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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and
G. W. Clinton |
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Correspondence of Rhoda Waterbury and G. W. Clinton 1865 - 1867 Edited
by P. M. P.O. Box 299, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, 63166‑0299;
and Research Associate, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York, 14204.
Email: mailto:patricia.eckel@mobot.org October 1865 Vol.
1. No. 191 [I 16] Schoharie,
Oct. 9th, 1865 My
Dear Kind Friend I
must write you this evening though I fear I have not time to tell you all and
surely not space enough in one sheet, so prepare for a task for I must tell
you all about what a nice time I have had and how nicely I cheated that
cough. On Tuesday morning Oct. 3rd six of us started with a span and our own
conveyance to visit the graves of our ancestors in Andes, Delaware County. If
you are at all acquainted with that part of the State you know what a wild
mountain region it is; we made short stage and we younger ones walked up all
the long hill where we could prevail on them to let us for the purpose of
gathering moss, chestnuts and the like. We followed the Schoharie up to its
source, or as far as it runs in this county, they crossed the high mountains
between that and the head waters of the Delaware and followed down the west
branch to Andes, a little village among the mountains. I cannot begin to tell
you how much I enjoyed and in the first twenty hours the cough had vanished
entirely. I begin to think as the physicians tell me I have no disease of the
lungs that fresh air and sunlight will not remove. The first morning we found
ourselves in a fine snow storm at the head of the Delaware but it did not
amount to any discomfort for we were nicely entertained and the sun soon made
his appearance again. How I wish I could give you just the picture I now see
of the Gap in the mountains through which we passed and the color of the
mountain sides that almost met, and so very high, but when I say October you
know the beauty of color, and such mosses! it will
take me a whole week to put them up to send to Mr. Peck, and the brook trout
we caught I see the bea[u]ties yet as their
speckled sides glistened in the sun and the chestnuts. Oh dear! I am
discouraged! I cannot tell you half of it, but I was very happy and felt so
well, and laughed so much, all but the one day we spent at the old place and
even then I could not feel sad as my father and aunt did. It does not seem
sad to me that my grandparents passed on in ripe old age to a blissful
immortality, but then I am a strange girl Ma says. Well Saturday evening
found us home once more, and a whole hand full of
letters on my table. I was so excited I had been in my room a long time
before I thought I had not taken off my hat, for the letters must be looked
into. And there I had done just as you told me and almost as soon as you
write it, and those nice little plants for an
invalid! I am going to tell you every time I am sick and you shall be my
physician henceforth. Now I have got a great story to tell you about my new
liverwort. I did sent it to you and said I thought
it might be Metzgeria furcata,
but I was not correct. Mr. Peck sent it to Mr. Austin and he wrote thus,
“It is very different from anything I ever collected or heard of from
this county [country?]. I incline to think it is not new, however. Try to get
Miss W. to look after it and get me 100 specimens” only think of that
and he offers as a reward a full suit of his species. Well today I have
gathered the 100 specimens but it is the most difficult thing I ever tried to
put up it adheres so closely to the loose dirt on the rocks that it looks
only like a specimen of soil for the chemist, and you know I want to do the
thing nicely for a new correspondent. Only think my kind friend what a source
of pleasure you have opened for me in this correspondence. I cannot report
now in regard to my new mosses as I have not half examined them. My brothers
call my room my den and I don’t wonder with all the plants & mosses
in every corner but no one dares to disturb them, and they make all sorts of
fun of me because I am so delighted with them. Now I see I have written so
small you cannot read And I have no space left but this to subscribe myself
as ever Your
disciple Rhoda Waterbury Recd.
Oct. 12, ansd. Rhoda has not identified this species, which
probably ended up in Mr. Austin’s exsiccat. This is a fine example of Rhoda’s powers
of description when her morale is high. It is telling that Rhoda describes
the beauty of the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), rather than their taste, perhaps cooked up
in a chowder, which Clinton often wrote of in his professional excursions,
such as to a resort in the Thousand Islands region of the St. Lawrence. According to the official website of the New
York State Library (April 2006): “The trout was adopted as the State
fish in 1975. Found in hundreds of lakes and ponds in the Adirondack
Mountains and scattered in cool, clear streams throughout the State, the
native brook trout, called brookies or speckles,
provide fine angling and the best of eating.” “A wild brook trout
is a riot of color. Its flanks are speckled with red spots and blue halos,
while yellow vermiculations squirm across its mossy
green back. The belly of a brookie sports a stripe
of orange, as if it had been dipped in a shallow pan of fire. In the hand the
fish seems gaudy, a piscine peacock, but in the water it is nearly invisible
against the sun-dappled stream bottom.” (The Fishing Zone. com, April
2006). The American chestnut was and is a delicacy of
high flavor and it is said the flesh of swine fed exclusively on this variant
of nut was particularly delicious. As with the trout, Rhoda does not focus on
the chestnut as food. The chestnuts she writes of are the fruits of the
magnificent species of American tree that has been all but exterminated throughout
its range due to a blight. In Gray’s Manual,
ed 5 of 1867, he wrote (as Castanea vesca var. Americana Michx.),
that the nuts of the American variant (as opposed to the var. vesca, which is the European Chestnut) are smaller and
sweeter. The trees inhabit “Rocky or hilly woods, Maine to Michigan and
Kentucky and southwards, especially along the Alleghanies.”
(p. 455). Both the American chestnut and the native
brook trout are the focus of efforts at reestablishment. Andes in In a letter written to George Clinton, Leo
Lesquereux wrote: "Columbus, O. Octb. 16th,
1865 My dear Sir, ... M. Austin writes me about that Riccia found by Miss Waterbury. M[r?].
.... Now I will stop. It is late, I am tired and I think the last will
be postponed the examination of the balc. of your specimens, two packages till I find a few hours
more of leisure. Saying like the children Now I lay me down to sleep. I wish you a good night, pleasant dreams and
give you my most warm regards. L. Lesquereux Hon. G. W. Clinton Buffalo, N.Y. Recd Oct. 18th, Wrote to him 19th." Note that Lesquereux’ childlike ending was
communicated by Clinton to Rhoda (see letter Oct. 21st, 1865 below). In a letter written to George Clinton, Charles
Peck wrote: " From x31 Barbula mucronifolia Br. & Sch. I
have never found this. Miss Waterbury sent me specimens from Schoharie. Charles H. Peck Judge G. W. Clinton Received Oct. 18" Vol.
2. No. 7 [D 200] Schoharie
Oct. 16th, 1865 My
Dear Kind Friend, If
you “don’t believe much in Mr. Austin” then I do not. You
are my Sphagnoecetis communis Jungermannia curvifolia Bryum
Wahlenbergii Hypnum nitens Hypnum stellatum Hypnum plumosum Hypnum cylindrocarpum Mnium spinulosum In
my next I hope to send you a long list of mine, but cannot wait now for Mr.
Peck’s answer as I am in haste to send you this liverwort for I want to
know his name. I am glad you do not tire of my question and importunity when
you are so very busy. I hope it is a recreation for you instead of a task for
I feel I am receiving instruction without returning fair compensation and it
is a great pleasure to me if I do not burden you to be Your
disciple Rhoda Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Oct. 19 &
wrote her. Sullivant, W. S. 1856. The
Musci and Hepaticae of the United States east of
the Mississippi River. In:
A. Gray, Manual of Botany, ed. 2. Pp. 607-743. Apparently there is a 1857 edition of the manual without the bryology published a year later. The justification for
this reprint without the bryology section was that
that section made the Manual unwieldy. The study of these plants must also
have been nearly impossible without the advantages of correspondents with
authorities and special equipment and reference specimens. Her cotton plant is a souvenir of the recent
war, cotton and its raising being the primary reason
for the southern states' prominence in the world. The plundering or looting
of the cotton crops by northern financial predators, including Jim Fiske,
famous for his involvement in the railroad wars, during and after the war, is
part of the trophy mind-set of the victorious northern states. The correspondence generally of this day has
not been kind to the taxonomic credibility of Coe F. Austin, whose concepts,
notwithstanding, have withstood the test of time better than some of his
contemporaries. Also, as this was the time Clinton was laboring to garner
bryophyte specimens to swell the herbarium of the Buffalo Society of Natural
Sciences and that of the New York State Museum (Cabinet), he would probably
see Austin’s need for specimens to expand his upcoming exsiccat as competition. The bog liverwort Sphagnoecetis
communis, Nees is listed
as Odontoschisma Sphagni
(Dicks.) Dum. on pl. 713 of Gray’s 5th. &
illustrated on Pl. 24. Its common name is the Bog-moss Flapwort
and is in the liverwort family Cephaloziaceae. Pleuridium is a genus of tiny
mosses in the Ditrichaceae. Pleuridium
subulatum (Hedw.) Rabh. (= Pleuridium alternifolium Lindb.) is one of the smallest types of bryophytes, found growing
in the springtime or later if in the north or in upland situations or cooler
ravines on bare soil in disturbed soil (old fields, pastures, grassy
roadsides, lawns). Vol.
2. No. 16 [D 191] Schoharie, Oct. 21st, 1865 My
Dear Kind Friend, Little
did I think I should cause my Now
of your late additions I have not Lophocolea heterophylla Encalypta streptocarpa Hypnum Sullivantii Hypnum acuminatum How
I wish I had something new to send you, let me see
here is Hypnum piliferum
is not in your list that is good, besides Mr. Peck says it is rare. It is
Saturday evening and the quiet of the Sabbath has already fallen upon us
here. I must close this and rest. How pleasant it is that you and Mr.
Lesquereux both say “Now I lay me”, and you enjoy a pleasant
lovely time, yet I know you are a very companionable soul and your hours of
solitude yield rich harvests for your friends. I cannot tell you how very
grateful your “God bless and keep you” is to me. I hope I shall
not cause you so much extra labor again as last week. I will try to be very
good. Good
bye! Your
disciple Rhoda Waterbury Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Oct. 25 & ansd. Rhoda’s ending mimics the end of Leo
Lesquereux’ letter to Clinton, above, of October 16th, 1865. The
reference to “when I see you next summer” will become apparent in
future letters. It seems again that Clinton is not speaking
very highly of Mr. Austin. It has been said that the many specimens in
Austin’s Musci Appalachiani are from New
York, and that Peck collected them for this purpose. It seems clear that some
of them might also have come from Miss Waterbury. Their lack of citation may
be due to the fact that some of the species were not as rare or interesting
as Climacium dendroides. See letter of March 23, 1866 below: “Oh
I must tell you Mr. Austin wrote me in great haste for certain mosses and
ferns that he wanted immediately to complete some sets he was putting up, and
the letter had to come from my home so it was some time before he received
answer and then I was away from my duplicates so I merely told him the
situation of affairs.” Hypnum sullivantiae
(B.S.G.) Sull. et Lesq., Musci Boreali Am. 78.
1856 was known as Plagiothecium roseanum
Schimp. in B.S.G., but is
know known as P. cavifolium (Brid.)
Iwatsuki. The feminine -ae
ending may indicate the species was originally dedicated to Sullivant’s second wife, Eliza, who was also his
partner and colleague in the study of mosses. Sayre indicated that Coe Finch
Austin, who enjoyed a delightful and productive visit to Sullivant
in 1868, used the epithet “sullivantiae”
“to honor Caroline Eudora Sutton Sullivant,
the third Mrs. Sullivant, whom he met on this
visit.” The 1856 epithet perhaps referred to the second, bryological wife, but the Austin epithets used for new
species after his 1868 visit may have been only ways of expressing his
gratitude to a kind hostess. Hypnum sulivantii Spruce in Sull.
in Gray’s Manual of Botany 1848 is now Bryhnia graminicolor (Brid.) Grout fide Grout. Hypnum acuminatum
(Hedw.) P. Beauv. was transferred by Hypnum piliferum
Schreb. ex Hedwig is now Cirriphyllum piliferum (Hedw.) Grout. Vol.
2. No. 30 [D 173] Schoharie Oct. 28th, 1865 “My
Dear Mentor” I
am feeling very happy, Mr. Peck has just sent me by
express a beautiful little microscope. And now I must tell you part of my
past trouble. I used during the summer the Academy microscope but at the
opening of school I could have it no longer and appointed Mr. P. my agent to
purchase one. It is “a pretty little instrument” as Mr. P. says
and what comfort I shall take with it. I have just received a letter from Mr.
Austin, my new Riccia he calls R. nigrella says it has never been discovered before in this
country and writes a whole letter about the genus in general and sends R. lutescens & R. lamellosa. I
sent him a few specimens of R. as I thought I would not impose a hundred upon
him at once, before I knew what spirit he was of, but (softly between us) I
wish he would write better. We have had a real snow storm. I began to fear my
moss hunts had ended for six months but the snow has all disappeared but the
beauty of walking is spoiled until the ground freezes I fear, but I shall not
be [aged] up until deep snow spoils my fun. There I am so glad you feel just as
I do about the life of the little mosses I too put them back and often wonder
if they are not glad of it. I have a very queer idea of God I don’t
know but you will call it materialism but I think not. It seems to me that
the principle of beauty and every thing else that calls forth the feelings of
pleasure and admiration in these things is a part, a spark, or at least a ray
from Deity itself. There! that is not half the idea
and I never can tell it. I do not think they are God but I think His spirit
pervades them and when we feel it we wonder & admire. I think I catch
glimpses of the beauty of the Eternal in the physical world and of the glory
that surrounds Him in the sunlight that sometimes makes every part of my
being rejoice. My father says my theology is not orthodox and I suppose he is
right but I cannot help it. I don’t think every body has the same idea
of Deity, or can have. He manifests himself to me in the best way to suit the
special organization he has given me & I must see Him as I do. I
shall forget all about the plants if I go on in this way. I must hurry and
send you Pottia truncata
before you find it, and I am going to send you specimens of Atrichum that I have just found, you sent me the same
species, but mine are so pretty I want you to see them. Ah! if you lived near enough to me I would pester you with
everything I liked, you may think it fortunate you are at the other end of
the state. I send you also a few more stems of Climacium
dendroides, some of them would be beauties if they
had not lost the stems in careless plucking. I have half a mind to stem them
myself, they would look so much better. You
say you fear Orthotrichum cripsum
& Orthotrichum speciosum
will have to be struck out and as you have sent me specimens you supposed to
be of those species please send me the corrections. O. anomalum,
O. cupulatum I have not. Seligeria & Desmatodon have both arrived in good order and are still
visible to [good eyes]. I have not. Bryum Duvalii,
Bryum turbinatum. Fontinalis
Lescurii, Homalothecium, Hypnum Alleghaniensis, Chiloscyphus polyanthus. Now with the new microscope look
out for a list of new ones next week. I have been keeping my [Hypnums crossed out] Hypna
until I could examine them myself. It is a great pleasure to find the name
sometimes myself. Again
it is Saturday evening. I think I shall set a part Saturday evening for this
special purpose, but that would be altogether too orderly for me. I like to
do things when I feel like it, and then it is natural. Goodbye Your
disciple Hon.
G. W. Clinton Recd.
Nov. 1 Wrote
Nov. 9. For Riccia nigrella DC. determination, see
Rhoda’s next letter. Pottia truncata
(Hedw.) Fuernr. ex BSG is, like Pleuridium
mentioned and Phascum “out to the
cornfield” below, a moss of fallow fields as of corn, wheat, clover or
alfalfa, in pastures, poor lawns in calcareous soils. It takes a good eye to
see these in winter and early spring before the other vegetation has sprung
up, just before snowfall or at snowmelt. The fruits of this Pottia are produced in (late) fall, rather than spring.
The Pottias are rare today, unlike Phascum and Pleuridium. These
are types of mosses called “pygmy” mosses. "Pygmy"
probably only refers to the fat, globose types,
such as Phascum cuspidatum
(see below). These species are considered to be spring ephemerals,
disappearing during the dry summer months, or perhaps permanently. Bryum duvalii Voit in Sturm is now Bryum weigelii
Spreng. fide Andrews in
Grout. Fontinalis lescurii
Sull. in Sull. & Lesq. is now Fontinalis novae-angliae Sull. novae-angliae. The issue of Rhoda’s microscope seems
somewhat confused for on the July 6 letter she wrote “... I shall not
give it up so I shall have a microscope, my hand glass, though the best of
its kind, is not sufficient, and I must know more of
these little things.” On July [no day but about 10 days later] she
wrote “...I should be able to do nothing with them [the mosses], though
my microscope has come, without his [Peck’s] aid.” It appears as
though she might have already made arrangements to acquire one of her own
independent of both Peck and her school. Charles Peck wrote to Clinton on Nov. 24th
[18]65: “The moss from the District of
Columbia is correctly named. I have specimens of it from the banks of the
Potomac, sent by my brother while in the army. It was among the last acts of
his life. I believe, however, that Mr. Lesqx. has found it in our state. Dexter & Nellegar of this city generally keep microscopes. I
recently purchased one for Miss Waterbury. They were then about out. I will inquire
if they have a new lot in. I purchased mine there about three years ago, cost
$14. It is a simple one, but answers all practical purposes for the
investigation of mosses. There is no apparatus with it for measuring
diameters, but it is a good working instrument. Miss W’s cost $12, but
is not quite so powerful a magnifier. ...” Charles H. Peck Judge G. W. Clinton Received Nov. 26 |
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Sullivant’s Plate 6 |
