Francis Guthrie

Francis Guthrie ( born January 22, 1831 in London, † October 19, 1899 in Claremont, Cape Town ) was a South African mathematician and botanist. He was the brother of the physicist and chemist Frederick Guthrie ( 1833-1886 ).

He was from 1876 to 1898 professor of mathematics at the South African College, later the University of Cape Town.

Guthrie introduced in 1852 as the first four- color theorem as a conjecture.

From Guthrie submitted a number of first descriptions of South African plants, particularly many types of heather (Erica ), which he described with Harry Bolus ( 1834-1911 ) William Henry Harvey in Flora Capensis. Bolus named the genus Guthriea from the family of Achariaceae Guthrie.