Jessica Miller

She collected the specimens herself, foraging through the forest on misty autumn days.

With the help of a pocket knife, she lifted the most beautifully colored and intricately structured examples carefully from the mossy earth where they grew, and carried them back to Bolton Gardens, where she observed them through the lens of a wondrous new invention, a microscope.

She taught herself the techniques for proper botanical illustration.

Soon, her work caught the eye of Sir Charles Macintosh, a leading figure in British mycology, as the study of fungi and mushrooms is called.

With McIntosh's encouragement, Beatrix began to study how mushrooms reproduce, a subject about which little was known.

Some scientists had suggested that they reproduce, through their spores, tiny cells which are generated by the mushroom cap drop down into the soil where, when conditions are right, they connect with other spores and finally generate new mushrooms.

These theories were widely dismissed, but Beatrix thought there might be something to them.

She conducted various experiments, germinating her own mushroom spores and trying to establish under which circumstances these spores might reproduce.

She even published a paper on the topic, titled, On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricaceae.

She hoped to present the paper to London's Linnean Society, an organization of eminent botanists.

There was just one problem.

The Linnaean Society only accepted male members.

Despite Beatrix's best efforts, they refused to even discuss a woman's research findings.

Now it is widely accepted that mushrooms do reproduce through their spores.

What's more, Beatrix's botanical illustrations are still studied today, thanks to their scientific accuracy.

A scientific career might have been closed off to her, but that couldn't dampen Beatrix's love of nature.

She continued to sketch the animals she observed in her London garden, in the Lake District, and in the Scottish Highlands.

And while Beatrix was a rigorous scientist who captured the flora and fauna she saw around her with astonishing accuracy, she also felt that the English countryside was filled with magic.

After a walk through the Lake District, she is said to have observed that the moors felt like they belonged to the fairies.

This intertwined interest in science and nature and sensitivity to magic and enchantment would go on to define her unique artistic style.