Mordecai Cubitt Cooke 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...

 botanist and mycologist.
Cooke came from a mercantile family in Horning, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, and worked as an apprentice to a fabric merchant before becoming a clerk in a law firm, but his chief interest was in botany. He founded the Society of Amateur Botanists in 1862. He taught natural history at Holy Trinity National School, Lambeth, and worked as a curator at the India Museum at India Office

India Office

The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the colonial administration of India, i.e. the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as territories in South-east and Central Asia, the Middle East, and parts of the east coast of Africa...

 from 1860 to 1879. In 1879 when the botanical collections from the India Museum were transferred to 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...

, Cooke went with them. He received the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society

Royal Horticultural Society

The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...

 in 1902 and the Linnean Medal

Linnean Medal

The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or to one of each in the same year...

 from the Linnean Society of London

Linnean Society of London

The Linnean Society of London is the world's premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history. It publishes a zoological journal, as well as botanical and biological journals...

 in 1903.

He was awarded several honorary diplomas for his work, primarily with fungi, a Master of Arts

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 from St. Lawrence University

St. Lawrence University

St. Lawrence University is a four-year liberal arts college located in the village of Canton in Saint Lawrence County, New York, United States. It has roughly 2300 undergraduate and 100 graduate students, about equally split between male and female....

 in 1870, a Master of Arts from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1873 and a doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

 from the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

.

Cooke took part in the publication, together with Edward Step (1855–1931), of the monthly magazine Hardwicke's Science Gossip: A Monthly Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and Lovers of Nature

Science Gossip

Science Gossip was a monthly popular-science magazine, published from 1865 to 1893 by Robert Hardwicke....

from 1865 to 1893. From 1872 to 1894 Cooke also edited, Grevillea, a monthly record of cryptogamic botany and its literature, a periodical devoted to the study of mushrooms.

Selected works

• The Seven Sisters of Sleep. Popular history of the seven prevailing narcotics of the world (James Blackwood, London, 1860).
• A Manual of Structural Botany: for the use of classes, schools, & private students ... With upwards of 200 illustrations by Ruffle (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1861, new edition in 1877)
• A Manual of Botanic Terms ... With illustrations (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1862, new edition in 1873).
• A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi: with descriptions of the esculent and poisonous species ... With twenty-four coloured plates (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1862, new edition in 1866, in 1876, 5th edition 1884, sixth edition 1898).
• Index Fungorum Britannicorum. A complete list of fungi found in the British Islands to the present date, etc. (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1863).
• Our Reptiles. A plain and easy account of the lizards, snakes, newts, toads, frogs, and tortoises indigenous to Great Britain. With original figures of every species, and numerous woodcuts (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1865, new edition in 1893 W.H. Allen & Co., London).
• Rust, smut, mildew, & mould. An introduction to the study of microscopic fungi (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1865, new edition 1870, new edition 1878, new edition 1886).
• A Fern Book for Everybody. Containing all the British ferns. With the foreign species suitable for a fernery (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1867).
• One Thousand Objects for the Microscope, etc. (Robert Hardwicke, London, 1869, new edition 1895, new edition 1900 Frederickk Warne & Co., London et New York).
• Handbook of British Fungi, with full descriptions of all the species and illustrations of the genera (deux volumes, Macmillan & Co., London & New York, 1871, new edition 1883).
• Report on the Gums, Resins, Oleo-Resins, and Resinous Products in the India Museum, or produced in India. Prepared under the direction of the Reporter on the Products of India (London, 1874).
• Fungi: their nature, influence, and uses (London, 1875, 3rd edition 1883, 5th edition 1894, new edition 1920 K. Paul).
• Report on the Oil Seeds and Oils in the India Museum, or produced in India. Prepared under the direction of the Reporter on the Products of India (London, 1876).
• The Woodlands (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1879).
• Mycographia, seu Icones fungorum. Figures of fungi from all parts of the world, drawn and illustrated by M. C. Cooke (Williamsz & Norgate, London, 1875 and 1879).
• Ponds and Ditches (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1880).
• Freaks and Marvels of Plant Life; or, Curiosities of vegetation (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1881).
• Illustrations of British Fungi... To serve as an atlas to the “Handbook of British Fungi” (huit volumes, Williams & Norgate, London, 1881 à 1891).
• British Fresh-Water Algæ. Exclusive of Desmidieæ and Diatomaceæ, etc. (deux volumes, Williams & Norgate, London, 1882–1884).
• British Desmids. A supplement to British Fresh-Water Algæ, etc. (Williams & Norgate, London, 1887).
• Toilers in the Sea. A study of marine life (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1889).
• Introduction to Fresh-Water Algæ with an enumeration of all the British species ... With thirteen plates, etc. (London, 1890).
• British Edible Fungi: how to distinguish and how to cook them, etc. (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., London, 1891).
• Vegetable Wasps and Plant Worms. A popular history of entomogeneous fungi or fungi parasitic upon insects... With... illustrations (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1892).
• Romance of Low Life amongst Plants. Facts and phenomena of cryptogamic vegetation (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1893).
• Handbook of British Hepaticae, etc. (W. H. Allen & Co., London, 1894).
• Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1894, réédité en 1902).
• Down the Lane and back, in search of wild flowers. By Uncle Matt (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1895).
• Through the Copse. Another ramble after flowers with Uncle Matt (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1895).
• Around a Cornfield, in a ramble after wild flowers. By Uncle Matt (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1895).
• Across the Common, after wild flowers. By Uncle Matt (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1895).
• A Stroll on a Marsh, in search of wild flowers. By Uncle Matt (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1895).
• Introduction to the Study of Fungi: their organography, classification, and distribution. For the use of collectors (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1895).
• Object-Lesson Handbooks to accompany the Royal Portfolio of Pictures and Diagrams (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1897–1898).
• Introduction to fresh water algae (K. Paul, 1902).
• Fungoid Pests of Cultivated Plants (Spottiswoode & Co., London, 1906).