achromatic microscope in 1829, or his son Joseph Lister (1827-1912), later Lord Lister, who was the founder of antiseptic medicine. This collector is also confused with his contemporary J.L. Lister, who collected plants in India.