St. Thomas's Church in Rondebosch. He was described as being warm-hearted, good-humoured, patient, and unpretentious. The scope of his interests was diverse and ranged from a lecture titled, "The Heat of the Sun in South Africa", in which he pointed out that it must be possible to transform solar energy into mechanical power, to aeronautics, where he was involved in the development of the first aircraft. Although dubbed the inventor of the first flying machine, no documentation of his work exists. Some fynbos species from the Bredasdorp area were named after him: Gladiolus guthriei, Erica guthriei and Homoglossum guthriei, as well as the genus Guthriea Bolus. Cyrtanthus guthrieae was named after his daughter Louisa Guthrie, who was also a botanist. The new genus Guthriea was collected by Harry Bolus from Oudeberg in the Graaff-Reinet district, and also recorded from the Wittebergen in the Barkly East district and Mont-aux-Sources in Natal. To date no other species in this genus have been found. Guthrie was an early member of the South African Philosophical Society (later the Royal Society of South Africa), an active member of the Meteorological Commission and an examiner of the Cape University. References * External links Royal Society of South Africa 1831 births 1899 deaths Alumni of University College London Mathematicians from London 19th-century South African botanists 19th-century South African mathematicians Academic staff of the University of Cape Town