The Ynés Mexía Botanical Collections : Oral History Transcript / 1983
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Leading Botanists in San Diego Nancy Carol Carter
Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Vol. 14, No. 4 • Fall 2011 The Brandegees: Leading Botanists in San Diego Nancy Carol Carter [This article, originally published in The Journal of San Diego History, is reprinted here, by permission, in a somewhat abridged form.1] he most renowned botanical couple of 19th-century and generally agreeing with his scientific principles, the T America lived in San Diego from 1894 until 1906. Brandegees eventually claimed a superior ability to classify They were early settlers in the Bankers Hill area, initially and appropriately name the plants they had collected and constructing a brick herbarium to house the world’s best observed in situ. Fully aware of delays and impatient with private collection of plant specimens from the western the imprecision of more distant classification work, both United States and Mexico. They lived in a tent until their resisted the tradition of submitting new species to Gray or treasured plant collection was properly protected, then built other East Coast scientists for botanical description.3 They a house connected to the herbarium. Around their home became expert taxonomists who described and defended they established San Diego’s first botanical garden—a col- their science in West Coast journals. During their lifetimes, lection of rare and exotic plants that furthered their research the Brandegees published a combined total of 159 scientific and delighted visitors. papers.4 Their example in- Botanists and plant ex- spired other Pacific Coast perts from around the botanists to greater confidence world knew of this garden in their own field experience and traveled to San Diego and the value of botanically to study its plants. -
Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (4)5
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA Academy of Sciences FOURTH SERIES Vol. V 1915 OS" SAN P^RANCISCO PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY 1915 COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION George C. Edwards, Chairman C. E. Grunsky Barton Warren Evermann, Editor CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. Plates 1-19. PAGE Title-page i Contents iii Report of the President of the Academy for the Year 1914. By C. E. Grunsky 1 (Published March 26, 1915) Report of the Director of the Museum for the Year 1914. By Barton Warren Evermann - 1 1 (Published March 26, 1915) Fauna of the Type Tejon : Its Relation to the Cowlitz Phase of the Tejon Group of Washington. By Roy E. Dickerson. (Plates 1-11) 33 (Published June 15, 1915) A List of the Amphibians and Reptiles of Utah, with Notes on the Species in the Collection of the Academy. By John Van Den- burgh and Joseph R. Slevin. (Plates 12-14) 99 (Published June 15, 1915) Description of a New Subgenus (Arborimus) of Phenacomys, with a Contribution to Knowledge of the Habits and Distribution of Phenacomys longicaudus True. By Walter P. Taylor. (Plate 15) 1 1 1 (Published December 30, 1915) Tertiary Deposits of Northeastern Mexico. By E. T. Durable. (Plates 16-19) 163 (Published December 31, 1915) Report of the President of the Academy for the Year 1915. By C. E. Grunsky 195 (Published May 4, 1916) Report of the Director of the Museum for the Year 1915. By Barton Warren Evermann 203 (Published May 4, 1916) Index 225, 232 July 19, 1916 / f / ^3 F»ROCEDEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Fourth Series Vol. -
Susan Delano Mckelvey and the Arnold Arboretum
A Life Redeemed: Susan Delano McKelvey and the Arnold Arboretum Edmund A. Schofield Fleeing a broken marriage in middle age, a wealthy New York socialite came to Boston and created a wholly new life as botanist at the Arnold Arboretum Towards the end of the First World War there Arboretum-perhaps as a means of forgetting came to the Arnold Arboretum a thirty-six- her marital troubles. She wanted to study year-old woman whose life had just fallen to landscape architecture, too. In any event, pieces. To be sure, she could command re- "The Professor," as she came to call Sargent, sources to cushion the fall that no ordinary set her to washing clay pots in the person could-great wealth, family name, Arboretum’s greenhouses, to test her resolve. social prominence-but those resources had Presently, at Sargent’s urging, she began to been powerless to prevent it. A native of study the plants on the grounds of the Arbo- Philadelphia, a graduate of Bryn Mawr Col- retum and in its greenhouses under the tute- lege, and a member of New York’s social elite lage of William H. Judd (1861-1949), who was (she was, for example, a cousin of President- the Arboretum’s propagator. to-be Franklin Delano Roosevelt), the woman Early on, she took a particular interest in had married a New York attorney in 1907, set- the lilac collection, just then under develop- tling into a comfortable life on Long Island as ment. For the next four and a half decades, in wife, mother, andsocialite. -
March 2021 Garden Committee
March 2021 March in the Native Garden GARDENING WITH NATIVES March is Women’s History Month, and we would like to recognize two pioneer California women botanists and their Garden Committee (GC) Meeting scientific contributions to the extensive knowledge of California flora. Mary “Kate” Brandegee (October 28, 1844 – Wild Yards Project: April 3, 1920) and Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October As Above, So Below - What Our 30, 1953) worked together as curators for the California Academy of Sciences botany department for many years. Kate Gardens Say About Who We Are, and Alice traveled the state collecting and identifying native And Where We Are Headed plant specimens throughout California for the Academy’s herbarium. by David Newsom Two new recognized native Tuesday March 9, 6:30-8:00 pm plant species were named Via Zoom (You do not need a Zoom account or app to after Kate Brandegee: Layne attend) milkvetch (Astragalus Join us for this layneae) and Layne’s inspirational talk by monkey flower (Diplacus David Newsom, layneae). Kate and her founder of Wild husband, Townsend Yards Project. David Brandegee (also a botanist), will focus on what we have San Diego connections. create when we After settling in Banker’s Hill, develop and enhance they created the city’s first native habitat, and brick botanical garden on how we can amplify their property. As a couple, our work to rebuild the planet. This embraces concepts they both continued to collect beyond our garden walls. He sees our yards as testing (Above) Layne’s plant specimens in California, grounds for a far larger monkeyflower (Diplacus layneae). -
Davis-Eastwood Brochure
her education. She had an interest in Tamalpais, collecting flora and sharing many different sciences, but botany her knowledge with other hikers. Mt. Tamalpais was always her favorite. Eastwood was known for her tremendous hiking skills, averaging 20 Profiles: After moving to the United States, Alice miles a day , carrying heavy plant Alice Eastwood and graduated valedictorian of her Denver presses on her back. High School and immediately returned Matt Davis to the classroom to teach science, Eastwood was the Curator of Botany at math, history, and the arts. In her the Academy of Sciences for fifty-seven spare time, Alice collected plant years until 1949. In 1906, a specimens in the Colorado Rocky catastrophic earthquake hit San Mountains. She was an extremely Francisco. Fires burned for three days capable self-taught botanist, so much and decimated large parts of the city. so that she was often sought out by As for the Academy of sciences, all but scientists for biological tours of the the front door was intact. Eastwood local area. was determined to save the collections from the approaching fire, and Alice moved to San Francisco, managed to rummage through the California in 1892 to become the rubble, fasten baskets made of rope Curator of Botany at the Academy of and twine, and collect 1,497 rare Sciences . specimens that would have been Alice Eastwood Matt Davis Photos courtesy of Eastwood was impossible to replace. The fires finally Nancy Skinner Collection determined and reached the Academy of Sciences and eager to collect as burned most of the other collections. -
THE HAWAIIAN SILVERSWORDS Systematics, Affinities, and Phytogeographic Problems of the Genus Argyroxiphium
THE HAWAIIAN SILVERSWORDS Systematics, Affinities, and Phytogeographic Problems of the Genus Argyroxiphium By DAVID D. KECK BERNICE P. BISHOP MUSEUM OCCASIONAL PAPERS VOLUME XI, NUMBER 19 HONOLULU, HAWAII PUBLISHED BY THE MuSEUM March 20, 1936 THE HAW AllAN SILVERSWORDS: Systematics, Affinities, and Phytogeographic Problems of the Argyroxiphium By DAVID D. KF;CK Carnegie Institution of Washington, Stanford University, California INTRODUCTION Theories as to the origin of the Hawaiian islands and the deriva tion of their flora and fauna have appeared with frequency and aroused the greatest interest among biologists. Probably no other region in the world has developed so extraordinary a degree of endemism, which, according to Hillebrand (9) 1, for the indigenous vascular plants is 75.93 percent. Much more recent figures for the indigenous flowering plants given by Campbell (5) reach the remark able figure of 9°04 percent! This endemism is directly connected with the fact that the Hawaiian Archipelago is the most isolated area of equal size in the world. There have been many advocates of the theory that the Hawaiian islands are of oceanic origin, that they were elevated from the bottom of the ocean by volcanic action, and that they have always been completely isolated. Others have taken the opposing view that the islands have not always been so isolated, but may even be considered of continental origin. Those with the latter viewpoint believe that the present archipelago represents but the tips of volcanic mountain masses superimposed upon a large block that has undergone sub sidence. For instance, Campbell (4) believes there may have been a more or less direct connection. -
California State University, Northridge California's
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE CALIFORNIA'S FIRST FUEL CRISIS AND EUCALYPTUS PLANTINGS A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography by G~yle M. Groenendaal January 1985 The Thesis of Gayle M. Groenendaal is approved: Dr. Wi ll i am Emboden Department of Bioloqv Dr. Eugene Turner Department of Geography Dr. Ell'iot Mcfntire Department of Geography Chair California State University, Northridge DEDICATION To my loving husband, Ronald A. Groenendaal, fro~ a very appreciative wife. / iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation to the following people who have encouraged me, advised me, and contributed either to this work or to my intellectual growth during the long years it has taken me to finish this research. I am especially grateful to the members of my thesis committee who have borne with me all these years, Dr. Elliot Mcintire, Professor of Geography, Dr. Eugene Turner, Professor of Geography, and Dr. William Emboden, Professor of Biology. A very special thanks goes to Dr. Mcintire, the chair of my committee, who has become a very valuable friend as well as an excellent advisor. Also I would like to give special thanks to my "unofficial" committee members, Dr. Mildred Mathias, Professor Emeritus, Department of Botany, UCLA, Dr. Jonathan Sauer, Professor of Geography, UCLA, Dr. Frank Almada, Director of Research, California Academy of Sciences, June (Rocky) Carroll, Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth Sciences, LACC, and Dr. Hildegard Bender Johnson, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, Macalester College. They first stimulated my curiosity and taught me . -
Chapter 4 Phytomorph and Geomorph Identification ©
1 Chapter 4 Phytomorph and Geomorph Identification © This Chapter is based on three published works: (1) a paper by Hugh O Neall (1944) that identifies two New World plants (sunflower and chili peppers) in the Voynich manuscript; (2) a paper of Tucker and Talbert (2013) which identified 39 plants in the Voynich as indigenous to the New World; (3) a paper by Tucker and Janick (2016) which extended the list to 59 species. Although many of the illustrations of the Voynich Codex on first blush could be considered bizarre or whimsical (See Figure in Chapter 14) most contain morphological structures which permit botanical identification. Many enthusiasts have attempted to analyze the plants of the Voynich Codex, but few are knowledgeable plant taxonomists or botanists, despite their large web presence. Most of the plant identification has been predicated on the conclusion that the Voynich is a 15th century European manuscript (Friedman 1962). The principal reports in a web report by non botanists Edith and Erica Sherwood (http:www.edithsherwood.comn/coyhnich_botanical_plants) who identifies he plants as Mediterranean based on their premise that Voynich is a 15th century Italian manuscript and claims to find signature of Leonardo da Vinci in voynich drawings. We respectfully disagree with both assertions. The first exception to the conclusion that the Voynich plants were European is a short remarkable 1944 paper in Speculum (a refereed journal of the Medieval Academy of America) by the distinguished plant taxonomist, the Rev./Dr. Hugh O’Neill (1894–1969), former Director of the Herbarium (official acronym LCU) at the Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. -
Letters from Dr. H. H. Behr to Herman Strecker1
1968 Journal of the L epidopterists' SocietU 57 LETTERS FROM DR. H. H. BEHR TO HERMAN STRECKER1 F. MARTIN BROWN Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs, Colo. The letters upon which I am reporting are in the Department of Entomology, The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois. They fall into two groups, 1874-1881 and 1899-1900. The first group was written when H. H. Behr was a busy physician in San Francisco, the second when he was Curator of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences. Perhaps the most important item demonstrated by the letters is that Behr did not send his butterfly types to Strecker as the latter frequently stated. The specimens in the Strecker Collection at the Field Museum are what Behr thought represented his namc for a taxon at the time he made the shipment. From the correspondence between W. H . Edwards and Henry Edwards one draws the conclusion that Behr did not long remember what names he had bestowed upon specimens and that he did not mark any of his material as "type" or with a name. Behr did send to Strecker some, if not all, of the types of the Noctuids hc described in 1870. It is evident from examination of the letterhead dates and the post marks that many of Behr's letters resided for several days after being writtcn either in his pocket or on his desk. In one case the epistle stayed with Behr for three months after being written. It is not known if among the several thousand letters yet in miscellaneous bundles there are letters from Behr to Strecker that were written between 1881 and 1899. -
An Introduction to the Botanical Type Specimen Register
SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY NUMBER 12 An Introduction to the Botanical Type Specimen Register Stanwyn G. Shetler with Mary Jane Petrini, Constance Graham Carley, M. J. Harvey, Larry E. Morse, Thomas E. Kopfler, and Collaborators SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS City of Washington 1973 ABSTRACT Shetler, Stanwyn G., with Mary Jane Petrini, Constance Graham Carley, M. J. Harvey, Larry E. Morse, Thomas E. Kopfler, and Collaborators. An Introduc- tion to the Botanical Type Specimen Register. Srnithsonian Contributions to Botany, number 12, 186 pages, 3 figures, frontispiece, 1973.--In the first part, the development of a computer-based system for storing and retrieving infonna- tion about botanical type specimens is described from its pilot stage to its present operational stage. The concept, purpose, and scope are explained, and the operational procedures are outlined. Ways of using and contributing to this computerized register of types, both in the short-run and in the longrun, are proposed. A statistical summary of the content of the Type Register as of 30 September 1972 is given. Over 13,000 specimens representing more than 10,000 taxa have been registered. The second part consists of a Catalog of more than' 1,000 specimens representing over 600 taxa of the genus Carex (Cyperaceae), which are deposited in ten major American herbaria, and the Catalog is cross- indexed five different ways: by author, publication date, collector, country, and herbarium. An introduction summarizes the preparation and editing of the Catalog. This Carex Catalog represents the first published installment of the Type Register and as such is intended to serve as an example. -
Dudley Memorial Volume, Containing a Paper by William Russel Dudley
' V LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS UNIVERSITY SERIES DUDLEY MEMORIAL VOLUME WILLIAM RUSSEL DUDLEY AND APPRECIATIONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN HIS MEMORY BY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES (WITH PORTRAIT) STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY 1913 TABLE OF CONTENTS WILLIAM RUSSEL DUDLEY 5 MEMORIAL ADDRESSES: JOHN CASPER BRANNER 7 DOUGLAS HOUGHTON CAMPBELL 11 APPRECIATIONS : DAVID STARR JORDAN 16 LEROY ABRAMS 20 GEORGE JAMES PEIRCE 22 JARED TREMAN NEWMAN 23 WILLIAM FRANKLIN WIGHT 25 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OP W. R. DUDLEY 27 LIST OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PUPILS OF W. R. DUDLEY 29 LIST OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY PUPILS OF W. R. DUDLEY 30 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS: THE VITALITY OF SEQUOIA GIGANTEA 33 WILLIAM RUSSEL DUDLEY, LATE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY THE MORPHOLOGY AND SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF CALYCULARIA RADICULOSA (STEPH.) (TWELVE FIGURES) 43 DOUGLAS HOUGHTON CAMPBELL, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY STUDIES OF IRRITABILITY IN PLANTS, III, THE FORMATIVE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT (ONE PLATE) 62 GEORGE JAMES PEIRCE, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND PLANT PHYSIOLOGY THE GYMNOSPERMS GROWING ON THE GROUNDS OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY (Six PLATES) 81 LEROY ABRAMS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY THE SYNCHYTRIA IN THE VICINITY OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY (ONE PLATE) in ' JAMES McMuRPHY, INSTRUCTOR IN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY THE LAW OF GEMINATE SPECIES 115 DAVID STARR JORDAN, PRESIDENT OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY SOME RELATIONS BETWEEN SALT PLANTS AND SALT-SPOTS. .. 123 WILLIAM AUSTIN CANNON, DESERT LABORATORY NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF THE GENUS AMYGDALUS 130 WILLIAM FRANKLIN WIGHT, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY ILLIAM RUSSEL DUDLEY was born at Guil- W ford, Connecticut, March 1, 1849, and died at Los Altos, California, June 4, 1911. He' was educated at Cornell University, graduating with the class of 1874, and taking his master's degree at the same institution in 1876. -
The Dudley Herbarium Including a Case Study of Terman’S Restructuring of the Biology Department
The Dudley Herbarium Including a case study of Terman’s restructuring of the biology department BY SARA TIMBY he history of the Dudley Herbarium embodies an intellectual tradition that spans a hundred years of fieldwork and publishing. The herbarium’s curators trained several generations of researchers, educators, and public and private land-use managers and fought hard to protect our forests, rangelands, and wetlands. It is exciting history, full of tales of exploration, political fights, and personal conflicts. The herbarium’s fate at TStanford is also a fascinating story, illuminating aspects of university decision-making and changes in the discipline of the biological sciences. Provost Frederick E. Terman’s decision in the early better combined research facility than ei- ther institution could maintain alone, and 1960s to terminate support for the Division of Systematic the hope of increased intellectual contact Biology is still a sore point for some faculty in the Depart- between members of Stanford’s biology department and the California Academy ment of Biological Sciences. The major result of the fund- of Sciences. Furthermore, the hope was ing loss was the eventual transfer, by long-term loan, of expressed that students would benefit from contact with Academy scientists and the two most important of Stanford’s rich Natural History from contact with scientists from the Uni- Museum collections to the California Academy of Sciences versity of California.1 But Provost Miller didn’t touch on the real reason behind the in San Francisco. These were the plant and fish collections, transfer, that the university administration both dating back to the beginning of the university.