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Biographies of
scientists and explorers Click
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Introduction Knowing about the people who collected, studied, described, named, and cataloged the plants of an area gives us a better understanding of the history of that area, the relationships among scientists and explorers at that time, the progress of science, and the rigors endured in the quest for knowledge and beauty. The botanists who roamed the American West in the 19th century are an especially interesting group because they collected and cataloged at a time of worldwide enthusiasm for exploration and scientific advancement. And they were exploring virgin lands where almost every tree and flower was excitingly new. Enthusiasm and joy in discovery floods out of their reports, journals, newspaper articles, and books. It was a very heady time for all explorers. The biographies below also indicate that the botanists were not just "Botanists"; they were intrepid hikers, climbers, campers, geologists, paleontologists, surveyors, and writers. Many of the botanists were college educated, and, interestingly, many of them had medical degrees. The schooling in the scientific method and the use of medicinal plants served them well in their search for new plants and new knowledge. There was, of course, a financial aspect to collecting plants. Expeditions had to be paid for and explorers' city homes had mortgages. Thus it was common to solicit the assistance of philanthropists, intellectual societies, universities, and gardens to finance trips. It was also common to collect multiple specimens in the field, returning some of these to those who had financed the trip and selling other sets to private collectors, herbariums, and universities. If we look only at a neatly typed catalog of plants collected on an expedition, it is easy to be unaware of the arduous work that went into collecting plants. The explorer/botanists were often out for weeks, months, or years at a time, often in unexplored lands, frequently under the threat of starvation, dehydration, and attacks from natives and ruffians. They lived with sunburn, mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers, cactus thorns, and lightning. Eleven men froze to death on a Fremont expedition, Douglas was trampled to death, Gunnison and his crew were murdered. These are not unusual cases. Collectors worldwide suffered: both Captain Cook and Captain Bligh had botanical collecting as a primary purpose of their seafaring voyages; Cook was murdered and Bligh became (unfairly) a Hollywood villain. Lives were lost and collections, too, were lost: it was maddeningly common for specimens of plants, rocks, and fossils, and surveying data to be lost when rains and floods soaked them or pack animals carrying them toppled off mountain ledges, or rats on ships ate them. Much of the Lewis and Clark botanical collection and some journals were lost in the Expedition's river travels. Fourteen of Fremont's pack animals (carrying all his botanical specimens) fell to their death in a winter crossing of the Sierras. Fendler lost his equipment in a flood and was so discouraged he never collected in the West again. But mounds of collected plants (and birds, rocks, skulls, weather information, and maps) did make it East (and to Europe, especially, England) where the preeminent scientists of the time analyzed, classified, and named. For much of the 19th century (when thousands upon thousands of plant discoveries in the West were made) the botanical taxonomic authorities were John Torrey and Asa Gray in the United States and William and Joseph Hooker (father and son) in England. These men assigned names that described plant characteristics, geographical locations, and plant relationships, or (relevant to our discussion here) honored people who were important botanists, naturalists, and explorers in the West, the United States, or in other parts of the world. Over twenty percent of the plants shown in this web site have a person's name as part or all of their scientific name. (Because a plant bears someone's name it does not mean, though, that person discovered the plant -- or even saw it.) (See also scientific name.) The people honored in plant names have also been honored in other ways. Two fourteen thousand foot peaks in Colorado are named for eminent botanists: Gray's Peak (at 14,274 the 9th highest peak in Colorado) and Torrey's Peak (at 14,267 the 11th highest peak in Colorado); the Stansbury Mountains of Utah honor Howard Stansbury; birds carry their names (Lewis' Woodpecker, Clark's Nutcracker, Nuttall's Woodpecker, Townsend's Solitaire); and towns, rivers, lakes, and canyons honor them: Fremont, Gunnison, Lewis, Powell. |
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Threads weave through the biographies linking many of those discussed below with each other. Many of the botanists/explorers were on expeditions together, were student/teacher, shared botanical and other scientific collections with each other, were brought together by mutual friends, or competed. Two threads that I particularly enjoyed following were the relationships with Charles Darwin and membership in the National Academy of Sciences. It is fascinating to read about the reaction of major 19th century botanists to the publication in 1859 of Darwin's The Origin of Species. Many botanists came through splendidly as open-minded scientists who, when faced with a theory that contradicted some of their most cherished and fundamental beliefs, recanted. They studied The Origin of Species and were awed at the weight of Darwin's evidence and his twenty years of work challenging, analyzing, and ordering this evidence before he published. Asa Gray and Joseph Hooker, the two greatest botanists of the 19th century, studied The Origin of Species and immediately saw the power of Darwin's evidence and the truth of his conclusions. See the entries for Gray and Hooker for details. An institutional occurrence of great scientific significance was the formation of the National Academy of Sciences by an act of Congress signed into law by President Lincoln in 1863. Four botanists, George Engelmann, Asa Gray, John Newberry, and John Torrey, all discussed below, were chosen by Congress to be among the fifty charter members of the Academy. The National Academy of Sciences was soon called on by Congress to settle a complex and contentious question about the administrative guidance for the exploration of the West. The numerous surveys which detailed the topography, climate, botany, and resources of the West were primarily conducted by the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers (see www.topogs.org/Links.htm ). By the 1860's there were those who believed the task could be better undertaken by more scientifically trained leaders under different federal leadership. The issue was turned over to the National Academy of Sciences for study and a recommendation to Congress. The Academy's report urged that the various surveys sponsored by the military under the leadership of Stansbury, Gunnison, Fremont, Hayden, and others be ended and that a new agency, The United States Geological Survey, within the Department of the Interior, be created. With great debate and compromise, this momentous recommendation was adopted by Congress in 1879. The members of the National Academy of Sciences are "dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare". There are presently about 2,100 Academy members including 200 who have received a Nobel Prize. See The National Academy web site. |
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Biographies Following
each person's biography are links Numerous web sources and many books, especially those listed immediately below and those mentioned in the biographies, provided much of the biographical information. Books: Thanks to the staff at the Cortez, Colorado Library for their assistance in obtaining books for me. |
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Allioni, Carlo, 1728-1804: Italian physician, professor, and botanist. Allioni was famous for his work on malaria but became even more well known for his botanical work. Allionia was a strong supporter of the Linnaean taxonomic system. In 1785 Allionia published his 3 volume work, Flora Pedemontana, which describes over 2,800 species of plants. (See Antiquaria Books for photos of several of his botanical publications.) Allionia incarnata Amson, Charles, 18th century Virginia physician and traveler. It is possible that the genus Amsonia was named for a Dr. John Amson, Mayor of Williamsburg, Virginia, (1750-1751) and an associate of the famous botanist John Clayton. Perhaps John and Charles are actually one person. Amsonia tomentosa Bahi, Juan Francisco, 1775-1841: Professor of Botany at the University of Barcelona in the 19th century. 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 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 Barbey, William, 1842-1914: Swiss philanthropist and botanist. Delphinium barbeyi 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. Bessey, Charles Edwin, 1845-1915: Student of Asa Gray. Professor of Botany at the Iowa Agricultural College until 1884 and then at the University of Nebraska until his death. Chancellor of the University of Nebraska. Nebraska and Colorado plant collector who was the first American to make major contributions to plant classification based on a phylogenetic system -- the attempt to establish the most primitive to most evolved plants. Known for his contributions to botanical education: made lab a standard part of his botany courses and wrote several botanical texts that were widely used for decades. Initiated the Nebraska National Forest, the first completely hand-planted forest in the world. Per Axel Rydberg honored Bessey with the genus name, Besseya: Besseya ritteriana See also Ritter. Bigelow, John Milton, 1804-1878: Physician, botanist, and member of several Western expeditions in the New Mexico area including the "Mexican Boundary Survey", 1850-1852, which produced over 2,500 botanical specimens. Click for details about this Survey. Bigelow joined the Whipple 1853 explorations for a southern rail route and collected numerous new species which Torrey and Gray described. Became Professor of Botany at Detroit Medical College in 1860. Ligularia bigelovii, Machaeranthera bigelovii, Artemisia bigelovii Boecher, Tyge, 1909-1983: Danish botanist. Studied the flora of Greenland. Boechera drummondii Brandegee, Townshend Stith,
1843-1925 and Trifolium brandegei is a lovely, hot pink Pea that Townshend Brandegee was the first to collect; it is the only plant in this web site named for him. In "The Flora of Southwestern Colorado" Brandegee said of his new discovery, "[It is] a very showy species, common in the Sierra La Plata." It is still very showy and still common in the La Platas. Bree, William Thomas, 1787-1863: Botanist and Rector of Allesley. Mentioned by Charles Darwin in his correspondence. Breea 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. Member and President of the National Academy of Sciences. Draba breweri variety cana 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 (who was 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.) Brickellia grandiflora |
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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 brandegei 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. There are, according to Intermountain Flora, about 200 species of Castilleja, most growing in western North America, several in eastern North America and Asia, and about fifteen in Central and South America. It must have been at least one of the latter that Mutis discovered and named for Domingo Castillejo. Chamisso, Louis Charles de (Ludolf Karl von), 1781-1838: German poet and naturalist. Naturalist on Kotzebue's 1815 voyage. He is noted for having conducted the first complete botanical profile in western North America, including the San Francisco Bay area. See Romanzoff and Eschscholtz. 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 on-line sources about Lewis and Clark; two excellent on-line starting points are Stuart Wier's Guide to Sources of Information on Lewis and Clark and Discovering Lewis and Clark . Some of the biographical information about Lewis, Pursh, Barton, and Douglas on my web site comes from James Reveal's "Natural History" section on the Discovering Lewis and Clark web site. Also see the original specimens collected by Lewis and Clark now housed in the Herbarium at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. For the most extensive collection of on-line 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. Became friends with Mark Catesby, artist and naturalist. 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 and they formed the basis of Linnaeus' knowledge of North American species. Sir Joseph Banks (of Captain Cook and Captain Bligh fame) bought the Gronovius-Clayton specimens in 1793. Clayton and the great naturalist John Bartram became friends. The herbarium of the Natural History Museum of London is named for John Clayton. Claytonia lanceolata, Claytonia megarhiza Clements, 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, married, and the two conceived of, initiated, and worked in the "Alpine Laboratory" on Pikes Peak. 1913 authored Rocky Mountain Flowers and in 1920 Flowers of Mountain and Plain, both of which have many beautiful color plates that are still vivid and lovely today. In 1903 Clementsia rhodantha was named in honor of both Edith and Frederic. 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. Early in the 20th century established the Carnegie Institution's "Alpine Laboratory" on Pikes Peak where, during eight summers, he, his wife, and many students and co-workers studied the complex interrelationships of all influences (insects, moisture, sunlight, wind...) on alpine plants. The Clements spent their winters during these years 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 was named in honor of both Frederic and Edith. 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 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. Orobanche cooperi Cottam, Walter, 1894-1988: Professor of Botany at the University of Utah from 1931-1962. Early ecologist who, from the 1940s on, published papers and spoke often about the degradation of the West caused by cattle and sheep. Was also known for his work on hybrid Oaks. Astragalus cottamii Coulter, John Merle, 1851-1928: Professor of Botany at the University of Chicago, and participant in the Hayden Survey. In 1874 he published the first Colorado flora, Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado with Thomas Conrad Porter (see Porter for details). In 1885 he wrote the Manual of Botany of the Rocky Mountain Region. Erigeron coulteri Cutler, Hugh Carson, 1912-1998: Anthropologist, botanist. Received his Ph.D. in botany from Washington University in St. Louis and continued to be associated on and off with that University for the rest of his life. Curator of economic botany at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and with the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Originated the MBG Systematics Symposium in 1954. Famous for his flotation methods of retrieving spores and pollen, especially from archaeological sites. Was a devoted student of plants of the Southwest U.S. Early on in his career he became interested in economic botany and "the useful plants of the New World and their relatives; studies related to the taxonomy of useful plants; research on the wild relatives, variability, and kinds grown by living people; and specimens recovered from archaeological sites". (Cutler's words in his 1964, Career Statement. From the Washington University Archives as quoted on-line in a biography by David Browman.) Cutler's collection of more than 12,000 ears of native species of maize is now with the Department of Agriculture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Ephedra cutleri 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 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 Sabina deppeana. Descurain, Francois, 1658-1740: French botanist and pharmacist. Descurainia sophia Dillenius, Johann, 1684-1747: Noted German physician and mycologist. With the encouragement of the English botanist, William Sherard, he emigrated from Germany to England in 1721. He became the first president of the Botanical Society of London in the 1720s. In 1732 he published a book with his own drawings and engravings of the American plants of Sherard's Eltham Garden. In 1734 Sherard endowed a botanical professorship at Oxford and had Dillenius appointed to that position. Dillenius held this chair until his death. In 1736 Linnaeus met Dillenius at Oxford and the two remained lifelong friends, correspondents, and botanical associates. Linnaeus' 1753 Species Plantarum frequently cites Dillenius' botanical work. Oxalis dillenii 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."
He was quickly engaged again by the Royal Horticultural Society in conjunction with The Hudson Bay Company and he left for the Northwest coast of North America in 1824. From 1825-1827 he traveled thousands of miles by foot, horse, and canoe in the West: from April to December of 1825 he traveled 2,100 miles, in 1826 he traveled 4,000 miles, in 1827 he left the coast and traveled 3,000 miles to the Hudson Bay and from there sailed home. (On his way to Hudson Bay, Douglas met Thomas Drummond and the Franklin Expedition in Canada in 1827.) Through these years and thousands of miles, Douglas was an intrepid botanizer, searching, climbing, crawling, digging, collecting, studying, pressing, and drying and re-drying after soaking rivers and rains. His miles of travel in 1825-1827 took him -- often only in the company of an Indian guide/interpreter -- up the Columbia, back to the coast, to California, back to British Columbia, up the Columbia River to the Rockies, and back to the coast. He was almost always in areas no Westerner had ever been. He was wrecked in canoes, thrown into a river by his horse, lost collections and went back for more, slogged through deep snows to reach alpine plants, slept many nights with no shelter, faced Indian hostilities a number of times, was next to starvation, but he continued to collect and collect. The months on end of living in wilderness, said Douglas, were "looked upon by me with a sort of dread. Now I am well accustomed to it so much that comfort seems superfluity." (From Lemmon: see end of the Douglas section.) Douglas brought large collections of plants and seeds home with him from this trip, but he had also shipped many extensive collections home over the years from the Pacific coast. When he arrived in England his reputation was already established and he was treated as a hero. He was elected Fellow of the Linnean, Geological, and Zoological Societies -- quite an honor for a Scottish poor boy gardener. He returned to the Pacific coast in 1829 again under Hudson Bay patronage, spent several years botanizing up the Columbia, southward into California, to Hawaii, back to Fort Vancouver and the Columbia area, and then again to Hawaii in 1833. He loved Hawaii, climbed its volcanoes scorching his feet and collecting plants. On July 12th 1834 he set off with his terrier to explore Mauna Loa, one of the two huge volcanoes on the Island of Hawaii. Douglas never returned from this trip; he fell into a pit, an animal trap, and was trampled to death by a steer that had previously fallen in. We don't know how the accident happened but we do know that Douglas' vision had been damaged on his snowy expeditions along the Pacific Coast and in Canada and it is quite possible that he did not see the pit that cost him his life -- or perhaps he saw the pit and slipped in when he curiously looked into it. From his travels, Douglas introduced to Britain over two hundred plants (including many Pines and Firs) that were widely planted as ornamentals and plantation crop trees. Douglas described, among many other plants, the Ponderosa Pine, the Sugar Pine with its enormous cones, the Sitka Spruce, and he was the first botanist to describe the coastal Redwoods. His collections formed the bases of several seminal botanical works including Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana (see William Jackson Hooker). He was the first to collect Purshia tridentata and Erigeron speciosus. Three plants on this web site are named for Douglas: Chaenactis douglasii, Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Cicutata douglasii. For an enlightening, intriguing, eye-opening, mind-boggling view into the complexities and vagaries of the naming of plants, see James Reveal's excellent discussion of "Douglas Fir" on the Lewis and Clark web site. For the riveting story of Douglas and other explorers in Britain's world-wide quest for plants from 1768-1836, see Kenneth Lemon's The Golden Age of Plant Hunters. Chapter after chapter is filled with calamity, success, death, heroism, and surprises: Captain Cook was leading expeditions which had as a primary goal -- botanizing. Botany Bay was named by Joseph Banks on a Cook expedition. Captain Bligh's voyage on the Bounty met with catastrophe in large part because of the rigors of botanizing. From China to Tahiti to California to Brazil to Africa and India, the British were around the world collecting plants for their gardens and meals. During the reign of King George III (1761-1820) it is estimated that nearly 7,000 new species were brought to England from around the world. Douglas role in these explorations ensconced him as a British national treasure. 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. He 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. See also John Richardson. Boechera drummondii Eastwood, Alice, 1859-1953: Denver high school teacher, collector, and author of the first flora of a small Colorado region: A Popular Flora of Denver, Colorado (circa 1893). In 1894 she succeeded Mary Katherine Brandegee as the Curator of the California Academy of Sciences Herbarium and remained Curator there until 1949.
She collected widely in California on numerous trips, named over 100 California plants, mentored numerous budding botanists, risked her life to save some of the most precious specimens in the Herbarium during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, rebuilt the Herbarium collection to over 300,000 species, and was universally admired and respected as the leading California botanist, one of the best in the United States, and was honored at the age of 92 by being named President of the Seventh International Botanical Conference in Sweden. (Much of this information comes from Larry Blakely's excellent site on California botanists: Who's In a Name.) Podistera eastwoodiae, Amsonia eastwoodiana Eaton, Daniel Cady, 1834-1895: Professor of Botany at Yale, fern specialist, and plant collector. Collected with the King Expedition in Utah. Left his large collection of plants to Yale. Erigeron eatoni, Penstemon eatonii Encel, Christopher, 1517-1583: German naturalist, who, according to Stephen Jay Gould ("Drawing a Gloriously False Inference"), "introduced the novel practice of drawing [pictures of natural history] specimens". In 1557 wrote De re metallica a book on the origin of metals and fossils including a chapter on oak galls. Encelia frutescens 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 Colorado and other areas of the West and he is honored in the name of many plants, especially in his favorite area of expertise, the Cactaceae. He described, according to Dr. Oscar Soule, 108 Cacti, "over two-thirds of the forms recognized today".
In St. Louis Engelmann was chosen by Henry Shaw, wealthy St. Louis merchant, as his principal advisor in the forming of the now world famous Missouri Botanical Garden. Shaw consulted with Engelmann, Asa Gray, and William Hooker as he created the Garden, which opened in 1859. In 1857 Engelmann bought a 62,000 species plant collection in Europe to begin the Garden's Herbarium and in 1860 Engelmann hired Augustus Fendler for a year and a half as curator of the Garden collections. The Garden proved to be very popular, for in the next two decades about a million people visited it. In 1890, after Engelmann's death, his plant collection of 100,000 specimens, including his collection from Colorado (and his personal library) was donated to the Garden by his son Dr. George J. Engelmann. (The Missouri Botanical Garden's herbarium now has 5.5 million specimens [second largest in the U.S. and sixth in the world], including 80,000 type specimens. Five thousand of Engelmann's letters and 30 boxes of his botanical notes are in the Garden's extensive botanical library.) Engelmann was elected by Congress as one of fifty founding members of the National Academy of Sciences. In this web site his name appears very often as mentor, collector, and botanical expert. Charles Parry honored George Engelmann in the name of a most common and beautiful tree, the Engelmann Spruce, Picea engelmannii, which actually was known for several decades after its 1862 discovery by Parry as Abies engelmannii. Also see Eucephalus engelmannii. A new biography of Engelmann is being written by Michael Long of St. Louis; it should be out in 2009. Eschscholtz, Johann Friedrich Gustav von, 1793-1831: German Surgeon, Professor of Anatomy, Director of the Zoological Cabinet, and participant in two scientific trips around the world with the Otto von Kotzebue Expeditions of 1815-1818 and 1823-1826. On the first trip, the California Poppy was collected near present-day San Francisco and named for him (Eschscholzia californica) by his friend and fellow on-board scientist, Adelbert von Chamisso (of the genus Chamissonis). Eschscholtz later returned the favor in the name Lupinus chamissonis. Many other species were named for Eschscholtz. See Romanzoff. Ranunculus eschscholtzii |
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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. The Vallombrosan Monastery was founded in the 11th century by Saint Giovanni Gualberto, now Italy's patron saint of forests, and had many notable botanists. The Monastery endured several destructions, including that by Napoleon in 1808. It was rebuilt in 1815. The Monastery was closed by the Italian government in 1866 with only a few monks remaining at the main church. The Abbey is in the hills about 20 miles from Florence and for several centuries has attracted famous visitors, such as, John Milton, Mary Shelley, William Wordsworth, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Fallugia paradoxa 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. Streptopus fassettii Fendler, Augustus, 1813-1883: Assiduous and highly respected (though short-time) botanical collector for the renowned Asa Gray and George Engelmann. He met with Engelmann in St. Louis for the first time in 1844 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 after two years of collecting 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). Fendler began a second expedition in 1849 but lost all of his gear, notebooks, specimens -- everything, in a flood. When he returned to St. Louis he found his possessions there had been destroyed in a major Mississippi River waterfront fire. Dejected and disgusted, he left the United States for a number of years and never returned to collecting in the Southwest. Fendlera rupicola, Cymopteris fendleri, Hydrophyllum fendleri, Oxypolis fendleri, Thalictrum fendleri, Chamaesyce fendleri, Berberis fendleri, Ceanothus fendleri Forestier, Charles Le, physician of St. Quentin, ca. 1820, first botany teacher to Jean Louis Poiret (1755-1634). Forestiera pubescens Forselles, Jacob H., 1785-1855: Swedish mining engineer. Forsellesia meionandra 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 Fremont, John Charles, 1813-1890: Teacher and surveyor 1833-1837; student of sciences including mathematics, astronomy, botany, geology, and cartography; military expedition leader; American icon; gold rush millionaire; governor, senator, Presidential candidate; strong-headed, court-martialed, impoverished, belligerent, American success and failure story. I have made Fremont's biography lengthy, not because he was a central botanical figure of the nineteenth century (he was not), but because his life shows so well the relationship of the explorer/scientist/politician to the public, the government, and the botanical world. In 1838 Fremont was commissioned as Second Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and was assigned as chief assistant to the French scientist Joseph N. Nicollet for a survey between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Nicollet tutored him in all aspects of expedition logistics and in the gathering of scientific information. Fremont then went on, between 1842 and 1854, to lead five Western expeditions, traveled over 20,000 miles, mapped large areas of the West, and inspired a huge wave of pioneers with his reports about these expeditions. He came to be revered as "The Pathfinder".
Fremont eloped in 1841 with Jessie Benton, the daughter of the highly influential Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Benton was angered at this action but reconciled with Fremont, became Fremont's powerful ally, and utilized Fremont's expeditions to expand America's boundaries. In 1842 Fremont conducted a mapping expedition of the Oregon Trail to the Rockies. (Prior to the trip Fremont had received a quick course in plant collecting and preserving from the eminent George Engelmann and the expedition collected plants and other scientific data.) Twenty thousand copies of Fremont's report (in part written by his wife) were published by Congress in 1843; the report appeared in major newspapers; commercial American and foreign editions sold several hundred thousand copies. Fremont's maps of the Great Salt Lake area influenced the Mormons to settle there. His maps of routes across the West were studied and followed by westward moving pioneers. Fremont was thus catapulted into being the most famous American explorer of the time and his writings strongly added to Americans' belief in Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny -- both of which had long been strongly supported in Congress by his father-in-law, Senator Benton. Through all of these events and through his whole life, Fremont was rash, brash, headstrong, political, knowledgeable, persuasive, brave, fool-hardy: he had strong supporters and powerful enemies. In the mid-1840's Fremont was instrumental in taking California from Mexico, was appointed Governor of the new Territory in 1846, was court martialed in 1847, convicted, and ordered dismissed from the military over his disobeying the military order to step down from the Governorship, had the conviction upheld but the penalty reversed by President Polk; Fremont resigned in anger from the Army in 1848. In 1850 Fremont ran as a Democrat and was elected as one of the first two Senators from California. He served the six month short term but failed in his bid for re-election. He made a fortune in the Gold Rush but only after protracted battles in courts and Congress over land claims, payments, partners, and promises. Fremont's popularity for his Western exploits and his antislavery position got him the newly formed Republican Party's first presidential nomination in 1856; because Fremont was an outspoken proponent of freeing slaves, Southern states threatened to secede if he were elected; Fremont lost to James Buchanan. When Lincoln became President, he promoted Fremont to Major General. In Fremont's Missouri command post he confiscated southerners' lands, freed their slaves, declared martial law, and then refused to obey Lincoln's order to rescind these unauthorized actions; Lincoln removed him from command after six months of service; Republican pressure on Lincoln forced him to reinstate Fremont only to have Fremont lose a number of Civil War battles; he was demoted again and angrily resigned. He lost his gold rush fortune, ran for President in 1864, was convicted by the French in an 1873 swindle case involving the Transcontinental Railroad, and from 1878-1881 was Territorial Governor of Arizona until removed from office by public protests about his shirking of duties. Fremont's botanical collecting followed the same path as his life: a roller coaster of success and failure. Prior to his first expedition in 1842 Fremont was unknown in the botanical world. On November 18th, 1842 John Torrey wrote to Asa Gray that "a Lt. Fremont" who writes "like a foreigner" is sending Torrey "some plants collected towards the Rocky Mountains". When Torrey received the plants he sent the "Compositae" (Asteraceae, i.e., Sunflowers) to Gray and on December 5th, after looking at the Compositae, Gray wrote in great excitement: "Tetradymias [Horsebrush] this side of the Rocky Mts.!! Some new Senecios [Ragworts].... How I would like to botanize up there! Is the Lieutenant's name Fremont? I wish we had a collector to go with Fremont. It is a great chance. If none are to be had, Lieut. F. must be indoctrinated, & taught to collect both dried spec. & seeds. Tell him he shall be immortalized by having the 999th [99th?] Senecio called S. fremontii." (From The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, edited by Jackson and Spence.) Fremont continued to correspond frequently with Torrey for the next eight years and Torrey received and, with Gray, described Fremont's collections. Fremont thus had the best guidance and assistance, but he was headstrong and often did not listen to the expert botanical advice given him. Although his expeditions did produce some botanical results (Torrey said of the 1842 collection, "[It is] a very interesting contribution to North American botany"), they produced little compared to what they could have if sound collecting procedures had been followed. George Engelmann, who tutored Fremont once, wrote Gray on December 6, 1844: Fremont "appears to me rather selfish - I speak confidentially - and disinclined to let any body share in his discoveries, anxious to reap all the honour, as well as undertake all the labour himself. He objected to take any botanist or geologist along with him... even though he himself can not claim any knowledge of [botany]...." In his second expedition, 1843-1844, Fremont's collection from his westward leg of the journey through the Rockies and Great Basin was lost when the mule carrying the botanical specimens went over a precipice; on the return trip East his collection was lost in a flood. But he did bring back enough specimens to whet botanist's appetite. Specimens included the first records of Eriogonum inflatum, Coleogyne ramosissima, and Populus fremontii. On his third expedition Fremont shipped Torrey a treasure chest of over a thousand specimens. On the fourth expedition some of the collection was ruined by rains and some perished in the snows of the Colorado San Juan Mountains when he and his men fought for their lives (ten men died). By the time of the fifth Expedition (1853-8154) Fremont and Torrey had almost no communication. In the late 1840's and early 50's Torrey and Gray honored Fremont in the names of many plants, including three on this web site: Senecio fremontii, Mahonia fremontii, Populus fremontii (now Populus deltoides) Some of the above information came from numerous on-line sources; most came from Mary Lee Spence, The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, 5 volumes. |
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