RAYSS, TSCHARNA

RAYSS, TSCHARNA (1890–1965), Israel botanist. Born in Vinnitsa, Russia, Rayss was in charge of research at the department of botany at the universities of Odessa and Bucharest, 1918–29, and deputy director of the phytopathology department of the Institute for Agricultural Research, Romania. An enthusiastic Zionist she joined the newly formed botany department of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1934 and was appointed professor in 1951. Her research on the lower plants dealt with the taxonomy and ecology of algae of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea; mycoflora of Israel; taxonomy and biology of fungi in Romania, France, and Israel, with special emphasis on their pathogenicity to crops and wild plants. She built up the herbarium and library of cryptogamic plants in the Hebrew University. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Viennot Bourgin, in: Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France, 81 no. 2 (1965), 113–5. (Shira Borut)