I Fernald,M.L. 1873 1950 Sieur de Monts Publications I. Announcement by the Government of the cre- ation of the Sieur de Monts National Monu- ment by proclamation, on July 8, 1916. II. Addresses at Meeting held at Bar Harbor on Aug- ust 22, 1916, to commemorate the establishment of the Sieur de Monts National Monument. III. The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a Bird Sanctuary. IV. The Coastal Setting, Rocks and Woods of the An Sieur Acadian de Plant Sanctuary M.L.Female Monts National Monument. V VI. Wild Life and Nature Conservation in the East- ern States. VII. Man and Nature. Our Duty to the Future. VIII. The Acadian Forest. IX. The Sieur de Mc : National Monument as commemorating Acedia and early French influences of Race and Settlement in the United States. X. Acadia: the Closing Scene. XI. Purchas translation of de Monts' Commission. De Monts: an'Appreciation. XII. The de Monts Ancestry in France. XIII. The District of Maine and the Character of the People of Boston at the end of the 18th century. XIV. Two National Monuments: the Desert and the Ocean Front. XV. Natural Bird Gardens on Mount Desert Island. XVI. The Blueberry and other characteristic plants of the Acadian Region. XVII. The Sieur de Monts National Monument and its Historical Associations. Garden Approaches to the National Monument. The White Mountain National Forest. Crawford Notch in 1797. XVIII. An Old Account of Mt. Washington. A Word upon its Insect Life. A Word on Mt. Katahdin. XIX. National Parks and Monuments. XX. Early Cod and Haddock Fishery in Acadian Waters. XXI. The Birds of Oldfarm: an intimate study of an Acadian Bird Sanctuary. XXII. The Sieur de Monts National Monument and The Wild Gardens of Acadia. XXIII. The Sieur de Monts National Monument as a Huguenot Memorial. These Publications may be obtained by writing to THE CUSTODIAN, Sieur de Monts National Monument, Bar Harbor, Maine. Notz: Not listed in his officed bibliography National Academy Biograp Lical Memoirs V. 28 (1954):43-98. (available online) MERRITT LYNDON FERNALD 1873-1950 BY ELMER D. MERRILL It is seldom that a boy of high school age really knows exactly what field he wishes to select for his life work. Yet with Fernald we have a positive case. As a boy he had developed such an in- tensive interest in botany, during and preceding his high school years in Orono, Maine, that at the age of seventeen he desired to make botany his life career. Considering the fact that at that time (1890), outside of the actual teaching of botany, there were not a half dozen full time positions in all of our institutions spe- cifically created and supported to maintain the type of work in which this young man was interested, it is noteworthy that his first published paper of 1890 immediately attracted the attention of the one man in America who was in a position best to judge its author's promise. In 1890 such botanical positions as were available in the United States were essentially teaching ones, and then as now most botanical teachers, after taking care of their classes had little energy left to prosecute much research work. There were a very few exceptions here and there. The great de- velopment and diversification of botanical research in the United States came mostly within the present century. With this in- crease, research positions, as distinguished from merely teaching ones as such, were created all over the country. The result was a great proliferation in the plant sciences, including the develop- ment of entirely new disciplines such as genetics, cytology, cyto- genetics, ecology (including much so-called ecology which was merely sugarcoated systematic botany) and other specialized fields, many of them never heard of at the end of the nineteenth century. With the development of the sometimes not too intel- ligent interest in the new subjects came a gradual decrease in the support of pure taxonomy. Thus by the middle of the present century the laboratory trained groups were in the ascendancy, and taxonomy, which is basic to all other disciplines in plant sci- ence, whether the devotees of these disciplines realize it or not, was in a very severe decline. This decline will inevitably con- 45 Archives of the Gray Herbarium Page 1 of 11 Papers of M. L Fernald (1873-1950) Library of the Gray Herbarium See next page SEMI-HISTORIC LETTERS - D Birth and Last Name First Name Dates Amount Notes See Also Death Dates Dahl Richard S. 1912 2 2 1923- 1877- Dahlgren Bror Eric 9 1927 1961 Hugo 1913- 1856- Dahlstedt Gustav 5 1928 1934 Adolf William 1845- Dall 1916 1 Historic Letters database Healey 1927 Reginald 1871- Daly 1919 1 Aldworth 1957 Historic Letters database; 1893- Thomas Wentworth 1838- Dame Lorin Low 24 1903 Higginson inventory in 1903 Archives Guide (Carl 1860- Dammer Lebrecht) 1905 1 Historic Letters database 1920 Udo Edward 1890- 1849- Dana 12 Goodale, George Lincoln Salisbury 1932 1935 James 1888- 1813- Dana 4 Historic Letters database Dwight 1890 1895 includes 1901 James 1899- Dandeno 9 Brown 1909 letter by Laurence 1862- Russell Reynolds Cutler/Dandridge/Thorndike Dandridge inventory in Archives Guide http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/sd.htm 4/28/2004 Archives of the Gray Herbarium Page 8 of 11 Docters Van Willem 1880- 1930 1 Leeuwen Marius 1960 Docturowsky Wladimir 1910 1 postcard 1910, Dodd Charles 2 1912 Charles 1892- 41 includes 1 plant 1844- Dodge Keene 1917 list 1918 1847- Dodge Frederic 1919 1 1927 1893- George Edward Davenport 1844- Dodge Raynal 13 1915 inventory in Archives Guide 1918 William Dodson 1900 1 1867- Rufus Nathan 1852- Dole 1900 1 Haskell 1935 1906- 1882- Domin Karel 26 1935 1954 1903- Dominguez Juan Anibal 4 1876- 1932 Domke Walter 1936 3 1899- 1930- 1893- Donat Arturo 23 1936 1937 William Doran 1935 2 1893- Leonard William 1935- Dore 26 includes 2 plant 1912- George 1947 lists 1910- Dorfler Ignaz 8 Maxon, William Ralph; Plant 1866- 1921 Lists Box I in Archives Guide Marie (nee 1920- Dorfler 2 1876- Reichel) 1921 Dorr George 1902- 1853- 6 Bucknam 1926 1944 1911- Plant Lists Box I in Archives 1864- Dowell Philip 4 1922 Guide 1936 Ida Sociedade Scientifica (Sao Draenert Paulo) http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/sd.htm 4/28/2004 SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS V An Acadian Plant Sanctuary 241553 ISSUED BY THE WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA BAR HARBOR, MAINE SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS V "There are few things in the course of journeys which one recalls with more pleasure than parks and gardens which combine opportunities for studying the flora of (l country with the enjoyment of natural beauty." JAMES BRYCE. M. L. FERNALD Professor of Botany at Harvard University Curator of the Gray Herbarium Former President New England Botanical Society One of the commonest sights in the wilder districts of our once densely timbered eastern States is vast stretches of burned and wasted land, desolate and unproductive. Now, nearly all the native plants which originally inhabited these desolated areas have a peculiarly modi- lied root-structure which renders il impossible for them to grow in any soil other than the moist and spongelike forest humus, to life in which their whole development has been shaped for ages past. The immediate effect, then, of the removal of the forest and burning over of its leafy floor is the complete annihi- lation of countless lesser plants, wild flowers and ferns in hundreds of beautiful and interesting species which give the primeval forest of the region its great natural charm. The evil does not stop, however, with the destruction of the native woods and wild flowers and the gradually ac- 3 camulated wealth of woodland soil. Nature's anciently established equilibrium is disturbed at its foundation, and the native insects, associated from the beginning with the native flowering plants and rarely hurtful to the farmer, perish largely with the vegetation and the soil that they have lived and bred upon, leaving the field clear for the invasion of destructive foreign species. The birds, in turn; who feed upon the native insects and control the balance of insect increase, no longer find their former food supply or shelter, and either vanish from the wasted region or continue in diminished numbers. Much of the land thus wreeked by axe and fire in the well-watered eastern portion of our country must ulti- mately be reclothed with forest as its best economic use, and none can be SO well adapted to it as that which na- ture clothed it with originally, rich alike in beauty and in valuable species. But it will be long before such land again develops the humus covering the native forest flora and its associated life require, and unless prompt measures are taken to conserve them till it does the task of resettling future forests with the rich, indigenous life that is the region's own will have become impossible. It has, therefore, long seemed to the writer that the only way in which to conserve for the enjoyment and study of future generations any portions of our coun- try which by good fortune still remain in their natural condition is the reservation of appropriate tracts, such as may properly be set aside, with the explicit stipula- tion that they be left essentially in their natural state. This brings me to the crucial point: Where is the best spot, if only a single spot can be thus preserved, for the perfection of this ideal? A detailed knowledge of the geography, the flora, and to some extent the soil condi- tions of eastern North America, acquired through twen- ty-five years of active exploration in New England, the Maritime Provinces, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labra- 4 SMC 5 dor, naturally brings several regions to mind; but as it cannot be duplicated at any point known to the writer. single area within the possible reach of this hope, the In its rock and soil composition Mount Desert offers Island of Mount Desert, with its adjacent islets and head- a most attractive possibility. Much of the Island consists lands, stands out as offering the greatest natural of granite rocks, with the consequent acid soils that these diversity. give rise to; but the soils derived from some of the meta- This comes obviously from the fact that Mount Desert morphic series, slates and shales, are, judging from the is the highest land on the Atlantic coast of North America native vegetation, of a basic or even limy character, and south of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, its boldly sculptured many of the swamps are covered not with the heath hills, which rise directly from the water's edge, attaining thickets of acid bogs but with the characteristic grasses altitudes of almost montane character. and sedges of sweet areas. The exposed headlands and bogs of the Mount Desert A number of the Island plants, indeed, sometimes of region support between two and three hundred species rock habitats, sometimes of swamps, suggest themselves of plants which are typical of the aretic, subaretic, and at once as species which, in their wide range, show a Hudsonian regions of America, and which on the eastern strong preference for sweet or limy habitats: the Shrubby coast of New England or the alpine summits of the White Cinquefoil, Potentilla fruticosa; the Showy Lady's Slip- Mountains reach their actual or approximate southern per, Cypripedium hirsutum; the Hemlock Parsley, Con- limits-such plants, for instance, as the Black Crowberry, ioselinum chinense, are instances. Empetrum nigrum; the Baked-apple Berry, Rubus These features alone are sufficient to indicate the Chamaemorus; the Creeping Juniper, Juniperus horizon- remarkable possibilities for the future if a tract like talis; the Greenland Sandwort, Arenaria groenlandica; Mount Desert, unique upon our coast in physical config- the Rose-root, Sedum roseum; and the Banksian Pine, uration as in beauty, can be preserved from the destruc- tion of its natural charm by the judicious guarding of Pinus Banksiana. But the flora of the Mount Desert region is not by any what it now possesses and the re-introduction of what it means entirely aretic or subarctic. There we find essen- has lost, or lost presumably, both plants and animals. tially all the common plants of the Canadian zone, and The fame of the island as the playground, habitual or mingling with them in sheltered nooks and meadows or occasional of a vast and highly intelligent portion of on warm slopes, many scores of plants which reach their our population, also renders it remarkably appropriate extreme northern or northeastern limit on Mount Desert for such a natural reservation; and should such a reser- or the immediate coast-such plants as the Pitch Pine, vation be established there, with due emphasis laid upon Pinus rigida; the Bear Oak, Quercus ilicifolia; the Sweet the maintenance or redevelopment of natural and indi- Pepperbush, Clethra alnifolia; the Swamp Loosestrife, genous conditions, its influence upon the intelligent Decodon verticillatus; the Meadow Beauty, Rhexia vir- peoples of America will be indeed far-reaching. For it ginica; and the Maple-leaved Viburnum, Viburnum is inconceivable that lovers of nature could enjoy such an ideal area, with its unmolested wild flowers, ferns, acerifolium. This extraordinary accumulation within one small area birds and harmless animals and with the full beauty of of the typical plants of the arctic realm, of the Canadiah nature everywhere displayed, without desiring and pro- zone, and in many cases of the southern coastal plain, viding a similar blessing-according to the varied 7 6 opportunities that offer-for themselves, their children, and their children's children in other portions of the entinent. Professor Fernald wrote his plea for conservation of the Acadian flora through the establishment of plant sanctuaries upon Mount Desert Island it place O extraordinary natural fitness for the purpose it was known whether or not the United States Govern- ment would accept the lands then offered it upon the Island for a national monument and park. The warm interest of the Secretary of the Interior, the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, in a project which would extend the benefits of the National Parks Service to the great eastern section of the country, with its dense city populations, resulted in the establishment upon Mount Desert Island of the first national park area-war monuments apart-cast of Arkansas. This monument initiates, accordingly, a new departure on the Govern- ment's part, a broadening of its policy for nature con- servation and the establishment of reereation areas for its people amidst the older eastern country. And it is filly chosen for such purpose, its grey granite moun- tains fronting the Acadian Seas traversed by the early voyagers and already annually visited in the sixteenth century by fishing fleets from Brittany. 11 is with that wild Breton coast, famous always for its hardy, fearless race of scamen, and with the Bay of Biscay shores be hind which lay de Monts' and Champlain's boyhood homes that the history of eastern North America is first associated. This early Acadian period of the first settlements it is that the Sieur de Monts National Monument is intended to commemorate historically. But, historic interest apart, as what Alexander von Humboldt first called, in his home tongue, a "Nature" monument, Mount Desert in its 9 own type and region stands supreme, not only exhibit- ing the boldest rock formations on our eastern coast, worn by the sea's attack and deep ice-sheet erosion, but also furnishing a uniquely favorable opportunity for Wild Gardens such as Professor Fernald writes of, Plant Sanctuaries preserving and exhibiting-so far as that is possible-in a single tract of concentrated plant and landscape interest the whole Acadian flora. How rich this flora is in beautiful and interesting species yet capable of preservation no one knows who has not made, as he, a thorough study of the subject by personal investigation; nor how rapidly these species are diminishing. There is no other way to save its wild and woodland beauty, the infinite variety and interest of the native vegetation, but that which Professor Fernald urges-Wild Garden Sanctuaries wherein the ancient forest life of the Acadian region may still perpetuate itself and its plants grow on in their original environment, of leafy woodland shade or peaty meadow; and where their loveliness may give men pleasure always and not lead to their destruction. GEORGE B. DORR. 11 NOTICE Plate 1163 Rhodora JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB Vol. 53 February, 1951 No. 626 MERRITT LYNDON FERNALD 1873-1950 ARTHUR STANLEY PEASE MERRITT LYNDON FERNALD was born October 5, 1873, at Orono, Maine, where his father, Dr. Merritt Caldwell Fernald- later to become the first and third president of the Maine State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now the University of Maine)-was head of the Department of Mathematics and Phys- ics. His mother was Mary Lovejoy (Heywood) Fernald, and he had three brothers and one sister. After a boyhood of hard work, tending the garden and the furnace, shingling the roof, and walking a mile and a half to school, he graduated from the Orono High School, and entered in 1890 as a freshman at the State College. Soon after this appeared what seems to be the first of his long series of botanical publica- tions, a modest little note on two Carices (C. deflexa, var. Deanei, and C. chordorhiza) in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, xvii (1890), 261, followed in xviii (1891), 120-124, by a list of Plants of special interest collected at Orono, Maine. In this he states that he had collected there from May to August, 1890, and mentions other collections in 1889, e. g., at Cape Elizabeth, Me. Certain other plants are cited as having grown in particular localities "ever since I can remember." He names in this list nearly seventy species, many new to the state, and says that about 81 species of Carex are found in Maine. (Not SO bad for a boy of seventeen !) Perhaps as a result of these articles and also because of a letter 1 The correspondence mentioned between the two Fernalds and Sereno Watson is preserved at the Gray Herbarium. 34 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Pease,-Merritt Lyndon Fernald 1873-1950 35 which he wrote to Sereno Watson on January 30, 1891 (misdated the autumn of 1891, he had entered the Lawrence Scientific 1890) about a Juncus (J. bufonius) which he thought was not School, in which he spent the period from 1891 to 1897, when he adequately described in Gray's Manual, Watson, then Curator of graduated as S. B. magna cum laude. (His later close associate, the Gray Herbarium, wrote to him on February 4, 1891: "I have C. A. Weatherby, became a Bachelor of Arts the same year.) been much pleased with the intelligent interest that you have In a class report Fernald describes himself a a "mere grind," shown in the plants of your region. I have no idea what your held back by shyness from social activities, and hence not a plans or expectations for the future may be, nor even of your age "club-man," save for membership in the Maine Club, the Harvard or how far advanced you may be in your education. But at a Society of Natural History (where the writer first met him in venture I would say that if a career as a botanist has attractions 1898), and the Harvard Folklore Society. On September 16, for you there is an opportunity open here for a young man who is 1891, moreover, President Fernald, in writing Sereno Watson, willing to begin at the bottom and work his way upward speaks of his son's diffidence, but thinks that it will "wear away Opportunity will be given for study and advancement and com- as he comes to feel more and more at home." pensation sufficient at least for support If such a position has His academic progress was gradual, as assistant from 1891- any attraction for you I shall be glad to hear from [you] in reply." 1902, instructor from 1902-1905, assistant professor of botany On February 7, President Fernald, who apparently had had some from 1905-1915, and, from 1915-1947, Fisher Professor of Natu- acquaintance with Watson "at Miss Parker's," expressed his sur- ral History (the chair once occupied by Asa Gray and George L. prise at the offer, since the boy was but seventeen. He had Goodale), becoming in 1947 Fisher Professor Emeritus. In addi- graduated, his father wrote, from the Orono High School, with tion, from 1935-1937 he was Curator, and from 1937-1947 Di- two years of Latin and one of French, and "before entering this rector of the Gray Herbarium. With W. L. W. Field, Ralph college he was allowed one year which he devoted quite largely Hoffman, and Hollis Webster, he helped to establish the Alstead to Botany in the field." His father wished the boy to have a (N. H.) School of Natural History, teaching in it during the well-rounded education, and with this wish Watson's reply agreed, summers from 1899 to 1901. In 1899 he became associate editor emphasizing the importance of a reading knowledge of Latin, of RHODORA, and in 1928, succeeding B. L. Robinson, its French, German, and some Greek, and suggesting that young editor-in-chief, and under his vigorous management the scope Fernald might carry two academic courses a year and work half and the bulk of the journal was strikingly increased. time in the herbarium, especially in distributing new accessions. Young Fernald came to Harvard with a natural bent toward On February 7, young Merritt wrote to Watson that the position botanical study which he had followed since childhood, and when outlined certainly did attract him, for "I think the one thing I fifty years out of college he reaffirmed his belief that natural was made for was a botanist, as from early childhood my inclina- scientists are born, not made "in the laboratory, the place which tions have been in that line." Accordingly on March 6, 1891, usually deadens such interest." Though as he matured in ex- President Fernald brought his boy down to Cambridge, and en- perience and broadened in his outlook he came to respect and sconced him as an assistant at the Gray Herbarium, his connec- emphasize more and more the historical aspects of systematic tion with which was destined to continue unbroken for nearly botany, yet he often expressed rather scornful feelings toward sixty busy years. those "closet botanists," who, through physical weakness or mere In April, 1892, Fernald completed the second edition of the indolence, had no ambition to familiarize themselves with plants Portland Catalogue of Maine Plants, a bare list with a brief preface in their natural setting in the field. "Botanists who don't know over his own name. In two supplements (1895 and 1897) he plants," he liked to call such. showed more developed critical judgment and furnished more His own professional aims Fernald well expressed in his class exact citation of his own and others' collections. Meantime, in report for 1922: "I am attempting to attain and record as exact 36 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Pease,-Merritt Lyndon Fernald 1873-1950 37 an understanding as possible of the natural flora of this region handicap. At Harvard the college physician had cautioned him [Hudson Strait to Long Island and the Great Lakes] and the against strenuous effort. "However," writes Fernald, "when I geological and geographic conditions of the past under which the invited him to join me on a camping trip in Northern Maine, I plants (and with them the animals) have reached their present spent my time exploring the mountains while he lay all day in habitats; and, consequently, I am repeatedly forced to explain to the hammock. Shortly after that he succumbed." Later, when the man in the street, my failure to enter a money-making pro- heart trouble prevented further mountain explorations in the fession I belong to that almost extinct species, the old- northeast, he could find in tidewater Virginia enough of hard fashioned systematic botanist." This phytogeographic interest work and long hours to test any companions save the most largely shaped the course of his field activities. Starting at seasoned, and enough thrilling experiences to show that the field Orono, expanding to such parts of Maine as he could reach before was far from exhausted. The journals of his various trips, re- the days of automobiles, including especially Mt. Bigelow corded in the pages of RHODORA, indicate that his keen discrimina- (August, 1896, with J1 F. Collins and Professor W. C. Strong of tion, his feeling for the human interest in botanical adventure, Bates College), Mt. Katahdin, and the Saint John and Aroostook and his ever playful sense of humor, might have produced some valleys, he expanded his scope to include the areas about the very readable books of travel, had he had the time to give to Gulf of St. Lawrence-Bic, Gaspé, Newfoundland, southern such writing. Labrador, and the Magdalen Islands-and Nova Scotia. Many Fernald's powers of observation were keen and quick, until, in were the new species and noteworthy extensions of range de- his later years, cataracts obscured his vision, but, though slowing tected on these expeditions, but of even greater significance up his rate of work, did not shorten his hours of labor. With a seemed the theories of plant-distribution arising as generaliza- remarkable memory for the normal characters and the habitual tions from them, whether concerned with the extension of coastal- ranges of thousands of species, he was prompt to detect any plain plants from New Jersey to Cape Cod, south-western Nova variation, and clear and accurate in describing it. It was not Scotia, and the Avalon Peninsula, or the notable persistence of enough, moreover, to describe a new plant, but it must be care- supposed relic species of a preglacial period in and about ungla- fully differentiated from its nearest congeners; consequently his ciated areas from the Gulf of St. Lawrence westward, or the experience in "keying up" new species stood him in good stead in control of plants by the chemical constituents of their soils. It preparing the full keys in the eighth edition of Gray's Manual. is significant of this interest that, when I asked him, a few weeks In 1908 he collaborated with Professor B. L. Robinson in before his death, to what studies he would apply himself when writing the seventh edition of the Manual; in 1943 with Professor the new edition of Gray's Manual was completed, he replied that A. C. Kinsey he published Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North he had in prospect a large work on plant-distribution, collecting, America; and, finally, in the summer of 1950, after an interval of revising, and integrating his various scattered articles on coastal, forty-two years, appeared the long-expected and monumental alpine, and other groups. eighth edition of the Manual, in large part his own work during Fernald's summer expeditions, carefully planned and accom- that period. It is a cause for thankfulness that his sudden death panied by both expert and amateur assistants, are remembered (September 22, 1950) did not occur until after this magnum opus by those who were fortunate enough to participate in them as had been safely published. Beside these books he had written physically strenuous and sometimes excitingly adventurous, and over seven hundred and fifty papers and memoirs, many of them it comes as a surprise to one who has seen him battling with the of considerable length. scrub on a pathless Gaspesian mountain or enduring the hard- Though Fernald belonged to no social club (save the Harvard ships of the northern Newfoundland coast to read in his fifty-year Faculty Club), he was connected with many professional socie- report that from early childhood a weak heart was always his ties the New England Botanical Club (president 1911-1914); 38 Rhodora [FEBRUARY Fogg,-Fernald as a Teacher 39 1951] the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (president 1938); the a sentimental value, he said, with a good deal of feeling, "This Botanical Society of America (vice-president 1939, president world would be a pretty poor place if there were no sentiment 1942); the American Association for the Advancement of Science in it." (vice-president 1941); the Societas Phytogeographica Suecana; the Linnaean Society (London) the Botanical Society and Ex- FERNALD AS A TEACHER change Club of the British Isles; and the Torrey Botanical Club. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; JOHN M. FOGG, JR. the American Philosophical Society; a member of the National Academy of Sciences; a corresponding member of the Academy IT was through the medium of his writings that I first became of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia), the Société Linnéane de acquainted with Merritt Lyndon Fernald. As a beginning stu- Lyon, and of the Norske Videnskaps Academi; a member of the dent in Systematic Botany, I early discovered the bound set of International Committee on Botanical Nomenclature (1930- RHODORA in our Departmental Library and, starting with Vol- 1935) and the Association of American Geographers, and various ume I, set myself the task of reading every number of this other organizations. He was awarded the honorary degree of Journal and preparing my own card index of all new species, varieties and combinations, with cross references to significant D. C. L. by Acadia University (1933) and that of D. Sc. by the University of Montreal (1938); also the Leidy Gold Medal of the range extensions, local floras and items relating to plant geog- Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia (1940), a Gold raphy. It was in this manner that I formed a high and lasting Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1944), and regard for Fernald's botanical scholarship, his careful and precise the Marie-Victorin Medal, given by the Foundation Marie- use of English, and, above all, his intimate and critical knowledge of the flora of Eastern Temperate North America. Victorin for outstanding services to botany in Canada (1949). As I read his paper on "The Plants of Wineland the Good," In 1907 he married Miss Margaret Howard Grant of Provi- studied his revisions of difficult taxonomic groups, devoured his dence, R. I., who, with one daughter Katherine (Mrs. H. G. discussions of glaciation, Post-Pleistocene land bridges and nuna- Lohnes), one son, Henry Grant Fernald, and six grandchildren, taks, and, above all, avidly consumed his accounts of field work survives him. A second daughter, Mary, died in 1927. in Nova Scotia, the Gaspé Peninsula and Newfoundland, I con- What Fernald's friends and even casual acquaintances will ceived an intense desire to meet the author and especially to remember about him is not, however, his official positions and have the privilege of accompanying him on a botanical expedi- honors nor even the bulk of works which he produced, but the tion. The realization of both these wishes I owe to my good unforgettable personality of the man. Tireless in labor, vigorous friend, Mr. Bayard Long, who somehow succeeded in persuading in expression, fearless and outspoken in controversy or criticism- Fernald to invite a young botanist at the University of Pennsyl- sometimes embarrassingly so-, he yet had a real appreciation vania to join Long and him on a brief field trip to Newfoundland and respect for honest work of others and the power, by sugges- late in the summer of 1926, following the Fourth International tion and commendation, of stimulating in them-especially in Botanical Congress at Ithaca. students and those not too set in their own ways and conceits- It was on this expedition, the first of many, that I came more an enthusiasm for research and discovery. Though he never fully to appreciate the dynamic qualities which made Fernald the wore his heart upon his sleeve he had a deep respect for sincere greatest student of our eastern flora since Asa Gray. Our assign- moral character, and though scientists are sometimes accused of ment on four short weeks in the field was divided between ex- impersonal stolidity, of all his sayings I like best to remember ploring the country around Lark Harbor on the west coast of that once, in reply to a thoughtless youthful remark of mine that Newfoundland and collecting on the granitic barrens of the south a certain investigation, even if carefully pursued, could have only coast near Burgeo. Those favored students who have been with 40 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Fogg,-Fernald as a Teacher 41 Fernald in the field need not be reminded of his indefatigable up in his lectures the families of Spermatophytes, beginning with energy, his keenness of perception, and his uncanny ability for the Pinaceae. After elucidating familial and generic characters, recognizing significant variations. To me, one of the most our lecturer proceeded to discourse upon the more significant delightful features of this experience was what came to be known species, pointing out their distinguishing traits and presenting a as "the bed-time story." After the day's collections were safely wealth of information concerning their geographic distribution in press, and often by the flickering light of an oil lamp, it was our and economic importance. When, by the end of the first semes- invariable custom to gather around while Professor Fernald, ter he had not even reached the end of the Monocotyledons, it with the aid of his homemade check list, ran through and entered became a question in the minds of the members of the class as to the finds of the day, with a running comment on the distributional whether the course was going to take two or three years for com- vagaries of the plants concerned and illuminating observations pletion instead of the single academic year as announced. Never- on botanists past and present. In these informal sessions a theless, our Professor, without seeming to curtail the vast amount multitude of new species and varieties was conceived, some of of interesting material at his command, somehow managed to them to be born later in the pages of RHODORA, others falling by quicken his pace, SO that by the final lecture in May, the Com- the wayside as their characters were subsequently shown to be posites were safely tucked in. We had learned how to cook young too trivial for recognition. It was in this manner that I first cattail inflorescences, how to prepare biscuits from flour made realized the full stature of Fernald as a preceptor. His seemingly from the corms of Arisaema triphyllum, and how to be assured of inexhaustible supply of information concerning taxonomic litera- a steady supply of "winter asparagus" from the roots of Phy- ture, his remarkably tenacious memory, his capacity for seeing tolacca americana. Also, those of us who had taken careful notes the forest as well as the trees, all combined to make of him a were in possession of a fine new natural key to seed plants to try superbly interesting and stimulating teacher. out on our own students. It was on this expedition that I first took up with Professor Botany 10 was a flower of another color. Our small class, Fernald the matter of my coming to the Gray Herbarium to which included G. Ledyard Stebbins Jr., H. K. Svenson and pursue my doctoral dissertation under his supervision. His Father Louis Lalonde, spent much of its time following Pro- advice, for which I am everlastingly grateful and which I con- fessor Fernald around the Herbarium as he opened case after sider valid for all graduate students, was that instead of accepting case and listening to his informal but illuminating discussion of an assistantship or a teaching fellowship, I should arrive unen- such genera as Sparganium, Potamogeton, Poa, Carex, Scirpus, cumbered by any obligation other than to devote myself full and many others. These demonstrations provided Fernald with time to my problem. When, therefore, I presented myself at the an opportunity for pointing out diagnostic characters and em- Gray Herbarium in the autumn of 1927, I had completed my phasizing the criteria which he employed in his monographic and formal program of graduate course work and was, for a year at revisionary studies. In this manner the student learned how to least, financially independent. I was thus divorced from the tackle a difficult taxonomic group as well as how to use the lit- necessity of taking courses, although, at Fernald's suggestion, I erature. Always, however, there was the healthy insistence, SO "listened in" on his undergraduate course in Systematic Botany, well exemplified by Fernald's own procedures, that herbarium as well as his famous Botany 10 (Classification and Distribution work must be supplemented by study in the field. of Flowering Plants; Advanced Studies on Special Topics). The first of these provided an interesting revelation of Fernald's On of the most delightful episodes of Botany 10 occurred during classroom technique. Following a key to seed plants which he a three or four week period when the class sat with Fernald had constructed, and which with some modifications has found around a table in the Library and watched him leaf through the its way into the Eighth Edition of Gray's Manual, Fernald took Gray Herbarium's priceless collection of autographs and por- Rhodora 1951] Fogg,-Fernald as a Teacher 43 42 [FEBRUARY traits1 of botanists. Ascherson, Engler, Grisebach, Sir Hans nant tones read portions of his manuscript to each new visitor, we came to know sections of this work almost by heart. Indeed, Sloane, the Bauhins, Engelmann, Boott, Steudel, Pringle, the so familiar were we with the text that when Fernald was inter- Hookers, Tuckerman, Solander, Willdenow, Rafinesque, Torrey -these and a host of others passed before us in review as Fernald rupted or halted for breath, Stebbins and I would continue to commented on their lives, their travels, and their more important intone, verbatim, the ensuing sentences and paragraphs. This contributions to botanical literature. willingness to share with others the results of his labors is one of the attributes which made M. L. Fernald such a stimulating In the latter part of the course-and here, it seems to me, he was at his best-Fernald discoursed on his own explorations and companion in the classroom and in the field. It was my further expounded his views on such significant and often controversial privilege almost daily to accompany him and, during his all too rare visits at that time to the Herbarium, Mr. C. A. Weatherby, matters as the persistence of plants in glaciated areas, the effects to lunch, at which time systematic botany was the sole topic of of coastal subsidence on the distribution of plants, the origin of conversation, with Fernald leading the discussion. Few botanists the Coastal Plain flora, and the high degree of endemism around known to me have been characterized by such singleness of pur- the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These discussions, in which the mem- bers of the class were invited to participate, were highly stimu- pose and whole-hearted devotion to their subject. lating and furnished a striking example of the sweep of Fernald's It is not my function to speak further of Fernald as a com- mind coupled with his mastery of detail. panion in the field, but I cannot refrain from stating that subse- The prosecution of my own piece of work brought me into quent explorations with him in Newfoundland, southeastern almost daily contact with Professor Fernald, to whom I never New England and the coastal plain of Virginia served only to appealed in vain for assistance or advice. My primary task of confirm and strengthen the impressions gained on my first trip determining many hundreds of specimens collected on the in 1926 and combined to provide a rich and rewarding back- Elizabeth Islands gave rise to a multitude of questions, especially ground of experience, which, in a spirit of everlasting indebted- in dealing with critical genera, and although Fernald seldom ness, I am happy to acknowledge. revealed his judgment as to the identity of this or that specimen, In 1865, William James accompanied the great Louis Agassiz he invariably directed me to sources which, if properly utilized, on an expedition to the Amazon. In writing to his father about yielded the correct answer. This I conceive to be a distinguish- the leader of the party, James said, "No one sees farther into a ing characteristic of a truly fine teacher. generalization than his own knowledge of details extends, and Anyone who has ever worked in the Gray Herbarium will recall you have a greater feeling of weight and solidity about the move- Professor Fernald's custom of reading aloud to all and sundry ment of Agassiz's mind, owing to the continual presence of this any manuscript on which he happened at the moment to be great background of special facts, than about the mind of any working. During much of the time that I was in residence there, other man I know I see that in all his talks with me he is Fernald was preparing his great paper on the linear-leaved species pitching into my loose and superficial way of thinking." It is of Potamogeton. Stebbins and I occupied adjoining tables in the the opinion of at least one of his students that this estimate New England Botanical Club Wing, and as Fernald in his reso- might with equal validity be applied to Fernald. Intolerant of 1 This collection of autographs of botanists, botanical collectors and patrons slip-shod methods, acidulously critical of all that he considered of botany, was started by Asa Gray during his first visit to Europe in 1839, mediocre, yet ever ready to praise the results of painstaking and Mrs. Gray adding to it extensively during Gray's life and after his death. A supplemental collection was given to the Gray Herbarium in 1890 by Isabella conscientious work, M. L. Fernald's influence as a teacher ex- B. James. The latter contained autographs of a remarkable number of early tended far beyond the confines of the classroom and did much to American botanists. The entire collection, including not only autographs, but biographical notes, letters and often portraits, was arranged and mounted raise the standard of descriptive systematic botany in this in five large volumes under Mrs. Gray's supervision. These she presented to country. the Gray Herbarium in 1898.-R. C. R. Fernald Fernald FERNALD, MERRITT LYNDON (Oct. record as exact an understanding as possible 5, 1873-Sept. 22, 1950), botanist, was born in of the natural flora of this region and the Orono, Maine, one of the five children of Mer- logical and geographic conditions of the ritt Caldwell Fernald and Mary Lovejoy (Hey- under which the plants have reached their ward) Fernald. His father served two terms present habitats," he explained. (1869-1871 and 1879-1893) as president of Fernald worked untiringly to fulfill this goal Maine State College of Agriculture and Me- In later years, when the vigor required for chanic Arts, which later became the University arduous mountain climbing and the exploration of Maine. Young Fernald became interested in of remote areas was no longer at hand. he con- botany at a very early age. During his years centrated his field efforts along the coastal plain. at Orono high school, he studied and collected particularly in southeastern Virginia. His bo- plants from the fields and woods nearby and on tanical efforts combined field observations with Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Shortly after he entered laboratory and library study of the components Maine State College (1890) his first scientific of the natural vegetation of eastern America paper was published. For more than sixty years These efforts led ultimately to the publication he was a constant writer about the plants of of the eighth (centennial) edition of Gray's eastern North America. Manual of Botany in 1950, which was his Fernald's training in botany began in earnest crowning achievement. This was a wholly new in the winter of 1891 when he became a junior book, quite unlike the seven earlier editions. assistant in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard Fernald made several generalizations of con- University. Entering the Lawrence Scientific siderable botanical and geological significance. School that fall, he took courses on a reduced Although it had long been accepted by glacial schedule in Harvard College while maintaining geologists that Pleistocene ice covered eastern his position at the herbarium. He received a and northern North America to great depths bachelor of science degree, magna cum laude, and effectively obliterated all plant and animal in 1897. During this period, he was essentially life from the region, he saw much evidence from an apprentice to Sereno Watson, then curator his plant studies that refuted such an assump- of the Gray Herbarium, and to B. L. Robinson, tion. He found many instances where species who succeeded Watson as curator in 1891. of plants appeared to have survived through the Fernald's connection with Harvard and with Pleistocene and from this he reasoned that the Gray Herbarium was continuous through- refugia of some type must have existed in areas out his professional career. In the university he where glaciation was supposed to have been was successively instructor, assistant professor, total. His ideas and the evidence supporting and Fisher Professor of Natural History, the them were presented in a landmark paper en- chair previously occupied by the famous bota- titled, "Persistence of Plants in Unglaciated nist Asa Gray. He was curator of the Gray Areas of Boreal America" (Mem. Amer. Acad. Herbarium from 1935-1937 and director from Arts and Sci. 15[1925] : 239-342). 1937-1947. The natural disjunction of plant species be- In his early botanical research, perhaps under tween eastern and western North America be- Robinson's influence, Fernald dealt with plant came a special study at one point in his career collections made by others in Mexico. But it and this was followed by a wider interest in was soon clear that fieldwork was primary to specific segregations and identities in the flora his own interests and, when he had the oppor- of eastern North America and that of the Old tunity, he went on his own exploring expedi- World. He was always interested in phyto- tions. In Maine, he spent time botanizing Mount geography; some of his most notable contribu- Bigelow, Mount Katahdin, and the valleys of tions were made in this area of botany. A book the St. John and Aroostook rivers. Farther that he wrote with A. C. Kinsey (Edible Wild afield, he explored the region of the Gulf of St. Plants of Eastern North America, 1943) pro- Lawrence, Newfoundland, southern Labrador, vided the basic information upon which several Nova Scotia, and the Magdalen Islands on re- subsequent popular books on edible wild plants peated expeditions that were carefully planned were based. Soon out of print, it was reissued and well executed. Eventually, Fernald took for in revised form in 1958. his area of botanical concentration the region By far the largest part of Fernald's published often called the Gray's Manual range. This in- work concerned questions of the identities. ac- cluded most of North America east of the curate definition, and geographic distribution Missouri and Mississippi rivers and north of of the vascular plants of his chosen area. Early the Carolinas. "I am attempting to attain and in this work he discovered that botanists of an 266 Fernald Fetter ssible earlier period had not been careful enough FETTER, FRANK ALBERT (Mar. 8, about checking and properly correlating the 1863-Mar. 21, 1949), economist, was born in past names in use with the specimens upon which Peru, Ind., the second of three children and their the names were originally based. Fernald was only son of Harry George and Ellen (Cole) meticulous in these matters and often turned to Fetter. His father, a photographer, was a na- goal. classical specimens, usually conserved in Euro- tive of Pennsylvania; his mother, of Indiana. 1 for pean herbaria, for authentic comparative ma- After graduating from the Peru high school, ration terials. He was exacting in his own work, and Fetter entered Indiana University In 1879, but con- was also highly critical of inaccurate publica- left after his junior year when the illness of his plain, tions by others. As an editor and particularly father made it necessary for him to help sup- bo- as editor-in-chief of the journal Rhodora for port the family. For seven years he operated with twenty-one years, he was in a position to moni- a bookstore in Peru and informally continued tor the botanical literature of his field; and in his education by reading many of the works he dozens of reviews his talents as a critic were fully kept in stock. Fetter returned to Indiana Uni- ation utilized; they often embodied critical analyses versity in 1890 and received the A.B. degree ray's that only a master of the field could make. the following year. He then pursued graduate his Fernald was a member of the American studies in political economy at Cornell Uni- new Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National versity (Ph.M. 1892), at the Sorbonne and the is. Academy of Sciences, and the American Philo- École de Droit in Paris 1892-1893), and at con- sophical Society as well as many botanical the University of Halle in Germany, where he ince. scientific organizations. He was president of the studied under Johannes Conrad and received a acial New England Botanical Club (1911-1914) Ph.D. in 1894, summa cum laude. His doctoral tern president of the Botanical Society of America dissertation outlined a population theory based pths (1942) and president of the American Society on a critique of the Malthusian principle. Upon imal of Plant Taxonomists (1938). He was elected his return to the United States, Fetter taught rom a Foreign Member of the Linnean Society of economics at Cornell (1894-1895), Indiana Uni- mp- London; Royal Science Society, Uppsala ; versity (1895-1898), $tanford (1898-1900), and cies Société Linnéenne de Lyon; Societas Phyto- again at Cornell (1901-1911). In I9II he be- the geographica Sueciana; Societas pro Fauna et came professor of political economy at Prince- that Flora Fennica; and Norske Videnskaps Aka- ton, where he remained until his retirement in reas demi. He was a recipient of the Leidy Gold 1931, serving until 1922 as chairman of the Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, department. :ing Philadelphia (1940), the Gold Medal of the Fetter's economic thought-contained in six en- Massachusetts Horticultural Society (1944), books and more than sixty articles-was dis- .ted and the Marie-Victorin Medal awarded by tinguished by a devotion to simplicity and a ad. the Fondation Marie-Victorin for outstanding creative skepticism toward established economic services to botany in Canada. doctrines. Focusing on the practical elements of be- Fernald married Margaret Howard Grant, of modern economic problems, he sought a revision be- Providence, R.I., on Apr. 5, 1907. They had of the whole theory of economic distribution. eer three children: Katharine, Henry Grant, and Although in his Principles of Economics in Mary. Fernald died of a coronary thrombosis (1904), he accepted the traditional concept of ora in Cambridge, Mass., and was buried in Mount the "economic man," motivated by a pleasure- Old Auburn Cemetery. pain psychology, he grew increasingly critical to- of this approach and came to stress instead the [The primary biographical materials relating to the mechanics of the market. Similarly, Fetter sub- ou- professional career of M. L. Fernald are in the Gray ok Herbarium of Harvard Univ. These include hundreds jected to critical reexamination the prevailing of letters in the historical file and copies of his pub- ild lished works in the library. A portrait hangs with those theories of wages, interest, capital, rent, and "O- of other curators and directors of the Gray Herbarium. value. In his Economic Principles (1915) ral A series of five articles "Merritt Lyndon Fernald first volume of a revision of his earlier work- 1873-1950," by Arthur Stanley Pease "Fernald as a its Teacher," by John M. Fogg, Jr.; "Fernald as a Reviser he propounded a new statement of the theory ed of Gray's Manual," by Harley Harris Bartlett "Fernald of value which adopted modern volitional psy- as a Botanist," by Reed C. Rollins and "Fernald in the Field," by Ludlow Griscom, make up an entire chology and eliminated Benthamite utilitarian- ed issue of Rhodora V 53 (1951) 33-65 a portrait ism and hedonism. The basis of value, he faces the opening page. "A Biographical Memoir of C- Merritt Lyndon Fernald 1873-1950," by Elmer D. argued, was a "simple act of choice and not a on Merrill, was presented to the Nat. Acad. of Sci. and calculation of utility." Fetter's writings also ly published in Biog. Memoirs, XXVIII (1954) ; this anticipated by several decades two important includes a full bibliography.] in REED C. ROLLINS later economic issues: consumerism, and the 267 Library of the Gray Herbarium Archives Page I of 4 Harvard University Herbaria HOLLIS E-Journals Merritt Lyndon Fernald (1873-1950) Botanical Databases Papers Other Botanical Links Library Collections Biography: Merritt Lyndon Fernald was born in Orono, Maine, on October 5, 1873. His father taught and served two terms as president of the Maine State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, which later became the University of Maine. Fernald began his college studies at the State College in 1890, and shortly thereafter had his first botanical publication appear the the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Based on the strength of these writings and a letter he wrote to Sereno Watson in 1891, on the subject of Juncus (J. bufonius), Fernald was offered a position at the Gray Herbarium. An arrangement was made that allowed Fernald to work part time at the Herbarium while taking two academic courses per year. In March of that year Fernald traveled to Cambridge and began his work at Harvard. In the fall of 1891, he enrolled in the Lawrence Scientific School, graduating with his S.B., magna cum laude in 1897. Fernald would continue working for the Gray Herbarium in one capacity or another for the rest of his life. He worked as an assistant in the herbarium from 1891 to 1902; as an instructor of botany from 1902 to 1905; as an assistant professor from 1905 to 1915; and as Fisher Professor of Natural History from 1915 to 1947. He was also curator of the Gray Herbarium, 1935-37, and director, 1937-1947. Fernald is known for his work on phytogeography. He combined extensive field work with his herbarium work, concentrating on the flora of eastern North America. He did much exploring in Quebec in his younger years; when older, he worked in Virginia. During his lifetime Fernald produced over 750 papers and memoirs. Within a year of beginning his work at Harvard, he completed the second edition of the Portland Catalogue of Maine Plants, publishing supplements in 1895 and 1897 (Pease 34). With Benjamin Lincoln Robinson he produced the 7th revision of Gray's Manual, which appeared in 1907. He wrote Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America with Alfred C. Kinsey, published in 1943. His major work was the 8th revision of Gray's Manual, published in 1950. Before his death, he was planning "a large work on plant distribution." (Pease 36). He was active in the New England Botanical Club, serving as president from 1911-1914 and as associate editor of Rhodora from 1899 until 1928, when he succeeded B. L. Robinson as editor-in-chief. He was a member and served as president of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, and was an active memeber in a number of other scientific associations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnaean Society (London) and the Torrey Botanical Club. He received honorary degrees from Acadia University (D.C.L., 1933) and the University of Montreal (D.Sc., 1938). Fernald married Margaret Howard Grant in 1907. They had three children, one of whom died young. Fernald died on September 22, 1950. References: Bartlett, Harley Harris. "Fernald as a Reviser of Gray's Manual." Rhodora. 53(626): 44-55. Fogg, John M. "Fernald as a Teacher." Rhodora. 53(626): 39-43. http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/FERNALD.html 9/3/2002 Library of the Gray Herbarium Archives Page 2 of 4 Griscom, Ludlow. "Fernald in the Field." Rhodora. 53(626): 61-65. Pease, Arthur Stanley. "Merritt Lyndon Fernald 1873-1950." Rhodora 53(626): 33-39. Rollins, Reed C. "Fernald as a Botanist." Rhodora. 53(626): 56-61. Scope and Content: There are several distinct categories of Fernald materials in the archives: 1. Notebooks or bound typed sheets pertaining to plant distribution and regional floras, especially of Canada. They date from about 1904 to 1925. 2. Unpublished manuscripts and supporting materials. Mostly for articles on phytogeography. 3. Galley proofs, notes and illustrations for Edible Wild Plants. 4. Notes apparently used in the revision of Gray's Manual. 5. Certificates of membership in organizations and other honors. 6. Maps used by Fernald during his collecting trips. There are also 17 folders in the Semi-Historic files which contain letters written and received by Fernald; biographical information; drafts for Milton/Clark travel grants; small manuscripts; correspondence relating to the publication of the 8th edition of Gray's Manual; correspondence, reviews and advertisements pertaining to Edible Wild Plants; etc. There are also a couple early plant lists in the inactive plant list file and in Plant List Book 3. Provenance: Most of the Fernald papers probably accumulated at the Gray Herbarium during his years here. No record has been found of any major gifts or bequests, by Fernald or others. Container Listing: BOX AE - AG & AI, AJ, & AW NOTEBOOKS: 1. "Notes on Distribution of Vascular Plants of Newfoundland, Labrador and adjacent Quebec. 1910-11, 1914" 2. "Notes on Distribution of Vascular Plants of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Adjacent Quebec" 3. "Notes on the Flora of Sandiest Southeastern Massachusetts, 1918-1919" 4. "Notes on the Flora of Nova Scotia, 1920-1921" 4A. "Notes on the Flora of Newfoundland. M.L. Fernald, K.M. Wiegand and others, 1925" 5. Diary of trip to Canada, June 29- Aug. 1904. "Plants of Alpine and Subalpine Regions, Mt. Albert, 1905- 1906" 6. "For sets 1906" -- list of plants arranged by regions, probably M.L. Fernald; "Distribution on Table-topped Mt." -- list of plants names, latter part set up as a chart comparing Mt. Albert and Table top Mt.; in Fernald's hand "List of plants collected on the occasion of his visit to Newfoundland in 1766" by Sir Joseph Banks UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS 7. "Spiranthes tuberosa again"; "Ranges of Northwestern European Plants and their American Representatives"; "Geographic Relations of the Living Flora of New England, eastern Canada and adjacent Regions" 8. Bundle of handwritten notes consisting of numbered list of taxa 9. "Observations upon the Physical Geography and Geology of Mount Ktaadn and the Adjacent District" by C.E. Hamlin, 1881; "Remnants of an old Graded Upland on the Presidential Ranges of the White Mountain" by James Walter Goldthwait, 1914; "Glaciation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire" by Goldthwait, 1916 and Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Feb. 21, 1936 10. "Driftless Areas and Plant Distribution in Eastern America" 11. ms notes on newsprint, appear to be on the glaciation theme; "The Survival of Pre- Wisconsin Plants in Northeastern America" http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/FERNALD.html 9/3/2002 Library of the Gray Herbarium Archives Page 3 of 4 EDIBLE WILD PLANT MATERIALS: 12. bundle of galley proofs 13. bundle of galley proofs 14. folder containing Alfred C. Kinsey's page notes 15. bundle of notes on 3 X 5 slips of paper 16. ms. notes on large sheets of heavy paper 17. ms. notes on large sheets of newsprint 18. ms. notes, ordinary paper GRAY'S MANUAL REVISION MATERIALS: 19. - 21. bundle of notes re plants, presumably for Manual 22. Blank notebook labeled "Gray's Manual 8th ed." and "Prof. Fernald his book"; presented to him at 400th meeting of New England Botanical Club, includes signatures of members 23. Checklist of plants in 6th ed. of Gray's Manual, 1893 (John A. Allen) annotated 24. "Guide to Bibliogr. Gray's Manual Revision" notebook with lists of vol. #'s and years of periodicals 25. "Guide to Bibliogr. Gray's Manual Revision" notebook like above 25A. "Repaired Bibliogr. Gray's Manual, ed. 7 manuscript" consisting of about 300 large sheets pasted on newsprint backings; bibliographical notes arranged by species. With this manuscript are 13 smaller sheets of notes. 26. "Gray's Field, Forest and Garden Botany -apparently notes for a revision which was not published. 27. "Gray's Field, Forest and Garden Botany I. 20 Apr. 1909" 28. "Manual Bibliography Catalog" MISCELLANEOUS PUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS: 25B. Description of Antennaria megacephala Fernald in Raup, Contr. Arnold Arboretum 6: 208 (1934) MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATES, HONORS, ETC.: 29. Notices of election: Amer. Antiquarian Society, Amer. Academy of Art and Sciences, Amer. Philosophical Soc., N.E. Botanical Club, Nova Scotia Inst. of Science, Philadelphia Botanical Club, Portland Soc. of Natural History 30. Certificate of Mass. Hort. Society Gold Medal for Edible Wild Plants 31. Certificate of membership in National Security League 32. Notice of naming as member of Norske Videnskaps Akademi and rules of society; notice of election to Assn. of American Geographers 33. Notice of election as foreign member to Linnean Society; notices of election of Societas Phytogeographica Suecana 34. Large certificates: Notice of election to membership in the Society of the Sigma Xi, Yale; certificate of election to membership in Societas Linnaeana Londinensis; certificate of election as member of National Academy of Sciences; certificate of election as correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; honorary Doctor of Science, Montreal; certificate of honorary membership in Franklin Institute MAPS: 35-38. Virginia Maps - arranged alphabetically by counties; topigraphical; some issued by the U.S. War Department and the State of Virginia 39. Virginia Maps - Index to maps found in Folders 35-38 40. Virginia Maps - Road Maps: Store-bought: some annotated by Fernald; undated http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/FERNALD.html 9/3/2002 Library of the Gray Herbarium Archives Page 4 of 4 41. Virginia Maps - Other; undated 42. Virginia Maps - black and white photoprints of maps 43-44. Virginia Maps - Soil Survey Maps; issued by U.S. Department of Agriculture; undated 45. Virginia Maps - Notes taken by Fernald; undated Other maps (loose): Documenting boundaries of areas in Arizona, New Mexico, and Newfoundland; n.d., 1913, 1918 See Also: Historic Letter Collection Semi-Historic Letter Collection Gray Archives Photograph Collection: #0142-0152, #0154-0159, #0161-0162, #0528-0533, #0559- 0564, #0585-0586, #0589, #0613, #0754, #1007, #1048, #1086, #0932, #1138, #1514-01 thru -06, #1515-01 thru -04, #1516-1520, #1521-01, -02, #1524-01, -02, #1526, # Jane Gray Autograph Collection | Gray Herbarium Archives Home Page I I Botany Libraries Home Page I Harvard University Herbaria Home Page I Last Updated June 2002 Copyright 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/FERNALD.html 9/3/2002 HOLLIS FULL CATALOG - Full View of Record Page 1 of 2 P Your Account I Start Over Help Comments Full Catalog I Journals Reserves E-Resources HOLLIS CATALOG Previous Searches I Results List Display Options Harvard University Search Expanded Search I Command Search Harvard Libraries Full View of Record : FULL CATALOG Save/Mail Add to List I View List Last Browse Choose format: Full view I Short view MARC Record 344 out of 352 Previous Record Next Record Author : Fernald, Merritt Lyndon, 1873- Title : Papers of Merritt Lyndon Fernald, 1893-1934 (bulk). INTERNET LINK : finding aid HTML: http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/FLOYD.html, finding aid SGML: http://oasis.harvard.edu Locations/Orders : Availability Location : Botany Gray Herbarium i Archives Holdings Availability Location : Networked Resource i Holdings Availability Description : ca. 2 linear ft. History notes : Fernald (1873-1950) was educated at Maine State College and at Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard (S.B. 1897). He served as an assistant at the Gray Herbarium, 1891- 1902; as Curator, 1935-1937; and as Director, 1937-1947. He also taught botany at Harvard as instructor, 1902-1905; assistant professor, 1905-1915; and Fisher Professor of Natural History, 1915-1947. Fernald is noted for his research on phytogeography; he combined extensive field work with herbarium studies, concentrating on the flora of eastern North America. His published works include: revisions of Gray's manual (1907 and 1950), Edible wild plants of eastern North America, and several articles. Summary : Contains notebooks, 1904-1925, pertaining to plant distribution and regional floras especially in Canada; unpublished manuscripts and supporting materials mostly for articles on phytogeography; notes and illustrations for: Edible wild plants; notes used in the revision of Gray's manual; and membership and awards certificates. Cite as : Merritt Lyndon Fernald Papers. Archives, Gray Herbarium, Harvard University Herbaria. Indexes : Inventory available in library or via the Internet: folder level control. ./2CU7UHV5NRRLLFQSQKMNBYI9BVJF4G5TVK1H8UYC74LU19DM9P-02275?func=14/28/2004 Rec'd July 1,1937 NOTICE This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17.US. Code). NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOLUME XVII-THIRTEENTH MEMOIR 240-L BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF BENJAMIN LINCOLN ROBINSON 1864-1935 BY M. L. FERNALD PRESENTED TO THE ACADEMY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, 1936 PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES WASHINGTON 1937 OF BLACK PAKES ANES Rhodora. 101.53,#62 3artides 56 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Rollins,-Fernald as a Botanist 57 mels. pected many times in the course of a day in the field and never FERNALD AS A BOTANIST failed to elicit admiration for the well-ordered mind from which REED C. ROLLINS it came. SELDOM is it possible to say in truth that a man's life was his By far the largest amount of Fernald's published work con- work. But such a statement seems not an exaggeration when cerned questions of the identities, accurate definition and geo- applied to Merritt Lyndon Fernald. Even during his last years graphic distribution of a wide range of vascular plants. He he worked with aggressive intensity, and it seemed to those placed chief emphasis upon that aspect of taxonomic botany around him that he hurried as if to forestall the lengthening sometimes called floristics. Early in this work he discovered shadow of age that was SO incessantly compressing the time left that the older botanists had not been too careful about checking to complete the tasks he had set. His hours of labor at the and properly correlating the names in use with the specimens herbarium daily were extended into the night at home. A mild upon which they were originally based. The type concept had thrombosis, which he suffered on two occasions, scarcely slowed not been accepted then and they considered this unimportant. the tempo of the writing that had flowed from his pen like a Since the plants of eastern North America had largely been dis- torrent for half a century. At work, he rarely stopped except to tinguished and described by European botanists, Fernald often read aloud from his writings to almost anyone who chanced to turned to the classical specimens preserved in European herbaria be near. Scarcely a visiting botanist to the Gray Herbarium for authentic comparative materials. He was careful about departed without having been "read to." He seemed to evolve going back to the type specimens for the verification of species clarity of expression from reading aloud and on each occasion concepts. On two occasions, in 1903 and again in 1930, he would busily correct or annotate the manuscript. Perhaps the studied in various European centers for this purpose, but photo- dominant influence upon his professional work were his tremen- graphs of types played an important role in providing the basis dous industry and a strong devotion to taxonomic botany. for direct comparisons. In an earlier day, Asa Gray had studied Professor Fernald's career formally began immediately after many of these collections and in his own masterful way had set graduation from college but it might be appropriately calculated the pattern for subsequent workers. But Gray was not a field from his first publication in 1890. Possibly because of his own botanist and did not have at his command an intimate knowledge carly interest in natural history, he was a strong believer in the of many of our wild plants in their native haunts. As a result, dictum that "natural scientists are born, not made." His first there remained many problems for one of Fernald's talents. He studies were "in the field" and he was fortunate enough to main- knew the plants in the wild and with adequate collections of tain a satisfactory balance between field and herbarium studies herbarium specimens to study in the laboratory, he was able to throughout his entire career. His life was largely devoted to an properly collate for the first time numerous species with their intensive study of the higher plants of temperate eastern North original descriptions and the specimens upon which they were America. He knew the plants of this area intimately and could based. relate an interesting story about nearly every species. From the Gradually Fernald established himself as the leading authority point of view of his students, some of his greatest moments were on the flora of eastern North America and undoubtedly the pin- undoubtedly those spent on the shores of a pond on Cape Cod, nacle of his prestige among botanists of the world was reached or perhaps on a mountain slope in Newfoundland, where he would upon the publication of the Eighth Edition of Gray's Manual of give a keen analysis of the principal characteristics of a plant in Botany in July, 1950. The rewriting and expansion of this hand and then proceed to recite the points of distinction from century-old classic had absorbed a major portion of his energies closely related species, geographic ranges, and comparative use- for over fifteen years and he had been preparing for the task for fulness to man. Such an unrehearsed performance could be ex- a much longer time. As a young man he had collaborated with 58 Rhodora [FEBRUARY B. L. Robinson in producing the Seventh Edition, published in 1908. But he had always been highly critical of that work and often remarked that it was done by a "specialist on the Com- positae and a young man who knew nothing about the Flora." All will agree that during the more than forty years following his first participation in a revision of "the manual" he certainly cor- rected this deficiency. The Eighth Edition of Gray's Manual stands as a crowning achievement to a long and very active botanical career. The results of much solid revisionary work were frequently interpolated into papers which otherwise dealt largely with flo- ristics. But Fernald produced at least one large monograph that was a model of its kind.' In an extended review of this work W. H. Pearsall2 writes as follows: "To students of the genus Potamogeton the publication of this excellent and exhaustive monograph is an event of outstanding importance. To British workers in a more restricted area it has always been a matter of surprise and regret that, with the exceptional facilities afforded by the great lakes and waterways of North America, no adequate attempt has previously been made by an American to critically study their Pondweeds. However, this reproach has now been removed, and we heartily congratulate Prof. Fernald upon the thoroughness, accuracy, and scientific value of his work. In our judgment the volume before us is superior in many ways to any existing account of the Potamogetons of this section." Fernald was much interested in the distribution of the species of plants in space as shown by the frequency with which he dealt with this subject in his writings. This interest led ultimately to what are undoubtedly his most important generalizations in biology, for which he will be longest remembered. These gen- eralizations grew out of an intensive study of floristic ranges. Early in his career, while exploring for plants on the Gaspé Peninsula and Newfoundland, he and his associates discovered numerous isolated species common to this region and the arctic, western America, the Atlantic Coastal Plain or western Europe. Later, similar discoveries were made in other areas of eastern 1 The Linear-leaved North American Species of Potamogeton, Section Axillares. Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sciences 27: 1-183. 1932. 2 The Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles, Report for 1932. Vol. 10: 51-57. 1933. 1951] Rollins,-Fernald - as a Botanist 59 North America. How to explain the disruptions in the ranges of these plants was the question he tried to answer. As succinctly written by Professor Raup, "His most important work in the field of phytogeography probably was summarized in his paper, published in 1925, on the persistence of plants in unglaciated areas of Boreal America. In this paper he discussed the many enigmas of discontinuous range patterns manifested by SO many plants in northeastern America, and, in SO doing, presented a vast amount of specific evidence in support of the theory of persistence which had been SO ably defended by Darwin. His work in this field has greatly stimulated research in two direc- tions. One of these is in the re-examination by glacial geologists of the probable behavior of the Pleistocene ice in eastern America. Controversies raised in this connection still obtain. In another direction have been investigations of the inherent capacities of species to migrate, particularly as related to their genetic consti- tution and history. It is not impossible that in reemphasizing the theory of persistence and in stimulating studies of its modern implications, Professor Fernald has made the largest single con- tribution to phytogeography since Darwin." Aside from his writings in taxonomy and phytogeography, Professor Fernald wrote entertainingly of his botanical expedi- tions to the Gaspé Peninsula, Newfoundland, and Virginia. These were journal accounts combining field botany, travel and many human interest incidents, all blended to give to the reader an extraordinary picture of a "botanist on location." His wide interest in the relationship of his own specialties to practical matters is demonstrated in a number of ways. For example, as mentioned in the preceding article by Professor Pease, one of his books, written with Professor A. C. Kinsey was entitled Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America. Another instance is his participation as a consultant in the Labrador-Newfoundland boundary dispute argued before the Privy Council in London by the governments of the Dominion of Canada and the Colony of Newfoundland in 1926. His evidence that maritime plants found in the region of Hamilton Inlet extend westward to the head of Lake Melville was a decisive point in support of the territorial claims of the Newfoundland Government. A third 3 Merritt Lyndon Fernald. Harvard University Gazette 46: 78. 1950. 60 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Griscom,-Fernald in the Field 61 instance was his participation in a lively discussion concerning practice, if an individual criticized attempts to maintain his thesis, the location of Wineland the Good. When he learned that some that individual must be very certain of his ground." of the important evidence for locating the point of discovery of Professor Fernald's has been a many-sided contribution to the North American continent by the Norsemen in Nova Scotia botany in spite of his ostensibly specialized field of activity. or New England was botanical, he immediately examined this Throughout his work he was imaginative and had the stamina evidence. Some of his conclusions, not necessarily concurred in and singleness of purpose to follow through in his research studies by philologists and others, were that the wild grape or "vinber" to their logical fruition. His published work stands on its own of the Norse was probably mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis- merit but botany has lost an ardent and sometimes militant idaea) rather than our Wild Grape (Vitis labrusca) and that their individualist of great vigor, keen insight and strong devotion to "self-sown wheat" was more probably Strand Wheat (Elymus his chosen field. arenarius) than Wild Rice (Zizania aquatica) as others contended. As a result of his studies, he was convinced that the old Icelandic FERNALD IN THE FIELD sagas referred to Norse landings far to the north of New England or Nova Scotia, most probably along the Labrador coast. LUDLOW GRISCOM As an editor and editor-in-chief of RHODORA for many years, MANY people intensely enjoy watching others do something Professor Fernald handled many botanical publications sent in superlatively well. This enjoyment is greatly enhanced should for review. These stimulated him to write critiques and reviews, the technique or field of activity impinge on one's own interest many of which have become classics of their kind. Often he and requirements. It is part of a happy and very fortunate life would become exasperated when handling a manuscript or paper that it has been my privilege to be afield with the world's greatest not meeting his standards of excellence and sometimes their field botanists and ornithologists, and I have reflected for some authors would receive a verbal spanking. On one such occasion time on the combination of assets and talents required to produce he was heard to remark "Yes, is a nice chap. His such an exceptional human being. In the ensuing discussion it heart is in the right place. Wish I could say the same for his must be understood that my friend, the late M. L. Fernald, head." Certainly the whole man as a professional botanist possessed the necessary qualifications to an astonishing degree. would not stand inclusively touched upon were his role as a The principal objective of the field botanist is to find and collect botanical critic not further mentoned. But here I turn to Dr. in quantity plants of some critical or scientific interest. This E. D. Merrill where in his citation of Professor Fernald at the obviously involves getting away from civilization and disturbed presentation of the Leidy medal he has ably handled this aspect areas, and may even involve protracted camping, mountain in the following words: "Fernald's published papers on various climbing, or the organization of a real expedition, with numerous phases of botanical science exceed 700 [now over 750] in number. personnel, guides, porters and problems of transportation. This These, always highly critical, carefully prepared, well written, presupposes the necessary rugged physique. The legs must be and full of the results of very keen observation, set an unusually stout, the back must be strong to carry a pack, the wind must be high standard within their field. His trenchant criticisms of the good, and the eyesight must be remarkably keen. Fernald might work of others in the general field covered by his activities, while be described as a short, stout man, with short legs. In the Shick- not always pleasing to those criticized, assist in maintaining the shock Mountains of Gaspé I had occasion to marvel at his ability standards of American botanical scholarship. On one occasion to cope with the demands made on his physique, and at the same when one of my former associates was requested to review a time, to feel very sorry for another old friend and companion certain published paper, which was not all that it should have with short legs, the late K. K. Mackenzie, whose heart could not been, I heard him exclaim, 'Oh, for the pen of a Fernald.' In stand the strain of mountain climbing, soon to die prematurely Rhodora 1951] Griscom,-Fernald in the Field 63 62 [FEBRUARY of this defect. Fernald's keenness of eyesight was prodigious. and the next gully "began to look right." We were told to look By train his face was glued to the window, by car he hung as far for a big patch of July snow. There was such a snowpatch, and out as safety permitted, constantly scanning the passing banks in a few minutes Fernald relocated the famous station. Only and roadsides, calling "stop" when something suspicious was once did I see Fernald at fault. I had never collected Scirpus sighted, and usually to good purpose. This was his pet method Peckii Britt., and recalled a sheet in the Gray Herbarium col- of turning up unusual weeds. It is trite to mention his indiffer- lected by Fernald at Alstead, N. H. He claimed to remember it ence to extremes of heat, cold, wet, and insect pests. well and volunteered to make a try at finding the station. So one day we took a long and rambling trip around the changed Another must for a great field botanist is a memory for facts, village of Alstead, while Fernald tried to recall the location of a SO fabulous as to be completely beyond the capacity of the moist swale, one of many in the hollow of some farming uplands. average person. Most local floras involve 2000 or more species. It could not be done. The point is that Fernald was clearly Think of the facts involved in committing to memory, almost chagrined and mortified, in spite of the fact that thirty-five years perfectly, the characters in the descriptions of such a flora, even had passed. I could not console him on the way home as he felt the most technically difficult genera such as Viola and its hybrids, he had completely wasted my day, and he earnestly promised to Carex, the willows (Salix) in the far northeast. Moreover, the make it up to me. He did, bless him, over and over again. ranges must be accurately recalled, SO as to pounce at once on any possible range extensions in the field. To illustrate, I re- Long before I met Fernald or was in the field with him, I knew member one mortifying incident. Long interested in orchids, I him by reputation as the great authority on the flora of New was, SO I thought, very familiar with Habenaria Hookeri Torr., England, the Maritime Provinces of Canada, and Newfoundland. SO when I picked some, up in Gaspé, I thought little of it. But I therefore expected and was prepared for all the assets and you should have seen Fernald jump when I mentioned it; he qualifications outlined above just as I had found them in the immediately recognized it as a range extension and made me go late Dr. Karl M. Wiegand, who was just as sensational in his back to relocate the station to procure more material for the knowledge of the flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin, a more re- whole party! stricted area. The great question now arises, how does such a person perform in a new or unknown flora? This I was able to Few people stop to think that a sense of location or place- answer, as I was largely responsible for getting Fernald out of memory is a great asset. Fernald had one of the most marvellous New England and well started on his field work in extreme of any human being I have ever known, and his ability to return southern and southeastern Virginia, handicapped as he was by after many years to the station of some rare plant bordered on the incredible. Two illustrations must suffice. On the table-top of having by-passed the famous pine-barren flora of New Jersey. One fine morning we left Cambridge at 5:30 a. m. and rolled the Mt. Albert I was particularly anxious to "clean up" on the great and local rarities, notably Polystichum mohrioides (Bory) Presl car on the ferry that night at Cape Charles, Va., 605 miles south. The results of the trip were written up in RHODORA, Vol. 37, under var. scopulinum (D. C. Eat.) Fern., the only eastern station. the title "Three days botanizing in southern Virginia." This Speaking to Fernald, whose generosity and interest were notable, field work, which continued with the aid of the greatly gifted he reflected a moment. It required crossing the entire tableland, Mr. Bayard Long, was delightfully written up in RHODORA, with to find the right gulch or ravine on the opposite face of the mountain, where he had been once previously. Crossing the many revisions and range extensions into the Manual area. Here mountain and hitting the first gully by chance, Fernald said we reach the final asset of a great field man, who does not know "wait a minute," and disappeared downwards, shortly to reap- the flora, and who has never seen the plants growing before. pear, saying it was not the right one and he believed the one we The gift of a somewhat photographic memory combined with were seeking was further to the left. So, to the left we tramped extensive reading plus the study of herbarium specimens, enabled 64 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Griscom,-Fernald in the Field 65 Fernald to recognize, spot, or at least suspect most of the well If there was nothing to do, Fernald would pick up a novel and in known southern element. half an hour was sound asleep! I never knew him to finish one! How well I recall joining a party in northern Newfoundland The impact on other people was entirely a measure of their in- led by Fernald and Wiegand. There was a pleasant party rivalry terest in or knowledge of botany. It went hard with them indeed at the time, each trying to spot the most novel, new, suspicious if both were inadequate, and under the inevitable strain and fa- or interesting plants per day per trip. Wiegand did not do very tigue they tended to lose sight completely of the great gifts their well, and confided his chagrin to me, a former student, privately. leader possessed SO outstandingly. In addition to the strain of Wiegand's summing up was perfectly fair, just and reasonable: camping life, the constant physical exercise and discomfort, there "He did not know the arctic flora," and had had no time to study is a terrible, grinding monotony to the constant pressing of 1000 or bone up on it. One graphic illustration of the opposite faculty sheets a week, the changing of the driers, the straightening of the occurs to me. While the point could be debated among botanists material, the psychological impact of overwhelming and irredu- indefinitely, it has always seemed to me that the hardest plants cible inferiority of knowledge. Some people could not endure it. to "spot" are certain low growing shrubs minus flowers, buds, or Nevertheless, as I look back on my trips with him over a fifteen fruit, when they become as nearly characterless as possible. year period, as I thumb through the new Gray's Manual, which Such a plant is the rare and local Stewartia Malacodendron L., happily he lived to see finished and out, and as I write these lines, minus the huge showy flowers or the prominent 5-locular capsule. there are tears of gratitude in my eyes, gratitude that I had the I was just good enough to "spot" this low shrub in the rich opportunity to see him as much as I did, and get to know him welter of vegetation in a moist ravine of southern Virginia, and so well, to appreciate his extraordinary gifts. The reason why called it to Fernald's attention. I was electrified when he gave has just come to me upon reflection. As a professional field man, a cry of pleasure and immediately named it! I still haven't he had all the qualifications I wish I had myself, but never ac- figured out how he did it! quired as an amateur. Hence I admire, respect, and esteem his In the field Fernald was noted for a kindly, sunny cheerfulness memory, and rejoice at the vision he gave me. of temperament, good humor, a tendency to bad puns, and an Volume 53, no. 625, including pages 1-32, was issued 16 January, 1951. optimism which sometimes discommoded his party. The guides and boatmen proved to be mortal and human, the landlady and food were not as wonderful as represented in advance, in short, the Golden Age was never quite attained on my last trip with him! He was kindness and patience itself to a ham amateur ornithologist like myself, but an unsparingly caustic critic of all entitled to be called botanists. In certain ways he was almost amazingly modest and unconscious of his gifts. Thus his dis- coveries in southern Virginia, far from puffing up his self esteem, were invariably represented as a reflection on the lack of energy and drive of the Washington, D. C., botanists, who "could have run down there in a day anytime they got around to it." Actually it should be clear that this greatly gifted field botanist can be described as a one-pointed, one-sided botanical machine. Fernald lived, thought, and talked botany. In very bad weather, he would invent work with the presses, changing the driers, etc. Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 45 and remained my favorite professor. He was inclined to think AS A REVISER OF GRAY'S MANUAL well of people from Maine, other things being equal, and since HARLEY HARRIS BARTLETT both his mother and my father had been born in Bethel, Maine, ng college I wrote to Professor Fernald from I was only a generation removed, which made a certain bond ing if a Freshman who was already keenly that nobody but a down-East Yankee might recognize! any would be allowed to take his course "Botany Many who did not know Fernald well too hastily concluded New England and the Maritime Provinces of that his predominant traits were vanity and acrimoniousness. answer was "Yes," for those were the good old This was very far from the truth. He was easily moved to nt Eliot and free election, when any student intemperate expression of emotions which others with more ny course if he could persuade the professor to control might conceal, but he was essentially friendly and helpful. here never was an educational policy better His vast excitement over what sometimes seemed of small lessors and students who liked to do as they significance was what kept him SO amazingly active and produc- poring over all the college catalogues available, tive. In the days when I knew him best he was never assailed at nowhere else was there a course like Harvard's by doubts about the value of what he was then doing, but he was How amazingly true this proved to be I soon very critical of those who were doing something that he would Fernald was as extreme an individualist in teach- not spend his own time doing. I remember that one time he his scientific work. He worked in such flares of remarked on what a disappointment Thiselton-Dyer's career had , whatever engaged him at a particular moment been, as Director of Kew. He said that Thiselton-Dyer had had ) being the most important thing in the world to as great a chancefor a productive career as Joseph Dalton Hooker, ad to be to his students. There were only two of but had frittered away his time, although his obvious duty to 904-1905) and we were guinea pigs on whom his botany was not to waste a moment of an opportunity denied to d out. As for background, he seemed to assume most botanists, when he was the one, chosen from among hun- 't already know the minute distinctions among dreds, who had a chance to do great things. At this outburst Dr. e talked about with such glowing enthusiasm we Robinson, who was the essence of kindliness and moderation, d since he referred to Carex SO frequently, his and seldom allowed himself to pass a snap judgement, was e Carices of the Section Hyparrhenae" was soon genuinely shocked, and made what was, for him, a vigorous in exemplar for method and systematic concepts. rebuttal. The clash of personality between the two men was SO r sedges, it would seem, must illustrate all truly great that they never seemed sufficiently compatible to work nical phenomena and types of geographical dis- together harmoniously, and actually their co-operation in the rth Eastern America, and it would be a long time revision of Gray's Manual for the seventh edition was negligible, er region need concern us! Fernald took me to consisting merely in each doing part of the work. There was no case where the reserve numbers of the "Contribu- community of concepts. Gray Herbarium" were kept, got out a copy of Their social life was utterly different. Robinson would tant one, that on the Hyparrhenae, inscribed it to typically invite his friends to meet some distinguished musician hat he had also written a big one on the genus at his home and meticulously observed all the social amenities. co, but that it was really far inferior, because he Fernald would propose an all-day Sunday tramp in midwinter, the plants in the field, and, anyway I shouldn't be starting from some point reached by rail. Then, as he said, the h Mexico. A firm teacher-student friendship was swamps and bogs were all frozen over and you could see just ished between Fernald and myself, for he became what they were like. After tramping all day in the cold with 46 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 47 nothing to eat except maybe frozen cranberries from a bog, genera that had been skipped, or in testing out revised keys with boiled in melted snow in an old tomato can salvaged from a current herbarium accessions, or in testing the applicability of roadside dump, he would take his guest home to a midnight work published after the "Manual" copy had been prepared, repast of lamb chops only, broiled on forks over the coals in the which might necessitate still further changes. To what extent furnace down cellar, and eaten out of hand, squatting on the in later years "Botany 7" continued to be a device for preliminary floor in front of the open furnace door. On such an occasion testing of the "Manual" revision I do not know, but Fernald was Fernald was at his best, jolly, full of zest and good-fellowship, not one who readily changed his ways and it is to be presumed and infectiously enthusiastic about life in general and the New that the preparation of the eighth edition followed much the England flora in particular. same course as that of the seventh. After I got acquainted at the Herbarium, it was not long before In Fernald's early years as a staff member there were four great piles of pasted-up manuscript made their appearance for chief continuing institutional projects at the Gray Herbarium. the forthcoming (7th) edition of Gray's Manual, which was not In addition to (1) the revision of Gray's Manual, these were (2) actually published until 1908 but had already been long in prep- the continuation of the Synoptical Flora of North America, (3) aration. The basic copy had been prepared by pasting clippings the study, in accordance with an agreement of co-operation with from the older edition, family by family, onto sheets and arrang- the National Herbarium, of the numerous new collections that ing them in the Engler and Prantl sequence. Changes had been came to hand yearly from Mexico and Central America, and (4) made in almost every line at various times, SO that the revised the indexing of newly described systematic entities of the Western copy resembled especially foul corrected proof. Some parts Hemisphere. were Robinson's especial responsibility and were mostly revised As already indicated the first of these was originally shared by by him, and others were Fernald's, but either of them fixed Robinson and Fernald, but fell eventually to the latter; the whatever errors or omissions came to his attention. second was Dr. Robinson's; the third was divided among Robin- Robinson was the more systematic worker, for he was inclined son, Greenman and Fernald; and the fourth had come to be to work straight along, in the quiet of the old Gray study, dealing exclusively Miss Day's. with the pages as they came. Not so, Fernald. He would get Fernald's inheritance of the Manual revision came about started on some particular species or group by finding something gradually. Participation in the study of the Mexican and other of interest in the course of current routine determinative work. tropical collections became increasingly distasteful to him, for he It would lead him into a hectic investigation that sometimes fell could not keep up an interest in floras unless he personally knew flat but generally resulted in a big or little article for RHODORA, many of the species in the field, when he had not actually worked and the random articles provided the basis for revision of the in the regions. Any species that grew in northeastern America Manual copy. So practically everything he did after about 1901 interested him wherever it occurred, or was supposed to occur, was directly contributory to the Manual, but some groups and he would therefore spend much time studying Scandinavian received minimal attention. He needed the stimulus of. some specimens and publications. A region whose flora was largely dissimilar to that of the Northeast had no attraction for him. discovery to set him off. It did not have to be a large one. Sometimes, in fact, the supposed discovery petered out, but it To accord with his interest in the plants of eastern Canada the would have resulted in some critical determinations that helped limits of the Manual region were extended northward, and for a the good cause along. So there was continual progress with the good many seasons he worked with a succession of botanical Manual but it never seemed to get done. comrades in Quebec and Newfoundland. At length, having Even "Botany 7" had to do some small part. Our laboratory stimulated the interest of Canadians in taking over the study of work consisted largely in trying to prepare tentative keys to the northern border, and wishing to do his own field work where 48 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 49 there were the best chances for significant discoveries, he turned and traditions in building for a glorious new future. So the to the coastal plain of Virginia, where he made a multitude of Herbarium, then and subsequently, had the problem of finding in interesting additions to the flora of the "Manual region." At large part its own sustenance, with little aid or encouragement the close of each field season he returned to the Herbarium with from the top echelon. keenly whetted enthusiasm for studying the new collections, and In providing for successive editions of Gray's Manual, Harvard, the idea of doing anything unrelated to that seemed almost however grudgingly, has performed an important national edu- intolerable to him. cational and scientific service. Fernald was an inspiring leader It was part of the routine of the Herbarium to identify the of local flora investigators and during four decades botanists tropical collections as such. Then, at length, after isolated looked forward to the appearance of the new "Gray" as an event species had been described in a genus, and sufficient material of genuine importance, as it was. One of Fernald's botanical seemed to have been accumulated, an effort would be made by a colleagues of many years standing, Professor Bradley Moore staff member or student to prepare a comprehensive revision. Davis, has well expressed what many of us feel about Fernald's The annual collections of Pringle and Palmer were the chief constant devotion for over forty-five years to revision of the Manual. He wrote in a recent letter: "Fernald's death brought dependence for progress in the somewhat vaguely defined tropical American project, but there came to be more and more field to close a well ordered life that followed a consistent pattern, to workers, such as Millspaugh and Gaumer, in Yucatan, C. C. the end that he accomplished much." Deam, in Mexico and Guatemala, Peck in British Honduras, In its carly years the New England Botanical Club was an John Donnell-Smith and his associates in Central America, Rose enthusiastic organization, largely of amateur systematists and of and associates, mostly in Mexico, Lumholtz in Mexico, and not a professional botanists whose interest was not chiefly systematic, few others. The effort to make some current systematic dis- but whose attention to various local floras or incidental collecting posal of all this material often required that species be described turned up many problems that could best be referred to the staff not by systematic revision of a mass of material but from single of the Herbarium. specimens, the distinctions of which might or might not hold up Fernald was ready and willing to act as a central consultant in the light of subsequent collecting. for this large group of botanists, which soon extended far beyond This work on miscellaneous tropical plants engaged much of the membership of the club. By the time the eighth edition of Fernald's attention until about 1901 when he practically declared the Manual was completed, he had had cooperation to some his independence of it. This restriction and unification of his degree from about 400 collaborators, whose problems and ques- interests were clearly in the best interests of the Gray Herbarium. tions all had to be reasonably answered by his investigations. The New England Botanical Club contained many of the best Probably no botanical systematist had ever before gone SO far in friends of the Herbarium, who did whatever they could, financial- satisfying SO many active finders of deficiencies and faults in a ly and otherwise, to support it. Financial support was never standard flora! sufficient and although the Gray Herbarium was one of the most Fernald's concentration on plants of the "Manual" region eminent and deserving of Harvard departments, it led a some- began with his early work on the local flora about Orono, Maine. what hand-to-mouth existence and had to beg of its friends in His first botanical correspondents, John Parlin and Kate Furbish, order to carry on any kind of a worthy program. So it was established the type of relationship that later extended to corre- essential not to fail to serve the local constituency of those who spondents far and wide. His enthusiasm for regionally restricted were primarily concerned with the local flora. In botany floristic study was so boundless that it sometimes impressed Harvard's policy was then, as it still remains, to belittle its own others as ludicrous or boring. Published expression of it prob- best achievements and to disregard its most valuable resources ably reached its height in an advertisement which he wrote for 50 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 51 the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, published (anonymously! material of the Gray Herbarium into piles. In his earlier days, in RHODORA for April 1903. Never before or since has there been at least, he seemed to have a sublime trust that all essential such an advertisement, which should by all means be included in material would either be ready at hand in the Gray Herbarium a bibliography of Fernald's writings. There have been many or that a problem insoluble with its then available resources railroad and steamship blurbs directing the attention of tourists could well wait until he had personally seen to the collection of to such natural wonders as the big trees of California or the hot new specimens. He rarely borrowed from other herbaria except springs of New Zealand, but surely even the botanical traveller had never before been invited by a railroad in an advertisement of four pages of fine print to patronize its facilities in order to see such astounding treasures of Maine as the "rare Carices, C. tenuiflora, gynocrates, and vaginata, or the little sundew Drosera linearis." On the upper Mattawamkeag the botanist was promised no less than "the white foam-like masses of the spicy Labrador Tea, Ledum groenlandicum, rich rosy banks of the Pale Laurel, Kalmia glauca, indefinite white waves of the Alpine Cotton-grass, Eriophorum alpinum, brightened here and there with the deep yellows of Cypripediums." Nor must he fail to look below the surface, for, in the Piscataquis and the Matta- wamkeag, would be found Myriophyllum Farwellii and Potamo- geton obtusifolius! Elsewhere the visitor would thrill at the sight of "the largest of the Rattlesnake Plantains, Goodyera Menziezii, the rare Arctic Fleabane, Erigeron acris, the remark- able local Wood Betony, Pedicularis Furbishiae, unknown out- FERNALD AT WORK IN THE GRAY HERBARIUM. side the St. John Valley." Finally, if these and other delights for the utilization of what might be at hand in the collections of should pall, the prospect of even greater adventure was held out, the New England Botanical Club. As for the Herbarium of the for "the botanist whose good fortune takes him to the upper St. Arnold Arboretum, it might as well have been in Timbuctoo as Frances may watch with hope for Pleurogyne carinthiaca, Erio- in Jamaica Plain, SO far as any utilization of it during my five phorum russeolum, Astragalus elegans, Parnassia palustris, Saxi- years in Cambridge was concerned. During that period, I fraga caespitosa, Anemone parviflora, Cornus suecica, Pedicularis believe I am correct in stating that Fernald did not once visit the palustris, and many other arctic plants known closely to approach Arnold Arboretum, nor did his colleague Robinson more than northern Maine"! I know nothing in botanical literature with once, and then not with a botanical objective. quite the flavor of this advertisement except Bartram's "Travels." Like many older herbaria, the Gray Herbarium in the pre- It would warm the cockles of any botanical heart. Fernaldian era had been developed to conserve space and costly Fernald's enthusiasm was literally unbounded when he had paper by gluing specimens supposedly of the same species to the made or thought he had made some discovery, whether in the same sheet, quite regardless of geographic origin. This exas- field, or among his own collections, or those of his correspondents. perated Fernald beyond measure, for it made it impossible to The moment anything came to light that seemed to require the sort specimens into piles, first by one characteristic and then by segregation of a new species or a revision of the accepted delimita- another, or geographically, with the ceaseless industry that was tion of some group, he would immediately start sorting the Fernald's when he was intent upon a problem. So many a time Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 53 he started work on a genus by snipping all the mixed sheets to new species, or even a variety, without making a decision about pieces, which he strewed in apparent unconcern all over the big the identity of every other related specimen at hand. Whatever central table in the main herbarium room, where he always may be thought of Fernald's segregations, they were proposed worked. Dr. Robinson would come in, look with consternation after making a conscientious identification of every related and anguish at the wreckage, allow himself to remark gently that specimen that he had, according to his own criteria. He was he wondered "how anyone could ever again interpret the con- especially suspicious of proposed systematic entities that did not cepts of the Synoptical Flora," and retreat from the painful seem to have a consistent or logical geographic distribution, and sight into the old Gray study. (Among the Harvard botanists having to interpret or recognize one of Greene's numerous of the time Robinson was the chief exponent of the soft answer species, based upon a single specimen, caused him extreme that turneth away wrath.) Then Miss Anderson would gather indignation. up and patiently glue all the severed fragments onto new whole He was therefore sometimes vigorous in his denunciation of sheets, but with each specimen by itself. his own earlier work on the Mexican species of Salvia. He never Fernald's technique, in those days, at least, was not to make referred disparagingly to "species" of Salvia however, except notes and study those until he arrived at a classification of speci- when hearers had a shrewd suspicion that they would get his mens that satisfied him. There was no tabulating of data. meaning more correctly if they mentally substituted "Eupa- Nothing would do but interminable rearrangements of the torium" or "Crataegus" for "Salvia." specimens themselves. Once when Dr. Robinson mildly sug- In his talks to students Fernald was often quite intemperate gested that much deterioration could be prevented by sorting in his criticism of other botanists. On one occasion when he saw notes instead of specimens he retorted indignantly that one who written down in our notes some of the disparaging remarks he had a feeling for the importance of habit would never be satisfied had made about botanical colleagues at various institutions he to handle notes instead of specimens. "Could you," he said, was deeply chagrined and apologized for having gone SO far. "see something you had quite overlooked before if you were just As he warmed to his subject, however, he was soon very nearly sorting cards?"-and the argument was unassailable. Even back to the point of departure. Still, he had a very generous when sorting specimens by measurements of some organ he appreciation of many other botanists. He generally referred to seldom, if ever, recorded each measurement and subjected the Bicknell's work on Sisyrinchium, for instance, with commenda- data to even the most rudimentary statistical analysis. Rather, tion, but had a very low opinion of Burgess's work on Aster. he decided upon some measurement that might set the best It caused him a pang when he had to admit the validity of certain limit between two groups, and sorted his material as "greater" of Green's propositions in Antennaria, or Nash's and Ashe's in or "less" than that. If the separation by a single critical Panicum. Fernald's denunciations of other botanists and their measurement of a mass of material into two piles failed to corre- work were not often intended to hurt, however, and after he late with other criteria of distinction he simply tried again with himself had forgotten making them, were quite as likely as not a new measurement. to be followed by friendly and appreciative expressions. Even though Fernald was prone to be satisfied to come to A good example was given by his reaction to Kükenthal's work conclusions by examination of only the material that was at hand, on Carex. At first sight he thought it magnificent. On second he was indefatigable in making some disposition of every speci- sight he found it full of exasperating errors, which he condemned men that he had, down to the poorest. He was not one to pick roundly. Then he thought that what the worthy pastor needed out a single apparently distinctive specimen and describe it as a was to spend a year in Cambridge as his guest, learning American type, hoping that time would confirm his judgement. He was geography and examining plenty of American material. But unsparing in caustic criticism of persons who would propose a Kükenthal couldn't come. "Then he isn't much of a botanist 54 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 1951] Bartlett,-Fernald, Reviser of Gray's Manual 55 anyway, if he doesn't accept a chance to correct his errors, and reactionary to a certain extent in disregarding some of the would rather just let them go," raged Fernald, and condemned technical jargon that distinguishes newer developments in the whole breed of Germans in general for gross carelessness, systematics. It is just as well. There is much pomposity and and Kükenthal in particular. Then finally he arrived at the verbosity in science nowadays that has little if any utility. conclusion that Kükenthal had done a fine job after all but had Fernald worked from the end of the period in which systematics made sundry little errors, that he, Fernald, might quite calmly dominated botany, through a period in which systematics seemed rectify himself! One German of whom he always (that is, old-fashioned and on the wane, and into a new period in which nearly always!) approved was Buchenau. systematics is being revitalized by the experimental investiga- Nearly every investigation, large or small, that Fernald under- tions of geneticists, cytologists and biochemists. Methods of took in the interval between the two last editions of the "Manual" investigating relationships are becoming more and more critical may be considered a preliminary study for the eighth edition of and time-consuming. The days of dependence in distinguishing that work, but was promptly published in RHODORA. This species upon intuitive perception of the integrity of an assemblage journal afforded him an outlet for one or more articles, critical of characteristics may be thought to have passed. If, however, reviews and notes each month, from the very beginning, the we consider the need for comprehensive works on large floras, the whole representing a prodigious amount of writing. As time small number of botanists to do the world's vast botanical work, went on, this journal became more and more an expression of his and the inadaptability of many plants to experimental investiga- personality and views. Sponsored by the New England Botani- tion, then Fernald's life work in the honorable "Old Systematics" cal Club, in which Fernald's strong personality was dominant, it will be seen to have a value that the passage of time will not soon early came to be one of the most highly personalized of scientific efface. In view of the application of experimental methods in an journals, in an era in which most editors have deemed it scandal- increasing number of groups, it becomes more and more apparent ous to reveal any personality at all. that the time during which one man can come to have a critical In the early days of RHODORA there was an annual meeting of knowledge of most of the flora of a region as large as that of the Club at which the editorial board of an imaginary "Rhodor- Gray's Manual has passed. So his book will be a lasting land- ella" made a report that tingled with satire and fun. It was mark in the botanical history of our region. It is a source of much in accord with Fernald's impulses to express himself with deep satisfaction to his devoted botanical following that he lived an informality and freedom that seldom appear in these stodgy to see it in print. and formal days. So the reviews in RHODORA were sometimes As I have said elsewhere, "the new Manual is a highly satis- almost as spicy as they might have been in Rhodorella! factory and noble achievement, the culmination of a lifetime Since Fernald's prejudices were SO strong and SO unsuccessfully devoted to the reinterpretation of our flora, as largely on the inhibited it is quite understandable that he did not keep every basis of zealous personal field work as half a century would trace of his personality out of the "Manual." For example, he permit." had no use for spurious common names, made by translating UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN scientific names into English, and had the courage of his convic- Ann Arbor tions in refusing to adopt them in the Manual. The sheer pedantry of "standardized common names" got no encourage- ment from him. He required that common names, to be ad- mitted, must belong to common language, not merely to an artificial jargon. It is greatly to his credit that he was content to be considered reactionary in this respect. He was likewise -ge Page 1 of 1 Epp, Ronald From: Epp, Ronald Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 1:23 PM To: 'botref@oeb.harvard.edu' Cc: Epp, Ronald Subject: M.L. Fernald & G.B. Dorr Having browsed through your M.L. Fernald Papers Finding Aid, could you possibly assist me with the following question. For four years I have been researching the life of George Bucknam Dorr (1853-1944), founder of Acadia National Park, a Harvard (Class of 1874) alum who collaborated with Fernald. They co-authored a National Geographic article in July 1914 (see HOLLIS). The semi-historic letter collection ("D") indicates six pieces of G.B. Dorr correspondence. Would it be possible to have these copied at my expense and forwarded to me? I should also bring to your attention the existence of a Fernald publication of which you may be unaware. Prior to the formation of Lafayette National Park ( 1916, later in 1929 renamed Acadia) park territory was part of the Sieur de Monts Monument. Mr. Dorr created a corporation called the Wild Gardens of Acadia which published 22 pamphlets--one of these is attributed to Fernald and is titled "An Acadian Plant Sanctuary." HOLLIS does not reflect this record. There is no indication that this content was extracted from other Fernald publications but I wondered if you were aware of this title and were interested in securing a copy from me. On a related matter, Fernald submitted testimony in May 30, 1918 in support of H.R. 11935 which sought to elevate the monument to national park status. I am in possession of that documentation as well should you wish a copy. A copy of my article on this theme is available online: http://www.friendsofacadia.org/journal/w2002/w2002.pdf (see pages 8-9). Thank you for the professional courtesy of considering this matter. Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. Director of Shapiro Library Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH 03106 603-668-2211, ext. 2164 603-645-9685 fax 4/28/2004 Epp, Ronald From: Lisa Decesare [Idecesar@oeb.harvard.eduj Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 3:06 PM To: Epp, Ronald Subject: Fwd: M.L. Fernald & G.B. Dorr (fwd) W Permission to Examine email.do. Dr. Epp, Your request was forwarded to me. We would happily send you copies of the correspondence that you seek. I am attaching a copy of our Permission to Examine form. Please complete it and return it to me. Once I receive the signed form I will send you the letters. There will be no charge for these copies. In regards to your kind offer to send us copies of the Acadian Plant Sanctuary article and a copy of Fernald's submitted testimony we would love to get that if it is no trouble. Please contact me directly if you have any further questions or concerns. Lisa DeCesare Libros Lisa DeCesare Head of Archives and Public Services Botany Libraries Harvard University Herbaria 22 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 tel: 617.495.2366 fax: 617.495.8654 email: ldecesar@oeb.harvard.edu connect 1