AUTHOR AND ORIGIN OF THIS WEBSITE - Key Persons
Al Wetherill also made adventurous botanical collecting trips to southeast Utah and Alice treasured the memory of those trips throughout the rest of her life. She maintained a lifetime correspondence with the Wetherills, especially with Martha and frequently referred to the memorable times she had with the Wetherills. In a December 13, 1936 letter to the Wetherills she said, "I often wish that I could live my life over because I have had such a good time, especially when Al and I had those adventurous trips so many years ago." And in a March 29, 1942 letter to Martha Wetherill, she wrote, "When that country [the Four Corners area] gets hold of you it never lets up. How I long to go again". But she always moved on to new adventures: in a letter of February 4, 1934 to all her past friends she wrote, "I live over in memory the adventurous days of long ago. We can't always have the same kind of life. The other day I ran across some lines that pleased me. "Count not the years but take from each its boon."
In 1891, after reviewing Eastwood's collection in Denver, Mary Katharine Brandegee, Curator of the Botany Department at the California Academy of Sciences, invited Eastwood to assist in the Academy's Herbarium. Eastwood's botanical prowess so impressed Brandegee that in 1892 Brandegee offered Eastwood the position of joint Curator, and when Brandegee retired in 1894, Eastwood was made Curator and Head of the Department of Botany (at the age of only 35), positions she retained for 55 years until her retirement in 1949. (See John Thomas Howell).
Alice Eastwood's reputation was not confined to Denver, Mesa Verde, or even California. She was so highly respected as a devoted and expert scientist that she was honored at the age of 92 by being named President of the Seventh International Botanical Conference in Sweden where the honor was heightened by having Alice sit in Linnaeus' chair.
Although Alice often collected on her own, she loved the company of other people, and she was quickly befriended and assisted by many -- whether they were rough minors who helped her when she was lost, railroad owners who gave her passes so she could travel for her collections, or newly met friends who gave her a room, meals, and a horse to go collecting. She rewarded these people with her open friendship, thanks, and a plant named for them. She extended her friendliness especially to those interested in botany and mentored many young scientists, including Ynes Mexia and ten year old Peter Raven.
Although for much of her life Alice lived in minimum accommodations on minimum income, she never complained of her lifestyle. She embraced it and put her time and energy into friendships and the science of botany. She owned little throughout her life and knew what it meant to work long hours: as a young girl she took care of her siblings and father at the same time she worked as a teacher and studied botany. When a new book was needed for the herbarium, she skimped on food. She lost her house and almost all of her few possessions in the California earthquake fires and then again years later when a fire swept through her neighborhood, destroying her house, all of her possessions, and the fabulous gardens she had built.
Alice's influence and name are still found throughout the San Francisco area; nurserymen in the area named new hybrids for her; she was a charter member of the Tamalpais Conservation Club and on that mountain people still walk the Alice Eastwood Trail and spend the night at Camp Alice Eastwood; the California Spring Blossom and Wildflower Association made her "Honorary Life President"; she and Katherine Chandler organized the Save the Redwood League; she served as President of the Tamalpais Conservation Club; and she originated the "Garden of Shakespeare Flowers" in Golden Gate Park. When a rose-granite bench with Alice Eastwood's name on it was dedicated in the Shakespeare garden in 1929,
Alice Eastwood, the long-time Curator of the California Academy of Sciences Herbarium, appointed Tom Assistant Curator in 1929 and he became Curator the day after she retired in 1949. Tom served in that position until January 1969, but he remained with the Academy until his death, having worked at the Academy by then for 65 years.
Amson, John, Born 1698, died somewhere between November 1761 and July, 1765, probably nearer or in 1765: Physician, Mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia from 1750 to 1751, and an associate of the famous botanist John Clayton. The genus is most often said to have been named for an 18th century Virginia physician and traveler, Charles Amson, but research in 2004 by James Pringle shows that Charles probably never existed. Pringle traces the history of the first collected species of this genus, the variety of names given to the plant, and the confusion about the source of the genus name, which Pringle clearly establishes as John Amson, about whom we know very.
Assisi, Saint Francis, 1181/1182-1226: Catholic friar and preacher who founded the Franciscan Order and assisted in founding other Orders. He remains one of the most venerated Christian religious figures. St. Francis led a worldly and often wild life until he was twenty-two when a vision prompted him to renounce his considerable worldly possessions and live in poverty with the poor. St. Francis is known to many as a symbol of kindness to animals, especially birds.
Job Titles:
- S 1860 Review of "on the Origin of Species" in the Atlantic
Asa Gray first met Darwin in 1839 when he visited Joseph Hooker at Kew. It wasn't until 1855 that the two began writing each other and over the next decades they exchanged hundreds of letters. Darwin dedicated his 1877 "Forms of Flowers" to Gray.
After reading, rereading, and making copious notes in his copy of The Origin of Species (the first to reach the United States), Gray loaned the book to Charles Brace (social reformer and cousin to Gray's wife). Brace brought The Origin of Species to Concord, Massachusetts where he discussed its revolutionary contents with Henry David Thoreau, Amos Bronson Alcott (educator and father of Louisa May Alcott), and Franklin Sanborn (Concord schoolmaster and one of the backers of John Brown). The impact of The Origin of Species on these influential men was immediate.
The Origin quickly went on to ignite heated reactions throughout the United States, especially gravitating to the center of the slavery conflict. Abolitionists saw it as proof that we all spring from the same roots. Slavery proponents saw it as a blasphemous, unsupported attack on God and their whole world of white man's superiority and cotton.
Gray continued as the most ardent American proponent of The Origin of Species, writing to explain it to the lay person in The Atlantic (click to read) and to the scientist in The American Journal of Science.
Gray twice visited Colorado briefly, first in 1872 when he climbed (in the company of Parry, Greene, and eighteen others) Gray's Peak, named for him by Parry and dedicated to him on this memorable climb.
Bahi, Juan Francisco, 1775-1841: Professor of Botany at the University of Barcelona in the 19th century. In 1816 the genus Bahia was named for him in Genera et Species Plantarum by Mariano La Gasca, Director of the Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid. Amauriopsis dissecta (formerly Bahia dissecta)
Baker, Charles Fuller, 1872-1927: Botanist, entomologist, Professor of Agronomy and Agriculture, Assistant Entomologist with the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station in Fort Collins. Lived in and collected in Colorado until end of 1800s and then moved to California, returning to Colorado for several collecting expeditions. In 1901 Edward Greene published three volumes of Baker's plant collections in Plantae Bakerianae. Baker's 100,000 specimen sheets were left to Pomona College. Oreoxis bakeri Phacelia bakeri
Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815: Physician, Professor of Botany at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Essays Towards a Materia Medica of the United States (1798-1804) (the first book on American medicinal plants) and The Elements of Botany (1803) (the first American botany textbook). Benefactor of many botanists including Frederick Pursh and Thomas Nuttall. Jefferson held Barton in such high regard that he asked him to teach the latest botanical collecting techniques and taxonomy to Meriwether Lewis prior to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. See the entries for Pursh, Nuttall, Lewis, and McMahon for more details about Barton and these important times for the beginning of American botany. See also David Townsend.
Bertero, Carlo, 1789-1831: Italian physician and highly accomplished and respected botanist who collected plants for many years in the West Indies and Columbia (1817-1821) and Chile (1827-1831). Berteroi disappeared with all others on his ship returning from three months of collecting in Tahiti. Osmorhiza berteroi
Bigelow, John Milton, 1804-1878: Physician, botanist, professor, and member of several Western expeditions in the New Mexico area. Participated in the 1850-1852 "Mexican Boundary Survey" which produced over 2,500 botanical specimens. Bigelow was also a member of the Whipple 1853 explorations for a southern rail route. The Whipple expedition artist, Baldwin Mollhausen, described Bigelow as
a pattern of gentleness and patience always,... never wanting when a hearty laugh or good joke was to be heard…. To his patients he was kind and attentive, and of his mule Billy he made an absolute spoiled child.
Bree, William Thomas, 1787-1863: Botanist and Rector of Allesley. Lectured at the Royal College of Physicians. Mentioned by Charles Darwin in his correspondence. Breea arvensis (now Cirsium arvense)
Brewer, William, 1828-1910: "Principal Assistant, in charge of Botanical Department" on the Whitney Geological Survey of California (1860-1864), Chair of Agriculture in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, 1865-1903. Wrote Up and Down California in 1860-1864; The Journal of William H. Brewer (available online at the Library of Congress American Memory). Co-author with Sereno Watson and Asa Gray of the first flora of California, the 1876 report of the botanical work of the 1860-1864 Whitney Survey and the King Survey of 1867-1869. Click to read his biography of Sereno Watson. Member and President of the National Academy of Sciences. Navarretia breweri
Brickell, John, 1749-1809: Savannah Georgia physician and botanist who came to the U.S. in 1770 from Ireland. Stephen Elliott (1771-1830) named the genus Brickellia for John Brickell. In Elliott's Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Florida, Elliott (a Georgia amateur botanist and later Professor of Botany, legislator, banker, and writer) says of the Brickellia plant, "I have named it in commemoration of Dr. John Brickell, of Savannah, who at one period of his life paid much attention to the botany of this country, and made known to Dr. Muhlenberg, Fraser, and others, many of the undescribed plants." (Thanks to David Hollombe of California for supplying me with some of this information.)
Carruth, James Harrison, 1807-1896: Yale graduate, taught, preached, moved in 1856 to Kansas from Massachusetts. Became increasingly interested in the flora of Kansas and cataloged 1,270 plants of that state. Taught botany, presented papers before the Kansas Academy of Science. In a series of 1880 brief biographies of the Yale class of 1832, it was said of Carruth that "Except a throbbing in the head, immediately consequent upon too close application to botanical studies in 1876, he is well, and can handle a flail, or a hoe, as well as he could fifty years ago, and can easily walk twenty miles in a day." Artemisia carruthii
Case, Eliphalet Lewis, 1843-1925: School teacher, civil war veteran, plant collector. In 1902 he was elected Treasurer of Sierra County, California. Corydalis caseana variety brandegeei
Castillejo, Domingo,1744-1793: Spanish botanist and Professor of Botany in Cadiz, Spain. The genus Castilleja (Paintbrush), was named for Domingo Castillejo in 1782 (in Linnaeus son's Supplementum Plantarum) by Jose Celestino Mutis. Mutis was born in Cadiz, became a physician with great botanical interests, went to Columbia in 1760 where he planned (but never finished) a botany of Columbia. Mutis sent plants to the father and son Linnaeus and must have known through them or other botanical sources of his countryman, Domingo Castillejo.
Clark, William, 1770-1838: Co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After the Expedition, Brigadier General of the Militia for the Louisiana Territory and Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis. Supervised publication of Nicholas Biddle's 1814 compilation of Lewis and Clark's journals of the Expedition: History of the Expedition under the Commands of Captains Lewis and Clark. See Meriwether Lewis.
There are many books and many online sources about Lewis and Clark; an excellent online starting point is Discovering Lewis and Clark . Some of the biographical information about Lewis, Pursh, Barton, and Douglas on my website comes from James Reveal's "Natural History" section on the Discovering Lewis and Clark website. The original specimens collected by Lewis and Clark are now housed in the Herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. For the most extensive collection of online Lewis and Clark documents see the American Journal.
Clayton, John, (1694-1773): Emigrated to Virginia from England in 1715. Clerk to the County Court of Gloucester County, Virginia from 1720 until his death. Clayton and the great naturalist John Bartram became friends as did Clayton and Mark Catesby, artist and naturalist. Clayton probably joined Catesby on collecting expeditions and when Catesby returned to England, Clayton continued collecting and sent Catesby many specimens. Catesby shared these specimens with J. F. Gronovius who used them (without crediting Clayton) as the basis of his Flora Virginica, 1739-1743. Gronovius shared the specimens with Linnaeus. (Sir Joseph Banks (of Captain Cook and Captain Bligh fame) bought the Gronovius-Clayton specimens in 1793.)
Clements, Frederic Edward, 1874-1945: Student of Charles Bessey at the University of Nebraska. Professor of Botany at the University of Nebraska and then Minnesota. Originated the plant succession concept. In his Research Methods in Ecology (1905) and Plant Succession (1916), he wrote about plant succession and climax vegetation, and became the most prominent ecologist in the United States. Early in the 20th century he and Edith established the "Alpine Laboratory" on Pikes Peak where he, his wife, and many students and co-workers studied the complex interrelationships of all influences (insects, moisture, sunlight, wind, etc.) on alpine plants. The Clements often spent time during the winters studying the same interrelationships in the desert at the Carnegie Desert Botanical Laboratory near Tucson.
In 1914 Clements published Rocky Mountain Flora. Clements wrote seminal ecological works such as Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation (1916) and Bio-Ecology (1939). In the latter, co-authored with Victor Shelford, Clements argued the importance of studying the "biome", all the plants and animals in a given region.
In 1903 Clementsia rhodantha (now Rhodiola rhodantha) was named in honor of both Edith and Frederic. Ten western plant species bear the Clements name. They discovered and described 37 species.
Clover, Elzada, 1897-1980: Curator of the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens and Professor in the Department of Botany. Specialized in succulents. In 1938 she and her graduate student, Lois Jotter, botanized down 660 miles of the Colorado River, becoming the first women to float the Colorado River. Sclerocactus cloveriae
Collins, Zaccheus, 1764-1831: Philadelphia merchant and eminent botanist. For over 25 years, he was a correspondent with Baldwin, Bigelow, Ives, Nuttall, Torrey, and other esteemed botanists of the time. Collins was a member of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and served as its Vice-President. Collinsia parviflora
Colton, William Francis, 1841-1921: Civil War veteran and secretary, auditor, and treasurer with several railroad companies. He kept a journal of his days in the Civil War and continued writing for many years afterward of the people and natural history surrounding him as he traveled throughout the West during his long career with the railroads. Astragalus coltonii
Cooper, James, 1830-1902: Physician, naturalist. Geologist with the geological Survey of California. Naturalist with the Pacific Railroad Survey of 1853. Wrote first book on birds of California. (Cooper's Hawk is named for his father.) Collected plants in the Mojave Desert.
Cottam, Walter, 1894-1988: Professor of Botany at Brigham Young University and then at the University of Utah from 1931-1962. Founded the Brigham Young University and University of Utah herbaria. Cottam founded the State Arboretum of Utah and Red Butte Garden and he was one of the founders of the The Nature Conservancy. Cottam was one of the early ecologists and, from the 1940s on, he published papers and spoke often about land degradation caused by cattle and sheep; he warned that these animals would lead to the desertification of Utah. Cottam was well known for his work on hybrid Oaks. Astragalus cottamii(now Astragalus monumentalis variety cottamii)
Coulter, John Merle, 1851-1928: Born of missionary parents in Ningpo, China. Came to Indiana when two years old. Received his PhD in 1883 from Indiana University. From 1871-1879 was Professor of Natural Sciences at Hanover College. During the field seasons of 1872-1875 Coulter served as the Assistant Geologist and Botanist to the United States Geological Survey in the Rocky Mountains (the Hayden Survey). In his lifetime he became a revered Professor, a prolific researcher and writer, President of Indiana University, President of Lake Forest College, and Professor of Botany and Head of the Botany Department (1896-1926) at the University of Chicago.
Dale, Samuel, 1659-1739: British botanist, physician, and gardener. He wrote, Pharmacologia, seu manuductio ad materiam medicam in 1693. Dale's herbarium is preserved in the British Museum, and his labeling of the specimens shows great care to detail. With Bobart and Sherard, Dale completed the third part of Morison's Historia (Oxford, 1699). Dalea candida variety oligophylla
Daniels, Francis Potter, 1869-1947: PhD from the University of Missouri, Professor of Romance Languages at Wabash and Georgia State Colleges, botanist. Spent one (or several) summers teaching at the University of Colorado and collected extensively and successfully for the University of Missouri, publishing in 1911 with respected scientist T. D. Cockerell, Flora of Boulder, Colorado, and Vicinity. Was Assistant Curator of the National Herbarium for a short time. Chamerion danielsii (now Chamerion angustifolium subspecies circumvagum)
David Hieronymus, 1776-1836. Russian Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Rector at Tartu University and later medical doctor. Since 1995 the JSC Grindeks Company, the largest pharmaceutical company in the Baltic states, has awarded the Grindel Prize to honor David Grindel, considered the first natural scientist, doctor, and pharmacist of Latvian origin.
Deppe, Ferdinand, 1794-1860: Collected in Central America with Christian Julius Schiede for several years in the 1820s and then returned to his native Germany where he owned a plant nursery. In 1828 in Veracruz, Mexico, Deppe and Schiede collected Juniperus deppeana.
Douglas, David, 1799-1834: Scottish explorer and botanist. Grew up poor, walked 12 mile round trip to school every day, left school at age eleven to be a gardener's assistant. Rose steadily and quickly in the estimation of all he worked with and in 1820 was hired by the Glasgow Botanic Garden to work under William Hooker. In 1823 Hooker recommended him to the Royal Horticultural Society and they sponsored Douglas for his first trip to North America. During his six months there he met Torrey and Nuttall, examined some of Meriwether Lewis' specimens, and collected extensively in the eastern United States and Canada. The Society report of his travels stated that the "mission was executed by Mr. Douglas with a success beyond our expectations."
Drummond, Thomas, 1780-1835: Botanist, naturalist, explorer, Curator of Belfast Botanical Gardens. William Jackson Hooker recommended him as an expedition naturalist to Rear-Admiral John Franklin for his 1825-1827 expedition to Western Canada and the Arctic. Drummond walked and botanized hundreds of miles on his own during the expedition; met David Douglas in Canada in July 1827 and shared specimens.
Drummond gained widespread respect for his collections of birds and plants on the Franklin Expedition. Drummond made a second trip to America, 1830-1835: in 1830 he collected specimens from the American Southwest and in Texas alone he collected 750 species of plants and 150 specimens of birds -- the first Texas collections distributed to scientists. Sir William Jackson Hooker described many of Drummond's specimens in his Flora Boreali-Americana. (Click the title to read.) Click for more biographical information about Drummond. Also see John Richardson. Boechera drummondii
Eastwood, Alice, 1859-1953: Denver high school teacher, plant collector, author of the first flora of a local area of Colorado (A Popular Flora of Denver, Colorado, 1893), expert on the flora of Colorado and California, friend to many. Alice was known as (and continues to be known as) one of the world's truly superb botanists. She loved plants, she loved people, and she was widely loved.
Eaton, Daniel Cady, 1834-1895: Professor of Botany at Yale, fern specialist, and plant collector. Grandson of Amos Eaton, famous science educator. Collected with the King Expedition in Utah. Mentor to Sereno Watson. Left his large collection of plants to Yale. Erigeron eatonii, Penstemon eatonii Cirsium eatonii variety hesperium
Edith Gertrude, 1874-1971: Botanist, ecologist, botanical artist. Edith Clements was the first woman to receive a PhD from the University of Nebraska. She met Frederic Clements at the University of Nebraska, they married, and the two conceived of, initiated, and for nearly 40 years worked in the "Alpine Laboratory" on Pikes Peak. In 1913 they co-authored Rocky Mountain Flowers, and, among many other publications, Edith wrote Flowers of Mountain and Plain in 1920 and Flowers of Coast and Sierra in 1928. All three books have many beautiful color botanical drawings by Edith. In 1960 Edith published Adventures in Ecology, her account of the life works of two great botanists, Edith and Frederic.
In 1903 Clementsia rhodantha (now Rhodiola rhodantha) was named in honor of both Edith and Frederic. Ten western plant species bear the Clements name. They discovered and described 37 species.
Edward Harriman's son was W. Averell Harriman, Secretary of Commerce, Governor of New York, and many times U.S. Ambassador. Yucca harrimaniae
Engelmann, George, 1809-1884: Eminent St. Louis Ob-Gyn physician and botanist. Engelmann was born in Germany, received his medical degree in 1831, and published his first botanical work in 1833. In Europe he was in the company of Agassiz and other eminent scientists, but in 1832 his adventurous spirit brought him to New York, then to the intellectual capital of Philadelphia, and on to St. Louis in 1833. St. Louis was, of course, a starting point for many Western explorations and throughout the next 50 years, Engelmann was sought out by many botanists for his expertise, his support (botanical, financial, and moral), and his connections with Eastern botanists Asa Gray and John Torrey. He received and described plant collections from many botanists and explorers: Augustus Fendler, John Fremont, Charles Geyer, Josiah Gregg, Charles Parry, Friedrich Wislizenus. He, himself, made a number of collecting trips to the eastern United States, through the mid-west, into Colorado, the Southwest, and California.
Engelmann is honored in the name of many plants, especially in one of his favorite areas of expertise, the Cactaceae. According to Dr. Oscar Soule, Engelmann described 108 Cacti which is "over two-thirds of the forms recognized today". All thirteen of the Cactus listed in Coulter and Porter's 1874 Flora of Colorado were named and described by Engelmann.
Fassett, Norman 1900-1954: Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin. Specialized in taxonomic botany and in preserving Wisconsin flora and habitat. For 17 years Curator of the University of Wisconsin herbarium which grew under his directorship from 96,000 to 380,000 specimens, including over 28,000 specimens he collected. One of the founders of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Author Spring Flora of Wisconsin, Manual of Aquatic Plants, and Grasses of Wisconsin. Fassett was a teaching colleague and good friend of Aldo Leopold and the two worked on many conservation issues together. Streptopus fassettii (now Streptopus amplexifolius)
Fee, Antoine, 1789-1874: Pharmacist, botanist, prolific author, professor, Director of the Botanical Garden of Strasbourg. Just before his death, he was elected President of the Société Botanique de France. He was a cryptogamist (working on ferns, lichens, and fungi) and, among many other writings, published a 7 volume series Essai sur les Cryptogames de écorces exotiques officinales (Essay on the Cryptogams that grow on Exotic Medicinal Barks). Cheilanthes feei
Fendler, Augustus, 1813-1883: Assiduous and highly respected (though short-time) botanical collector for the renowned Asa Gray and George Engelmann. Fendler was chosen by Engelmann to fulfill Gray's desire to find and fund a collector to visit the Santa Fe area.
In 1844 Fendler met with Engelmann in St. Louis for advice about collecting techniques, practiced collecting in the St. Louis area for a time, was loaned $100 by Engelmann to begin collecting plants in the Southwest, botanized along the route to Santa Fe, and in 1846 began a year of collecting in Santa Fe. He returned to St. Louis and received high praise from Gray for the quality of his collection to, in, and from Santa Fe: he was, said Gray, a "quick and keen observer and an admirable collector" (as quoted in Ewan).
Francis Darwin, Charles Darwin's son and biographer, tells us in "Reminiscences" that his father had the desire
that his theory should succeed as a contribution to knowledge, and apart from any desire for personal fame.... At the time of the publication of the "Origin" it is evident that he [Charles Darwin] was overwhelmingly satisfied with the adherence of such men as Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, and Asa Gray, and did not dream of or desire any such wide and general fame as he attained to.
Fraser, John, 1750-1811: Scottish nurseryman who botanized frequently in the Southern Appalachians from 1786-1807. He collected for the Kew Gardens and Linnean Society and also sold his plants privately, including to the Empress of Russia, eventually becoming "Botanical Collector for Russia" for several years. Frasera speciosa, Frasera albomarginata, Frasera paniculata
Gambel, William, 1823-1849: Western explorer, botanist, and ornithologist (Gambel's Quail [Callipepla gambelii], Mountain Chickadee [Poecile gambeli], and Nuttall's Woodpecker [Picoides nuttallii]). In 1838 Gambel trained under and assisted Thomas Nuttall on an eastern collecting expedition and continued collecting with Nuttall and serving as his assistant on and off over the next three years.
In 1841 Gambel left the East for California via the Santa Fe Trail and in July and August of that year he became the first botanist to collect in the Santa Fe area. It was in Santa Fe that he collected the Southwest's ubiquitous Oak, Quercus gambelii -- which Nuttall named for him in 1848. (See Gene Jercinovic's "William Gambel: New Mexico Plant Specimens" for more names of plants collected by Gambel and for more biographical information.)
In September of 1841 Gambel left the Santa Fe area and travelled through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona to California, all the while collecting. He eventually gained employment under several Naval officers with whom he sailed along the California coast, again collecting (especially birds) as often as he could. Sailing around the Horn, he returned to Philadelphia in 1845, studied medicine for the next three years, received his medical degree, and soon thereafter was made Assistant Curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science. Gambel married, left the Academy because of conflicts with his supervisor, John Cassin, and headed back to California, with disastrous results. His group, already decimated by hunger, was caught in deep Sierra snows and almost all perished. Gambel survived, but when he continued west out of the mountains, he stopped to aid typhoid stricken miners, contracted typhoid fever, and died at the age of 26.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Company of Jesus
Goodyer, John, (1592-1664): Managed a British estate and botanized continually in his work and travels. Grew and described numerous plants sent to him and discovered and described many new British plants. Goodyer was so widely known and respected in his time that during the 1640's English Civil War troops were ordered "... on all occasions to defend and protect John Goodyer, his house, servants, family, goods, chattels and estates of all sorts from all damages, disturbances and oppressions whatever".
Gordon, Alexander, 1795?-?: British horticulturist and nurseryman who came to the United States in the 1820s, soon established a nursery, collected eastern plants, and in the 1840s travelled west over the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. Ivesia gordonii
Hall, Elihu, 1822-1882: Avid amateur self-educated botanist, farmer, and one of the organizers of the Illinois Natural History Society. He collected throughout the mid-west and western United States. In 1862 he and cousin Jared Harbour were led by Charles Parry on a massive collecting expedition in the Idaho Springs, Colorado area. Although Hall's curiosity had made him a collector all his life, the impetus for this Colorado trip seems to have been Hall's need for money to build a new house for his family in Athens, Illinois. That lovely house still stands.
It was common for botanists to collect multiple sets of plants to be sold for expedition expenses, future expedition expenses, or personal expenses, such as, building a new house. Hall was willing to sell sets of plants quickly and cheaply after his Colorado trip (according to Ewan in Biographical Dictionary). Whatever the motivation and details, the collection was described by Asa Gray and John Torrey and they considered it to be quite good. See Harbour (below) and Parry.
Hall continued collecting until near his death from TB at the age of 60. He was an intrepid collector, traveling to new areas opened up by the railroad. Most of his personal herbarium of 15,000 specimens is now part of the University of Illinois Herbarium.
Harbour, Jared Patterson (1831-1917): Little is known of Harbour. He was a first cousin of Elihu Hall and the two of them somehow knew or heard about Parry. They either contracted with or accompanied Parry on a collecting expedition in Colorado in the summer of 1862. Asa Gray and John Torrey described and named the collected plants. Gray indicated that Harbour collected the beautiful Penstemon harbourii on the 1862 trip. See Hall and Parry.
Harriman, Edward H., 1848-1909: School drop out, office boy, then stockbroker, then small railroad owner, then owner of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southern Pacific Railroads. Conceived of and financed the 1899 summer Harriman Expedition to Alaska. He put the trip together quickly and expertly and assembled an outstanding group of scientists, including John Muir, John Burroughs, Charles Keeler, and G. K. Gilbert and the artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes and photographer Edwin Curtis. The scientific results of the Expedition filled 12 volumes and took 12 years to complete.
Although an extremely wealthy man, Harriman said (to John Muir) "I never cared for money except as power for work.... What I most enjoy is the power of creation, getting into partnership with nature in doing good, helping to feed man and beast, and making everybody and everything a little better and happier." But John Muir said to Harriman, "I don't think Mr. Harriman is very rich. He has not as much money as I have. I have all I want and Mr. Harriman has not." (As quoted on the online version of the PBS program about the 2001 expedition which retraced the path of the Harriman Expedition and on the Sierra Club website about Muir.)
Harriman was a strong supporter of John Muir, gave him free passage on his ships, and had a secretary record Muir's words to produce Muir's autobiography.
Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer, 1829-1887: Physician, surgeon, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Pennsylvania, participant in Western expeditions beginning in 1853, and leader of the widely acclaimed "Hayden Survey", the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 1867-1879. Studied under John Strong Newberry.
In the 1850's Hayden participated in four major surveys (primarily in the Dakotas and Nebraska) mapping, collecting fossils, studying not only geological layers, but also timber, water resources, coal, etc. He served as a surgeon during the entire Civil War and returned to his love of surveying with a major Nebraska survey from 1867-1868.
Henry Shaw, wealthy St. Louis merchant, envisioned creating in St. Louis a European style garden, especially in the style of the great Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Shaw was advised by Asa Gray to consult with Shaw's fellow St. Louisan, George Engelmann, and Shaw wisely chose Engelmann as his principal advisor in the forming of the garden. However, the two of them initially had different visions. Shaw saw winding paths, over-hanging trees, and rows of flowering plants; Engelmann saw a botanical library and herbarium. With Gray's help, Engelmann and Shaw agreed to fulfill both visions and the result is the now world famous Missouri Botanical Garden, known in St. Louis as, "Shaw's Garden. In 1857 Shaw paid for Engelmann to travel to Europe to buy botany books and herbarium specimens. In Shaw's letter to Engelmann of September 15, 1857 Shaw asked for a list of botanical books to select from and Shaw authorized the $600 purchase of the 62,000 specimen Bernhardi herbarium. In correspondence of January 13, 1858 Shaw indicated to Engelmann that for the time being Shaw wanted to buy just 34 key botanical books but that in 1860 they would purchase more.
Engelmann met Nicholas Riehl shortly after the two of them emigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis. Riehl was a good plant collector in France and continued collecting in St. Louis. He sold his collection, probably in the early 1850s, to Henry Shaw and that collection along with Engelmann's purchases in Europe, were the beginning of the Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium.
Herrick, Clarence, 1858-1903: PhD University of Minnesota. Professor of zoology at University of Cincinnati 1889-1891 and University of Chicago 1891-892. Worked on the Natural History Survey of Minnesota and published Mammals of Minnesota in 1892. Played a pioneering role in American neurosciences. Contracted TB and moved to New Mexico 1893. Became expert on geology of New Mexico and became botanical collector. President of University of New Mexico, 1897-1901. Herrickia glauca
Heucher, Johann Heinrich von, 1677-1747: Austrian-German physician, Professor of Botany at Wittenberg, co-founder of its botanical garden, and patron of natural history. In 1713 he became the personal physician of the king of Poland in Dresden where he worked the rest of his life on the king's scientific collections and was appointed "General and Special Director of the Scientific Galleries". In 1729 his contributions to science were rewarded recognition when he was elected to the Royal Society of England. Heuchera parvifolia
Holm, Herman Theodor, 1854-1932: Born in Copenhagen, served on three Norwegian polar expeditions specializing in fauna. PhD in U.S. Became Assistant Botanist of the USDA, 1893-1897. Collected in Colorado in late 1800's and published "Vegetation of the Alpine Regions of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado". His arctic experience led him to see similarities of Rocky Mountain alpine vegetation and Eurasian arctic vegetation. He is known for his quality flora and fauna sketches and his occasionally erratic behavior. Left his personal herbarium to the Catholic University of America. Senecio amplectens variety holmii
Hood, Robert, 1797?-1821: Map maker, artist, and diarist aboard Sir Franklin's Canadian/Arctic Expedition of 1819-1822. His diaries were edited and published in 1994 as, To the Arctic By Canoe: The Journal and Paintings of Robert Hood, Midshipman with the Franklin Expedition, 1819 - 1821. Hood was a major contributor to the map work of the Expedition and showed the world that the aurora was electrical and affected the compass.
In its second year the Expedition was beset by starvation. John Richardson (see his entry) nursed the weakened Hood, but while Richardson was away from camp, Hood was murdered, perhaps to be eaten. Richardson shot the murderer and continued on to rescue Franklin, the Expedition leader. Of Hood's character and starvation suffering, Richardson wrote, "The loss of a young officer, of such distinguished and varied talents and application, may be felt and duly appreciated by the eminent characters under whose command he had served; but the calmness with which he contemplated the probable termination of a life of uncommon promise; and the patience and fortitude with which he sustained, I may venture to say, unparalleled bodily sufferings, can only be known to the companions of his distress." Click to see one of Hood's paintings.
Hooker, Joseph Dalton, 1817-1911: Considered the most important botanist of the 19th century, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens (1865-1885), Son of William Jackson Hooker (see below), President of the Royal Society. Made botanical travels to the South Seas and Antarctica (with Ross), the Himalayas, the Middle East, and the Americas. Wrote many botanical books and papers drawn from his journeys and his and other scientists' collections.
Hooker, William Jackson, 1785-1865: Professor of Botany at Glasgow University (1820-1841), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens) (1841-1865), father of Joseph Dalton Hooker (see above). Made the Kew Gardens into one of the leading botanical gardens in the world; published widely on algae, lichens, fungi, mosses, and flowering plants; wrote several floras on the British Isles; botanized in many countries and received and described many collections from numerous botanists, (see, for instance, David Townsend); wrote the multi-volume Flora Boreali-Americana published in parts from 1833-1840. (Click the title to read.) The latter was based, in Hooker's words, "principally [on] the plants collected by Dr. Richardson & Mr. Drummond on the late northern expeditions, under command of Captain Sir John Franklin, R.N. To which are added (by permission of the Horticultural society of London,) those of Mr. Douglas, from north-west America, and of other naturalists".
From 1838-1843 John Torrey and Asa Gray published Flora of North America (now available online). Torrey and Gray dedicated this monumental work to Sir William Jackson Hooker, "no person has done more for the advancement of North American botany".
Hoopes, Thomas, Jr., 1834-1925: Farmer, businessman, civic leader in Chester County, Pennsylvania (population 4,357 in 1857). From 1857-1862 Thomas traveled and worked his way west from Pennsylvania: A 1925 newspaper article states that Hoopes "decided to make a short tour of the western States of the Union". He was in Rock Island, Illinois for one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in September of 1857; in Iowa he was in the lumber business; in Colorado he dabbled in gold prospecting, "general business", exploring, and plant collecting.
In 1861 he was a member of Captain Edward Berthoud's exploring party looking for a rail route between Denver and Salt Lake; they discovered Berthoud Pass. (Berthoud was Secretary and Chief Engineer for the Colorado Central and Pacific Railroad for sixteen years, and was a Colorado pioneer, mayor, and member of the territorial legislature that authorized the establishment of the Colorado School of Mines). Berthoud thought so highly of Hoopes that he named a creek on the way to Berthoud Pass for him: the creek name is now spelled "Hoops".
In 1862 Thomas Hoopes returned to Chester County for six years of farming and in 1868 formed "Hoopes, Brother & Darlington, West Chester Wheel Works" -- a highly successful business that made Hoopes a multimillionaire. Thomas Hoopes' mother was a Darlington and the Darlington family, especially William Darlington, as well as many others in West Chester (see David Townsend), were avid and highly accomplished amateur botanists.
In 1853 Josiah Hoopes (1832-1904), a cousin (Thomas was third cousin to Josiah's father) started a plant nursery in West Chester. This nursery became not only a very successful business, but also a botanically well known business and the largest nursery (300 acres) in the United States.
Botany was a West Chester passion and I think it is safe to assume that Thomas Hoopes was botanically literate. We do know for sure that Thomas collected plant specimens and plant seeds in Colorado. Thomas is listed at least a half dozen times as collector of Colorado plants that were examined by Coulter and Porter in their 1874 Flora of Colorado.
In 1858 just west of Pikes Peak Thomas collected seeds from what he must have thought was an unusual plant. He sent the seeds to his brother-in-law, Halliday Jackson, in West Chester. Halliday was an amateur botanist and one of numerous West Chester disciples of the highly accomplished amateur botanist, William Darlington. Jackson grew the plants from the seeds Thomas Hoopes had sent him and forwarded the plants to Asa Gray in 1861 with a note (now in the files of the Harvard Botanical Library) asking Gray to name the plant for Hoopes if the plant turned out to be a new species. It did, and in 1864 Gray named this conspicuous and wide-spread high mountain Sunflower, Helenium hoopesii. William Weber accepts Rydberg's 1900 name of Dugaldia hoopesii. The Flora of North America and BONAP and almost all other floras accept Hymenoxys hoopesii as the correct species name.
The present day Hoopes families in West Chester, Pennsylvania indicate that their last name is not pronounced "hoops", as in "hula hoop". The families pronounce the "oo" of "Hoopes" as the "oo" in "took". The species name should be pronounced the same.
I obtained information for this Thomas Hoopes entry from a number of sources on the Internet, from Diane Rofini of the Chester County Historical Society Library, from Kanchi Gandhi, the Nomenclatural Editor of the Flora of North America, and from several relatives of Thomas Hoopes living in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Howell, John Thomas (Tom), 1903-1994: Studied botany under W. L. Jepson at the University of California at Berkeley. From 1927-1929, Howell was the first resident botanist at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden where he founded their now famous herbarium.
Hornemann, Jens, 1770-1841: Danish botanist, professor at Copenhagen and director of the botanical garden, author of Nomenclatura Florae Fanicae Enmendata, and co-author of Flora Danica, a major illustrated work on the fungi of Denmark. Epilobium hornemannii
Ives, Eli, 1779-1861: Yale University pharmacologist and professor active in the Connecticut Medical Society and involved with the founding of the Medical Institution of Yale College. Taught botany and established a botanical garden as part of the medical school. He pioneered in the teaching of childhood medicine and gave the first course in pediatrics in the United States. Studied with, among others, Benjamin Smith Barton at the University of Pennsylvania. Ives created one of the first botanical gardens in New England.
James, Edwin, 1797-1861: Student of John Torrey and Amos Eaton (grandfather of Daniel Cady Eaton). Botanist, geologist, and surgeon with the Long Expedition in 1819-1820 and thus the first Caucasian plant collector in Colorado and the central Rockies. Torrey used James' numerous collections as the basis for the first botanical paper on Rocky Mountain flora. James and several other members of the Long Expedition were the first to climb Pikes Peak, which was then named "James' Peak". After his great botanical collecting success on the Long Expedition, James left the botanical world. See American Journeys for excerpts from James' journal and read James' account of the Long Expedition. Also see Larry Blakely's "Who's In a Name". Pseudostellaria jamesiana, Chionophila jamesii, Frankenia jamesii, Eriogonum jamesii
Job Titles:
- Surgeon
- Professor of Botany
John Milton Bigelow became Professor of Botany at Detroit Medical College in 1860 and in 1868 he was appointed surgeon to the Marine Hospital.
Jones, Marcus Eugene, 1852-1934: Botanist, teacher, preacher, mining engineer. William Weber considers Jones, "probably the greatest collector the West has known". Jones collected over 500,000 specimens in his nearly 60 years of collecting. In 1923 Jones sold his personal herbarium of over 100,000 specimens to the Pomona College herbarium (now Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden).
Jones started serious botanizing in Colorado but moved to Salt Lake City early in life and botanized through every county in that state. Both as a botanist and mining expert, Jones travelled hundreds of thousands of miles throughout all western states and into Mexico. Jones was friends and enemies with the most prominent people of the time, from Engelmann and Parry to governors, judges, railway magnets, and industrialists.
Jones was noted for his strongly expressed and very often negative views of everyone and everything. He even wrote up a list ranking botanists of his time according to their value as human beings and botanists. See Botanical Electronic News for a humorously pathetic story of Jones and Edward Greene.
Knowlton, Frank, 1860-1926: PhD Columbia, paleobotanist, ornithologist, botanist. Assistant to Lester Ward, geologist and paleontologist with the United States Geological Survey. Collected fossils and living plants from Montana to Arizona. Wrote botanical papers: "Flora of the Denver and Associated Formations of Colorado", "Flora of Montana Formations", and various other papers on geological and paleontological subjects. In 1889 he joined the U.S. Geological Survey as an assistant paleontologist and was associated with the survey until his death. Knowlton was the founder and first editor (1897-1904) of "The Plant World" and he published more than 200 papers and books, including Birds of the World (1909) and Plants of the Past (1927). According to Britannica online, Knowlton "was professor of botany at the Columbian (now George Washington) University, Washington, D.C. (1887-96), and curator of botany and fossil plants at the National Museum, Washington, D.C. (1887-89)". Click to read more about Knowlton and click again to read a number of Knowlton's publications.
In 1889 Knowlton discovered Ostrya knowltonii growing below the rim of the Grand Canyon. It was named for him by USDA botanist, Frederick Coville.
Koch, Wilhelm, 1771-1849: German botanist, physician, and professor of medicine and botany at the University of Erlangen, where he was also director of the botanical gardens. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and was the author of, among other titles, Synopsis Florae Germanicae et helveticae (1835-1837). Neokochia americana
Krascheninnikov, Stephan Petrovich, 1713-1755: Professor at St. Petersburg, Russia; botanist, explorer, author of the first flora of St. Petersburg. Was on The Great Nordic Expedition, the second expedition led by Vitus Bering exploring eastern Siberia with 10,000 men, many of whom died with Bering in their explorations. From 1735-41 Krascheninnikov and the German botanist George Wilhelm Steller explored and gathered data on the Kamtchatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands. Steller died in 1745 and Krascheninnikov compiled his and Steller's observations on geography, geology, natural history, and the inhabitants. These observations were published shortly after Krascheninnikov's death in his, History of Kamtchatka and the Kurilski Islands, with the Countries Adjacent. Krascheninnikovia lanata
Lambert, Aylmer, 1761-1842: Vice-President and one of the first fellows of the Linnean Society. Not a trained botanist but helped support many botanical ventures, including those of Frederick Pursh who worked several years on his Flora Americae Septentrionalis in Lambert's herbarium (which at one time or another housed about 50,000 specimens). The Meriwether Lewis collection of plants that Pursh described in his 1814 Flora remained in Lambert's custody until his death. They were then bought at auction and returned to the United States. Lambert is best known for his book, A Description of the genus Pinus, in which many of the conifers discovered by David Douglas and others were first described. Oxytropis lambertii
Lister, Martin, 1638-1712: Doctor, naturalist. Published on meteorology, mineralogy, zoology, botany, and medicine. Acquaintance of and botanical collaborator with John Ray. Fellow of the Royal Society. Perhaps the first to suggest the need for and usefulness of geologic surveys. Listera cordata
Lloyd, Edward, 1660-1709: Well-liked, scholarly antiquarian, linguist, geologist, botanist; traveled, observed, and collected throughout British Isles. Friend of Isaac Newton. John Ray used some of Lloyd's botanical collections in his floral publications.
From 1690 Lloyd was Keeper of the Ashmoleum Museum of Art and Archaeology, Britain's oldest public museum. Fellow of the Royal Society. Wrote the first book on British fossils. Began a natural history of Celtic Great Britain but published only one volume before his early death.
Lloyd showed that a distinct alpine flora existed in Snowdonia (a mountainous area of northwest Wales, now home to Snowdonia National Park.) Lloyd discovered Lloydia serotina in the Welsh mountains: Click to see Lloydia which is called the "Snowdon Lily" in its Welsh home.)
Lloyd, Francis Ernest, 1868-1947: Taught at Williams College, Pacific University, Columbia University, Alabama Polytechnic, and then McGill from 1912 to 1934 where he was the MacDonald Professor of Botany until his retirement. Co-authored The Teaching of Biology in the Secondary Schools. Helped found and develop the American Society of Plant Physiologists. Researched at the Desert Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute of Washington. President of the Royal Society of Canada. Click to read Lloyd's "The Carnivorous Plants". Viola macloskeyi
Malcolm, William (d.1798) Well-known and respected 18th century British nurseryman. According to "UK Parks and Gardens", "William Malcolm was a nurseryman, in business at Kennington, near London in the 1750s [1757]. He moved to a larger nursery at Stockwell in 1788". A number of Malcolm's catalogs, such as, "Forest Trees, Shrubs, etc." are available for viewing online.
Another William Malcolm (1768-1835), probably a nephew, had a well-known nursery business after the first William Malcolm's business closed. The later William Malcolm had his business in Kensington, not Kennington.
The genus name, Malcolmia, was given by botanist Robert Brown (1773-1858) in 1812, so it is likely that Brown new both William Malcolms and may have been honoring both with the genus name. Malcolmia africana
Job Titles:
- Director of the Real Jardin Botanico
Pedro Bueno, 1745-1826: In Genera et Species Plantarum (1816), Mariano Lagasca, Director of the Real Jardin Botanico from 1815-1823 and 1834-1839, named a new genus, Gutierrezia. Lagasca did not specify who he was honoring with the genus name, but it has been assumed by many that the name honors Pedro Gutierrez who has been variously described as a botanist, nobleman, traveler, correspondent (see below). Research by Kathleen Keeler in 2020 shows that it is more likely (but not certain) that Lagasca was honoring Pedro Bueno Gutierrez. Keeler's research shows that Pedro Bueno was
"a well-known apothecary, chemist, and pharmacist in Madrid.... He studied at the Royal Studios of San Isidro (Los Reales Estudios de San Isidro) and was admitted to the Royal College of Apothecaries in Madrid.... In 1785, he was appointed professor of chemistry at San Carlos College of Surgery in Madrid and in 1787 received an appointment to the Museum of Natural History (el Real Gabinete de Historia Natural).... In 1792 [he] was appointed the chief apothecary of His Majesty Charles VI.... His prestige - he was probably the most eminent chemist in Spain in the last decade of the 18th century - and his much-reissued books led to rapid support of modern chemical ideas in Spain...."
Pedro Bueno Gutierrez was thus for decades a very well known, respected, and influential member of the science community of Spain.
Keeler concludes: "I cannot directly link Lagasca to Gutiérrez Bueno. However, in the first two decades of the 19th century both men were leading members of the scientific community in Madrid. Gutiérrez Bueno was an apothecary, pharmacist, and chemist. Lagasca was a physician and botanist. Lagasca's publication [Genera et Species Plantarum] appeared in 1816, the year after Gutiérrez Bueno's retirement. Lagasca did not specify the Gutiérrez for whom he named the plant: it may have been too obvious."
Gutierrez, Pedro: The genus name, "Gutierrezia" obviously honors a person with the surname, "Gutierrez", but Mariano Lagasca (Spanish doctor, botanist and director of the Madrid botanic garden who named the genus) left us no details about Gutierrez. Most often it was assumed that Gutierrez was some or all of the following: a botanist, nobleman, traveler, correspondent. Apparently he had some association with the Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid, so it has been assumed that Lagasca knew him from the Real Jardin. I think it much more likely that the person honored in the genus name was Pedro Bueno Gutierrez.
McMahon, Bernard, 1775-1816: Nurseryman widely respected for his horticultural knowledge. McMahon is credited with publishing the first seed catalog in the U.S. and the first information about landscape design. Some of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was planned in his home, he was instrumental in getting Pursh to work on the Expedition's botanical collection, and he germinated and distributed seeds collected on the Expedition.
In 1806, he wrote The American Gardener's Calendar, which became the standard gardening authority in America, going through eleven editions until 1857. It is still available.
Mentzel, Christian, 1622-1701: German botanist, philologist, botanical author, personal physician to the Elector of Brandenburg, and father of the first King of Prussia. Among his works were Index nominum plantarum universalis multilinguis (1682) and Sylloge minutiarum lexici latino-sinico-characteristici (a Chinese-Latin dictionary, 1685). He also compiled the never-published Flora Japonica based on pictures and paintings of Japanese plants sent to him by his friend Andreas Cleyer. (All biographical information quoted from Michael Charter's superb website: California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.) Mentzelia albicaulis and Mentzelia pterosperma
Mertens, Franz Carl, 1764-183: Plant collector specializing in algae; had an extensive herbarium; authored and edited a number of works including an edition of Johann Christoph Röhling's Germany's Flora with W. D. Koch. Mertens became Principal of the College of Commerce, Bremen. He met eminent botanist Albrecht Roth and the two shared a number of collecting trips. Mertens was also a botanical illustrator. He had extensive correspondence with natural scientists of his day and these letters are preserved in the Hunt Institute. Mertens' son, Karl Heinrich Mertens, died at the age of 34 but had already become an eminent explorer and botanist. Mertensia spp.
Metcalfe, Orrick, 1879-1936: Well-respected plant collector in New Mexico and Arizona in the early 1900s, especially 1902-1905. Student of E. O. Wooton at the New Mexico College of Agricultural and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University). Wrote senior thesis (1903) and master's thesis (1904) on flora of southern New Mexico. Collected many hundreds of plants (600-700 plants in Grant County in 1904-1905) and has a number of species named for him. Click for Standley's list of New Mexico plant type localities and collectors of these plants. Do a search for "Metcalfe" on this document to see how extensively Metcalfe collected.
The New Mexico State Herbarium, founded in 1890, houses among its collection the vouchers used for the first Flora of New Mexico by Wooton & Standley, 1915, and also includes the collections from renowned botanists E.O. Wooton, O.B. Metcalfe, and C.G. Pringle.
Moehring, Paul, 1710-1792: East Frisian physician, botanist, ornithologist, and zoologist. Moehringia machrophylla
Job Titles:
- China's Suzhou University Biology Department 's Founder and Administrator
Escobar Zerman, Numa Pompilio and Romulo Escobar Zerman, 1874-1949 and 1882-1946: Mexican agricultural engineers. In Ciudad Juarez in 1906, they founded the Private School of Agriculture, now part of the University of Chihauhau as the Brothers Escobar College of Agriculture. Escobaria missouriensis
Fallugi, V., Abbot, 1627-1707: Italian botanist and Abbot in Vallombrosa, Italy. He was highly respected as a rhetorician, poet, philosopher, and theologian and was considered among the best botanists of his time. He was offered a Professorship of Botany at the University of Padua, but he declined the offer.
Job Titles:
- Director of England 's Royal Botanic Garden
When Joseph Hooker returned from his Antarctic trip, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) wrote him in late 1843 inquiring about Hooker's botanical observations from that trip. Darwin also asked Hooker to review and describe Darwin's Tierra del Fuego plant collection and his Galapagos specimens. Thus began a long scientific collaboration and friendship which included one of the most controversial subjects of all times: evolution.
The correspondence between the two friends began in December, 1843, soon after Hooker's return from the Antarctic voyage. It is interesting to note that in his first letter Darwin asked Hooker to study his botanical collections from the Galapagos Islands, the Islands which exerted so strong an influence on Darwin's views in regard to species. "I was so struck," wrote Darwin to Hooker in 1844, "with the distribution of the Galapagos organisms, &c., &c., that I determined to collect blindly every sort of fact, which could bear any way on what are species." It was to Hooker that his new ideas on the origin of species were first communicated. The earlier letters contain numerous references to the immutability of species, the origin of new forms, and similar subjects. Hooker's botanical knowledge, his cautious and doubting attitude towards Darwin's as yet partially formulated views played an important part in the construction of the "Origin of Species".