Fragments from the Botanical Frontier:

ARKANSAS
Letter Letter
In these 1942 letters between Demaree and Ray Friesner (1894-1952), Friesner suggests that they collaborate on Solidago of Arkansas, as "there is no manual at present." The point at which a "frontier" area is considered closed is fuzzy at best. (To avoid the damage caused by corrosive paper clips visible here, use plastic or plastic-coated clips.) Missouri Botanical Garden collections. Click on either image to enlage. ( 140 KB)

These ads, received by Demaree in 1947, reflect Americans' earlier widespread passion for collecting and specimen exchange. Such ephemera shed a little more light on botanical practices; they show specimen availability and the advertisements' target audience-"educational institutions, teachers and persons." Missouri Botanical Garden collections. Click on either image to enlarge. (70 KB)

In this 1936 handwritten letter to agronomist Dr. Carleton Ball (1873-1958), Demaree says that he is working on his checklist of Arkansas plants, claiming to have added 200 species to the Arkansas state flora. This work would be self-published in his limited-edition journal Taxodium. A carbon copy of Ball's typed response is on the back of this letter; botanists' signatures, on letters and labels, are important for verifying the authenticity of type specimens. Hunt Institute collections. Click on image to enlarge. (202 KB)

 

This 1948 letter to Demaree from Burton Gates reveals a problem of tracing frontier botany. Gates clarified a fuzzy collecting location "in what is now Oklahoma" that predated current state configurations. Missouri Botanical Garden collections. Click on image to enlarge. (159 KB)

PANEL 3

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Douglas Holland doug.holland@mobot.org