THE BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF G. W. CLINTON
Rendered by P. M. Eckel
Editor, The Clinton Papers
Buffalo Museum of Science
Missouri Botanical Garden, Res Botanica
www.mobot.org/plantscience/ResBot/
May 21, 2003

Return to Home

THE BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF G. W. CLINTON – January 1865

[1865.] Jan. 5. Put into American Express packages for Prof. Traill Green, Easton, Pa., Wm. M. Canby, Esq, Wilmington, Del., Dr. Daniel Clarke, Flint, Mich., Sidney G. Smith, Esq, Norway, Maine, and into the P.O., a letter of advice to each.

[1865.] Jan. 9. Put into American Express, a package for Stephen Calverley, Esq., Brooklyn, also one to C. F. Parker, Esqr., Philadelphia.

[1865.] Jan. 10. Put into American Express, directed to Daniel C. Eaton, a packet containing a very few things for him, and 2 or 3 ferns and Wood's (Wetmore's) Schizaea pusilla, to be labeled and returned to me. Also mailed to Paine, his Mss.

[In 1865 John Paine Jr. would publish a "Catalogue of the Plants of Oneida County and Vicinity", which was "virtually a flora of the entire [New York] State north of the Hudson highland" (House, 1924, p. 6). The manuscript (Mss.) mentioned here is that being prepared for press: Catalogue of Plants Found in Oneida County and Vicinity. 18th Annual Report of the Regents of the State of New York, pp. 53‑192. Albany, 1865.]

[1865.] Jan. 11. 10 P.M. left for Albany, to attend Regent's Association Meeting, did not get a sleeping berth.

[1865.] Jan. 12. Arrived at Albany at 12*30' P.M. & put up at Congress Hall. Found letter of Prof. Gray, asking me to come in. Wrote to my wife & Dewey, Miss Rhoda Waterbury & E. C. Howe de [=regarding] matters touching the State Herbarium.

[There is an entry in Clinton's miscellaneous index for a letter to Chester Dewey of Rochester for this date, hence 'Davey' is 'Dewey'.]

[1865.] Jan. 13. Wrote to Mr. Stanton Gould, Hudson, & to Wm. Boott, Esq. Boston.

[1865.] Jan. 14. Up to this time have been working as Regent and on & de the Herbarium of the State.

9*40'. A. M. Left in the train for Boston. [Seward?] McMi..ell [@illegible] of The Cultivator, Boston, introduced himself (he says Poa pratensis is the Kentucky Bluegrass) and, when we reached Boston, in the evening, kindly conducted me to Bowdoin Square, whence, by Street Car. I went to Old Cambridge Station, & a walk of 3/4 m. brought me to Prof. Gray's house in Garden St. where I was most kindly received & where I remained until Thursday. Found there Mr. & Mrs. Jackson, the latter, I believe, a sister of Mr. Gray, who is a daughter of Charles G. Loring of Boston.

[There is a Mr. William Gray, of Albany, in the miscellaneous index. Bowdoin Square was “located in the West End. In the 18th-19th centuries it features residential houses, leafy trees, a church, hotel, theatre and other buildings. Among the notables who have lived in the square: physician Thomas Bulfinch; merchant Kirk Boott; and mayor Theodore Lyman” from a Wikipedia article on Bowdoin Square (Sept. 28, 2012). Kirk Boott was the father of the Caricologist Francis Boott, born in 1792, which should have interested Clinton as he was to receive a set of Carex specimens from F. Boott’s postumous collections in 1865. The Square itself was established in 1788. When the Boott house was built in 1804, it was developed out of pasture-land. See Emmet, Alan. 1987. Kirk Boott and the Greening of Boston, 1783-1845. Arnoldia Vol. 47(4):24-34.]

[1865.] Jan. 15. Went to the Episcopal Church in the morning, no work at Grays. Like a true man, he has family prayer in the morning, & says grace.

[1865.] Jan. 16. Mr. Wright (Plantae Wrightianae) here, arranging his collections, Cuban & all. Nice fellow.

During my stay, Gray examined, partially, a small packet I brought him. I left with him a very small packet for Mr. Boott. Gray gave me T. & G.'s N. Amn. Flora in sheets, a number of his works, & a large number of specimens. Examined his paper, herbarium cases, mode of pressing & gluing on specimens, &c. One day he set his workwoman at work, that I might see the process of gluing. On Monday, worked principally with Gray. On Tuesday, with Mr. Wright, visited the Cambridge Museum, & had pleasant talks with the assistants, & got their cards, in order to put our people in communication with them. Agassiz absent. The names are ‑ John G. Anthony, Box 703, P.O. Cambridge, Conchology P. R. Uhler, Mus. of Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Insects. N. S. Shaler, Ass't in Palaeontology, Mus. of C. Z. &c.

As to the plants I brought Gray ‑ Panicum from near Fulton = clandestinum Juncus, Salina = bulbosusChenopod from Salina = Blitum maritima, Nutt. Eleocharis from Windmill Point = tenuis Glyceria pallida! Turritis stricta!

As to the Arabis from Watertown (=[Arabis] hirsuta) &c., see Gray's letter, received on my return, & numbered 128. The plants from the State of Georgia, forming one of the packets we made up, were collected by Dr. Niesler.

Nuttall boarded in this house. He must have been odd. He occupied Gray's room & more above. He was afraid of a w..., had a hole cut in the ceiling of a closet, & went to the room above by ladder, and had a private way out of the house, & his food was passed into him through a window in the closet. He had a fine estate, in England, left to him, in condition that he should not be absent from it more than 3 months in a year, so he took the last 3 months of one year & the first 3 of the next for his rambles.

[According to Jane Loring Gray, editor of the Letters of Asa Gray (1894, 2 vols.) " Mr. Nuttall, the botanist and ornithologist … was very shy of intercourse with his fellows, and having for his study the south-east room, and the one above for his bedroom, put in a trap-door in the floor of an upper connecting closet, and so by a ladder could pass between his rooms without the chance of being met in the passage or on the stairs. A flap hinged and buttoned in the door between the lower closet and the kitchen allowed his meals to be set in on a tray without the chance of his being seen. A window he cut down into an outer door, and with a small gate, in the board fence surrounding the garden, of which he alone had the key, he could pass in and out safe from encountering any human being." p. 326. This must have been the standard tale among the Asa Gray family to botanical guests at their house. Apparently these signs of use were still evident in the building and grounds.]

[1865.] Jan. 18th. Attended, with Gray, the meeting in Fanueil Hall, held to express &c., on E. Everett's death. Were shown into the Committee Room & given seats on the platform. Visited the Museum of The Boston Society of Natural History. Dined, with C. G. Loring, present Mr. L. Mrs L., their son, Mr. & Mrs. Gray, Mr. Jackson, a young lady, & myself. Attended, in the evening, a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, in their Hall. Went thence to the United States Hotel.

[1865.] Jan. 19th. After breakfast, took 8* 10' train for Albany. Reached it between 5 & 6 P.M. & put up at Congress Hall.

[1865.] Jan. 20th. Friday. Wrote to wife, E. J. Pickett, Gray, D. F. Day, Paine, T. F. Allen, Boott.

[Wm. Boott, Esqr., Asa Gray, John A. Paine Jr.].

[1865.] Jan. 21. Wrote to Spen & Dr. Torrey.

[1865.] Jan. 22. Sunday. Worshipped, A.M., in the morning, at St. Peter's Church. Wrote to wife, Holzer, Paine, Prof. Henry A. Ward, John Stanton Gould.

[1865.] Jan. 23d. Tuesday. Regent's Meeting in the m'g [=morning]. At 3 P.M. attended, at the Agricultural Room, the meeting called to consider the Agricultural College, People's College, & Senator Cornell's offer to endow an Agricultural College &c. at Ithaca, with 300 acres of land & $500,000.

[1865.] Jan. 25. Left in the 1 P.M. train for Utica, & stopped over till the night train, and had long interview with John A. Paine, Jr. Found Parmeles here, he stopped over with me, and we went on to Buffalo. He gave me the first news of the terrible fire at Buffalo.

My time, at Albany, since my return from Cambridge, was taken up with matters concerning the Herbarium belonging to the State, & in collecting matter for and drafting the Annual Report on the State of the Cabinet.

Charles F. Peck, the muscologist, spent some time with me in the Curator's Room, & so did Henry B. Lord & his wife.

I shall copy herein, by & by, some notes made by me in looking over some parts of L. C. Beck's herbarium.

[1865.] Jan. 26. Reached home late in the forenoon. Find a large number of letters from botanical correspondents, and a big package from E. Hall.

Notes from Beck's Herbarium.

Blitum capitatum. He says is native & abundant in swamps near Rome.

Epiphegus am [=americana] "Salt marshes, New York, Dr. Torrey."

The label, as to the name, is right.

Solidago ."Albany, G. W. C" Looks like S. Ohioensis.

Spartina juncea is credited to marshes near Albany.

Onosmodium molle. The specimen from me, collected in the pine plains between Albany & Sch'y [=Schenectady], do not look like O. carolinianum.

[In Gray's Manual of 1862: Epiphegus Americanus Nutt. p. 280. Spartina juncea Willd. (Rush Salt‑Grass) "Salt marshes, and sandy sea‑beaches, common." (Gray 1862).]

[1865.] Jan. 27. Wrote to Charles H. Peck, Albany, to collect the Onosmodium of the plains. Also to Rev. G. Fowler, E. Hall, M. S. Bebb.

[1865.] Jan. 28. Received a letter from Col. E. Jewett, with card of Dr. George T. Stevens, Wadhams Mills, Essex Co., who is a botanist. Also a letter from Dr. Clarke. Also a package of mosses & fungi from James L. Bennett, Providence, R.I. (Express charges 75 cents) and wrote to him. Wrote also to Dr. Clarke, Dr. Stevens, Woolworth, & Canby, and Prof. Ward and Gray.

[1865.] Jan. 29. Wrote to Father Holzer, Grote, Prof. Traill Green, C. F. Parker, Wm. Boott. Received & answered letter from D. C. Eaton. He writes that my big Aspidium, he shall call A. cristatum v. major, that he has rec'd [=received] it from various quarters, & that it has been, by some good botanists, labeled Goldianum. Wrote also to H. R. Lord, and Dr. T. F. Allen.

[1865.] Jan. 30. Received package & letter from Stephen Calverley. The package is of about 115 species, mostly foreign, all good & most acceptable. Wrote to him. It seems he was pleased with my packet. Two or three days since Guilford B. Wilson told me that his niece, Addie Wilson, now staying with him, and going to the Fem[ale] Semin[ary], had collected some plants, which had been put in paper for her by her cousin (uncle?) (Whose sister married Wilson's brother) Charles E. Smith, of Philadelphia, President of the Reading R. R., and that he, Mr. S., had advised her to see me about her botany &c. I promised Mr. W. I would call; and I did so this afternoon; but Addie had gone out.

Received letter from Rev. Joseph Blake, stated that he was about sending package for me to Paine. Wrote to the latter.

[The Female Seminary may be "The Buffalo Female Academy, a flourishing institution, situated on Delaware Avenue, was opened for students in July, 1854. ... This institution owes its existence in a great measure to the liberality of Jabez Goodell, who contributed over $10,000 toward its establishment. The academy occupies one of the most eligible and beautiful sites in the city. There are two academic buildings, Goodell Hall and Evergreen Cottage, ‑ the former occupied for school purposes, and the latter as a dwelling by the family of the principal." (French, 1860, p. 286 and ftnt. no. 9).]

Scientific names may be looked up in the online checklist of Western New York plants. Find genus names beginning with A - C D - K L - P Q - Z.