Peter Darbishire Orton was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 mycologist

Mycology

Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...

, specializing in agarics.

Background and education

Peter Darbishire Orton was born in Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, the son of marine scientist, J.H. Orton. He was educated at Oundle School

Oundle School

Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...

 and Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, where he read Natural Sciences, Music and History, receiving his degree in 1937. He then studied at the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

, interrupted by wartime service in the Royal Artillery

Royal Artillery

The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...

. On completing his studies, Orton obtained a position as a music teacher at Epsom College

Epsom College

Epsom College is an independent co-educational public school in Epsom, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 13 to 18. Founded in 1853 to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orphans , Epsom's long-standing association with medicine was estimated in 1980 as...

 in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

.

Researches in mycology

P.D. Orton became interested in fungi through fellow amateur A.A. Pearson

A.A. Pearson

Arthur Anselm Pearson was an English mycologist.- Background and career :Arthur Anselm Pearson was born in London, but educated in Belgium. After leaving school he worked as a seaman before joining the firm of British Belting & Asbestos Ltd in Yorkshire, where he spent the rest of his working...

, who was also a keen musician. Specializing, like Pearson, in agarics, Orton developed considerable expertise in identifying species and in 1955 received a Nuffield Foundation

Nuffield Foundation

The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...

 grant to work with Dr R.W.G. Dennis, head of mycology at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

, and F.B. Hora at Reading University on a revised checklist of British agarics and boletes. The resulting New Checklist, published in 1960, was accompanied by 280 pages of descriptive and revisionary notes by Orton, including many new species. It remained the standard reference work for 45 years.

In 1960 Orton took up a position at the newly opened Rannoch School

Rannoch School

Rannoch School was an independent boarding school, located on the south shore of Loch Rannoch in Perth and Kinross, Scotland on the Dall Estate, from Kinloch Rannoch. Dall House served as the main school building and a boarding house....

 in Perthshire

Perthshire

Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

, Scotland, where he taught biology, English, and music. He remained there till he retired in 1981. During this period, he published many papers on Scottish agarics, particularly those collected on his doorstep, in the Caledonian pine woods

Caledonian Forest

The Caledonian Forest is the name of a type of woodland that once covered vast areas of Scotland. Today, however, only 1% of the original forest survives, covering in 84 locations. The forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife, much of which is not found elsewhere in the British...

 around Rannoch

Rannoch

Rannoch is an area of the Scottish Highlands between the A9 road, to the east, and the A82, to the west. The area is crossed from south to north by the West Highland railway line....

. He also contributed, with Prof. Roy Watling, to the British Fungus Flora series, published by the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He frequently visited his friend and fellow mycologist T.J. Wallace in Membury

Membury, Devon

Membury is a village three miles north west of Axminster in East Devon.The village has a 13th century church dedicated to St John the Baptist with a tall slim tower...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, publishing a number of new agaric species from Dawlish Warren

Dawlish Warren

Dawlish Warren is a small seaside resort near the town of Dawlish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon in England. Dawlish Warren consists almost entirely of holiday accommodation and facilities for holiday-makers especially caravan sites....

 and other Devon localities.

In 1986, he moved to Crewkerne

Crewkerne

Crewkerne is a town in Somerset, England, situated south west of Yeovil and east of Chard in the South Somerset district close to the border with Dorset. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Woolminstone and Henley...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, where he continued to collect and publish on agarics, his last paper appearing in 1999.

Orton published extensively on British and European agarics and boletes, describing well over 100 species new to science from the British Isles. The agarics Cortinarius ortonii Moënne-Locc. & Reumaux and Entoloma ortonii Arnolds & Noordeloos are named after him. His collections are retained in the mycological herbaria

Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Selected publications

• Dennis, R.W.G., Orton, P.D., & Hora, F.B. (1960). New checklist of British agarics and boleti. Supplement to Transactions of the British Mycological Society
• Orton, P.D. (1960). New checklist of British agarics and boleti part III. Notes on genera and species. Transactions of the British Mycological Society 43: 159-439
• Orton, P.D. (1986). British Fungus Flora 4. Pluteaceae: Pluteus & Volvariella. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden
• Orton, P.D. (1986). Fungi of northern pine and birch woods. Bulletin of the British Mycological Society 20: 130-145
• Orton, P.D. (1987). Notes on some agarics from Scotland. Notes from the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh 44: 485-502.
• Orton, P.D. (1999). New and interesting agarics from Abernethy Forest, Scotland. Kew Bulletin 54: 705-714