Wise, Mary (May) Isabel, Miss (1882 - 1955)

Born in Sale, Vic., 18 January 1882; died in Sassafras, Vic, 27 September 1955.

The eldest daughter of a solicitor and politician, George Henry Wise (1853-1950), and Mary Thornton née Smith (c.1857-1939). May attended the Ladies' High School in Sale. In 1894, she was described as 'a youthful disciple' of Alexander Purdie (1859-1905), a teacher at the Sale School of Mines, who also collected MEL specimens.

May collected MEL specimens at Sale, 1894, 1905, 1925; Port Albert Rd and La Trobe River, 1894–1895; Longford, 1895; and Portland, 1895.

May's sister LILIAN WISE and friend MURIEL BENNETT also collected MEL specimens.

A paper called 'List of orchids collected near Sale' by May and Lilian Wise and Muriel Bennett was communicated to a meeting of the FNCV on 13 May 1895.

May attended the Sale School of Mines and was appointed a botany teacher there in 1901. Later she was employed in clerical work in Melbourne, Perth, WA, and then as a law clerk in her father's office in Sale.

She retired to Sassafras where she died in 1955 aged 73.

May became a life member of the FNCV in 1955 and apart from plants also collected moths and butterflies.

One letter from Wise to Mueller survives.

Source: extracted from: Maroske, Sara and Vaughan, Alison (2014) 'Ferdinand Mueller's female plant collectors: a biographical register', Muelleria Vol.32 [consult for source references]