|
Correspondence of Asa Gray and G. W. Clinton |
|
The
Correspondence of Asa
Gray (1810-1888) and George
William Clinton (1807‑1885) 1866 Vol. 2. (137) [D 89] [An 1866 letter in CLinton's handwriting]. Oregon Boundary Commission,
1858 The name is something like Harpocarpus madarioides, Nutt. (Please
write it for me in your best hand! l Harpocarpus, see Torr. & Gray. Fl. N. Am. l 2.p. 406. ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ Herb. Berland' m Texano
&c. l Labiata near Scutellaria No. 2567. Brazoria truncata l ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ Plantae Cubensis Wrightianae Plumiera Apocynaceae ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ Plantae Cubenses
l Drypetes Drypetis
glauca l Euphorbiaceae ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ Pichinea, Nov. 15, 1855
l Ericaceae next Vaccinium
Thibandia acuminata l ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ Pernettya parviflora, Benth.
l near Arctostaphylos ----‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ [Gray's handwriting] Cambridge, Friday Evening Dear Clinton Here are your names. I should have given them before. Perhaps this
will cross you en route hither. Expectingly A. G. Recd. Jan. 7. [1886] Vol. 2. (201) [D 21] Cambridge March 2, 1866 My dear Clinton So your visit here fell through ‑ to my sorrow. But you speak
of coming yet ‑ which is hopeful. I trust Dr. Torrey has sent you his photo. If not tell me, and I
will send from some he left with me. Fowler sent me direct, last year, Juncus stygius, and has written,
& been answered. You stirred me up about Manual. Now sub rosa
‑ for the publishers wish nothing said yet, I am going at a revision of
it this summer (Deo favente)! So I await wise suggestions from you. Also, I
solicit your confidential opinion upon a plan, being entertained by me. But I
want to know if you think it will work well. In brief ‑ to separate the
Garden Botany ‑ so as to leave the Manual, pure & simple,
for wild plants ‑ and to annex to the Lessons a popular and easy
account & analysis of Common plants, introduced and
cultivated ‑ if we can draw the line anyway ‑ entitled "Field,
Forest & Garden Botany." Might not this have a greater range of
use, in schools &c. ‑ and scholars thus be furnished an easy road
to a certain amount of knowledge ‑ not be bothered with Carices or the
like, nor rare species ‑ and a good portion of them be led up
to the spirituality of the Manual. There, ponder it, like a
judge, and respond to Yours ever A. Gray [Recd. March 6] Thomas C. Peters of Moulton,
Alabama, of the letter of October 9 above (1865). Juncus stygius L. is
written of, in the Fifth edition, as inhabiting the peat-bogs of Perch Lake,
Jefferson County, New York, and a collection from New Brunswick by Mr. Fowler
among others. Clinton had begun a correspondence with the Reverend James
Fowler starting on Independence Day (July 4) of the previous year (1864) on a
letter of introduction from Asa Gray. Fowler had known Gray before he had
Clinton's acquaintence. Vol. 3 (3) [M 226] Cambridge 17 March [1866] Dear Clinton Lucky man is Mr. Foote. What would not friend Paine have given to
have made this discovery. Do you know, there is reason to think this is the original
station of Pursh. "Near Onondaga on the plantations of J. Gedde's,
Esq."‑ accords better far with this station than with that of
Chittenango Falls. Bravo! Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. March 20 & ans. Lewis Foote was a
correspondent of Clinton's from the United States Lake Survey Office in
Detroit, Michigan. The following letter from Mr. Foote was received by
Clinton: Vol. 2 (214) [D8] Office U.S. Lake
Survey Detroit Mich., March
12th 1866 Dear Sir: I have just returned
from a visit to New York. At Syracuse I had to wait several hours for the
cars, so I walked into the country. I found Scolopendrium officinarum about
two hundred feet from the track of the Syracuse & Binghamton R. R. about
five miles from Syracuse & about one half mile from (towards Syracuse)
Jamesville. I think it is in the town of DeWitt, Onondaga Co. It grows in a
deep rocky ravine, along which runs a small stream which empties into the
Butternut Creek. Where I found it the stream falls about fifty feet in one
hundred & fifty. I did not have much
time to look around, but should think it quite common. I found it March 3d
1866. I enclose a specimen Very truly yours Lewis Foote To Hon. G. W. Clinton Recd March 14 ‑
ansd & wrote to Gray. The locality is
Chittenango Falls in Madison County, now a New York State Park. The Onondaga County
line runs very close to the park on the west. Specimens at BUF. See Gray
Vol.3(3) below. Later in 1866, on
December 4, Clinton wrote in his collecting diary: "Took 8 A.M.
train of Syracuse & Binghamton R. R. to Jamesville , 7 miles, walked back
a mile or so on the track, & struck into the valley of the affluent of
the Butternut Creek , in which Lewis Foote
found the Scolopendrium in March last. Searched diligently, found it
nowhere but at the very head of the ravine, where it is about entering the
cleared lands. Collected some of it.
Walked into Syracuse and left in the
2&10' train for Buffalo." Vol. 3. (30) [M 199] Cambridge April 2 1866 My Dear Clinton I dislike public meetings extremely. But if the Association meets at
Buffalo ‑ which I will advocate if opportunity is given ‑ and at
a proper time, I will attend to do you honor. I received the account of your public doings at the re‑opening.
Good. My wife sends best regards! As soon as Anacharis shows his head this spring, pull him up
by the roots, and send him to me, in some damp moss, by mail ‑ to raise
in pond & my glass jar! What Paine sent me last fall died. Do I infer from your letter that Paine complains of my notice of his
Cat.? He wrote me to thank me 1st, I suspect somebody has put it into his
head that he is not well used. Dear me: ‑ considering all the work I
did for him and the trouble he gave me ‑ not to take the very mild
flavoring of criticism in so kind a notice as I want mine to be. I like Paine.
Therefore I [would] take pains to criticise & try to improve him. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd April 5 During the Civil War
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was suspended.
It had otherwise met every year since the founding of the association in
1848, often meeting in southern cities, such as Charleston, South Carolina in
1850 where H. W. Ravenel led off the meetings with the first scientific paper
(Haygood 1987). In August of 1866, the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences
would host the association's first post-war meeting. In July of that year, a
Horticultural Fair would be held by the people of Buffalo to raise money for
the "entertainment of the visitors." (Goodyear, George F. 1994.
Society and Museum, a history of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences
1861-1993 and the Buffalo Museum of Science 1928-1993. Bull. of the Buff.
Soc. Nat. Sci. Vol. 34). Such meetings were a chance for a city to display
its civic pride in the intellectual achievements of its institutions. It was
particularly compelling for scientists from far afield to attend to see and
be seen, to meet colleagues whom it was difficult to meet or be introduced
to, communication and travel being much slower and more expensive than today.
The times, especially before the Civil War, made contact with European
scientists (and other leaders in culture) particularly urgent. However, it is
doubtful that many scientists from the south would attend the Buffalo
meetings, as they had to deal with a defeat fresh across their shoulders, and
the retributive legislation gathering force, becoming what was to be called
Reconstruction. The victorious President of the new Union had so recently
been buried after his assassination. The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences
would host the AAAS in August of 1876, 1886 and 1896 (four meetings)
(Goodyear 1994 p. 18). Gray was perhaps
unaware of the great damage to a career that may be had from a negative
review - this was also to be the case with Ravenel, as well as young Paine. Vol. 3. (61) [M 168] Cambridge May 10, 1866 My dear Clinton. I have not troubled you for a great while. It is time I did, tho' I
have been too busy heretofore, and can hardly trouble you for as much as I
would like to. "Wanted." Imprimis. Fresh plants and some
with roots & all that I may grow as well as examine them, and send
some to Dr. Reichenbach in Germany ‑ of Spiranthes latifolia.
Fresh leaves ‑ if anyone can get them ‑ of Cypripedium pubescens!
Have to send some of these also, in spirits to Reichenbach ‑ who is the
Orchid man. You need not refer me to Paine to get them: for he is here ‑
studying botany like a good fellow ‑ concluding it is quite time he sat
down to look into as well as look after plants. Spiranthes latifolia should be in flower by 20th or 25th of the
month, ‑ and grows at Niagara Falls. Ever Yours Asa Gray Recd May 13 Heinrich Gustav
Reichenbach f. (1823-1889), of Leipzig, Germany, was the son of H. G. L.
Reichenbach, author of the Icones Florae Germanicae et Helveticae. The son
concentrated on the study of orchids and worked with John Lindley, who died
in the previous year (see letter November 20, 1865). Reichenbach became
Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Garden in Hamburg. Vol. 3. (71) [M 159] C[ambridge] May 15, 1866 Dear Clinton I am 1/2 dead with work. Anacharis came duly
& safely ‑ thanks Now remember Spiranthes if convenient. [yellow label Paul Roessler, Optician, 251 Chapel‑street, New
Haven, Ct. in a horizontal oval] [...] under Eaton's directions has perfected
a simple microscope, with the two most useful powers (low) just what
is wanted for Phaenogamous & Fern Botany ‑ as good as my French microscope
simple Cost $15. If you take a fine dissecting knife $1 more. For a
nice pair of forceps $1 more. But neither of these are necessities. Now this
I can get for you at once, if you want it. But as to a compound
microscope ‑ cheap but sufficient for mosses &c. I do not
know at all. I wish you would write & ask Lesquereux. This any way does
not take the place for work of the simple microscope. That you must
have yourself. Your Society should own a really good compound microscope good
for all work, diatoms, vegetable anatomy, cyc... &c. ‑ a good one
of [G......] N.Y. might do nicely. Make 12 men in Buffalo, who [have
money] subscribe $10 each to pay for the instrument. They will like to
do it. Herbarium paper, such
as I use ‑ costs too high at present. And for your society's herbr. I
advise a thinner paper ‑ thick printing, or log book paper ‑
& that you use smaller sheets, & fasten the specimens with gummed
slips. I cannot explain all by writing ‑ but could give you my ideas
[only]. This is the season for making specimens: winter, for
arranging & mounting them. If I had not a good stock of herbarium paper
before the war, I should have been bankrupt long before this. Ever dear Clinton Yours ever A. Gray Recd May 18. wrote to Mr. Roessler 19th inclosing $20. Vol. 3. (82) [M 148] [letter head with small
oval as described above from Paul Roessler] May 26th 1866 G. W. Clinton Esqr. Dear Sir Your note of the 19th
this month I received with enclosed $20.00 Greenback. I had to make your
microscope as all I had ready are sold, all over the country. The goods I send by
[..d.] Express Co. as follows 1 microscope $15.00 extra knife 1.00 dissecting
scissors 1.25 1 trowel &
[base][glass?] 1.00 1 fine forceps 1.00 one folding fine
pocket lens .75 [in margin]
microscope leaves here to day These are about the
instruments used in botanic, except a tin box to put flowers in, but this
would make too large packet. Hoping that you will
be satisfied with the goods sent, I remain very respectfully yours Paul Roessler The little pocket
lense unfold thus: [drawing] of this kind the schools buy large numbers,
Vassar female College bought 80 ‑ Prof. Clark (Amherst Mass) 42, etc.
at $9.00 per [...] Recd. May 28 Vol. 3 (97) [M 132] Cambidge, June 23d [1886] Dear Clinton I have the Spiranthes latifolia: for a wonder it came
pretty well for examination ‑ but not for saving alive. For either purpose, put in a pasteboard or tin box, e.g. a
[Seidletz] ‑powder box ‑ with moss only damp ‑ with
a paper wrapper. Then it won't break in pieces &c. Do not send [more] the
Cypripedium, I have had plenty of it.
In too great haste Ever Your obliged A. Gray Recd June 25 A Seidlitz box would most likely contain seidlitz powders which are "effervescing salts that consist of two separate powders with one of 40 grains of sodium bicarbonate mixed with 2 drams of Rochelle salt and the other of 35 grains of tartaric acid and that are mixed in water and drunk while effervescing as a mild cathartic - also called Rochelle powders" Webster's Third International Dictionary. The salts are named after the town of Seidlitz, Bhemia, Czechoslovakia "from the similarity of their effects to those of the water of the town." These salts may be similar in effect and composition to what we use today as "Alkaseltzer" to settle the stomach. At any rate, the commercial box these salts came in had other practical uses once their first contents had been consumed, as Gray indicates above. He also assumes Clinton had such boxes, and that he used such products, probably because it was a common househ0ld product. Vol. 3 (107) [M 123] Cambridge July 9, 1866 Dear Clinton This Crucifer is a waif from the west ‑ Sisymbrium canescens Nutt.
which again probably is not different from the Old World S. Sophia. Well, my arduous College work is over for this summer ‑ (to
recommence in Sept.) ‑ and I can now turn ... myself ‑ and I hope
turn a little to some scientific work. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd July 12 Sisymbrium canescens Nutt. of the 5th edition of Gray's Manual is called Tansy Mustard. Today Tansy Mustard is Descurainia pinnata (Walt.) Britt., this divided into two subspecies, a northern and a southern taxon. As S. canescens Gray indicated it grew in "Penn. and New York (Lucifer Falls, Tompkins Co., J. W. Chickering) to Lake Superior, thence southward and westward. June - Aug." Sisymbrium sophia L. is now Descurainia sophia (L.) Webb ex Berth, Herb Sophia, Flixweed (Mitchell & Tucker 1997). Gray mentioned that this species "is nat. from Eu. in Canada East." Canada would become confederated in the next year, 1867, whereas eastern Canada, as a British colonial region was earlier designated Upper Canada (upstream in the Great Lakes) and Lower Canada (downstream). On July 10th, Clinton wrote in his journal: "'P.M. On edge of Day's Sphagnum,
collected Spiranthes latifolia. Picked it in morning, & 11th, mailed
it to Gray & sent him 2 or 3
plants for determination.' David F. Day enjoyed exploring a sphagnous swamp
that once existed in the area of what is now Forest Lawn, a cemetery in
Buffalo, New York. Vol. 3. (111) [M 118] Cambridge July 31, 1866 My Dear Clinton Yours of 24th greeted me on my return from little voyage down coast
to Isles of Shoals & Portsmouth from which I am just returned. The Utica Sagina
must be either S. procumbens, very [d...py] in dry place, or S. Linnei
No time to see which now ‑ will see soon. Polemonium caeruleum
[L. Jacob's Ladder] is a great find ‑ to mortify Paine ‑ to whom
I have just read your letter ‑ and myself. Paine's Mud‑Lake
is in Warren. Nothing there at this season. I advise you
to explore the Tamarack Swamp between you and Jordanville: there &
elsewhere ‑ in cold bogs, you will find a Spiranthes in flower just now
‑ a sort of large S. cerna. It is S. Romanzovii ‑
and you must make a lot of good specimens of it, and I will tell you all
about it when we meet. Collect any Spiranthes you see in flower at this
season ‑ a dozen specimens for A. G. Pray see, if you can, if the Nymphaea there is tuberiferous. I mean to be in Buffalo about Wednesday or Tuesday (16 or 15) ‑
and with Mrs. Gray. But on the way I mean to try to see this N. tuberosa at
some [L. Antonio] station, along with Paine ‑ and then to your meeting.
Would you kindly secure us a lodging at Buffalo ‑ where I
suppose there will be a crowd. In great haste. Ever Yours A. Gray Mrs. Gray sends best regards. A.S. Recd Aug. 2 at Richfield Springs Isles of Shoals is a
complex of seven rocky islands 10 miles SE of Portsmouth, New Hampshire ‑
a resort area. On July 24th Clinton
wrote in his journal: "'
Wrote to Gray, inclosing the Sagina? from Utica." Paine's Nymphaea
tuberosa, Paine, became N. reniformis, DC. (Tuber‑bearing Water‑lily)
in Gray's 6th edition. Today it is back to Nymphaea tuberosa Paine - rare in
western New York (Zander & Pierce, 1979). Warren is a township in Herkimer
County. Warren "lies centrally on the s. border of the co."
"Mud Lake, in the e., and Weavers and Youngs Lakes, in the s., are small
bodies of water." (French's 1860 Gazetteer of New York State).
Jordanville was, in 1860, a postal village in Warren twp. with two churches
and 125 inhabitants. Clinton visited
Mud Lake in July 7 and July 18 of 1866 (see Clinton's Collecting Journal) .
On July 7 Clinton preferred the name Summit Lake to Mud Lake; on July 18 he went
to Mud Lake, more often called Sharp's Lake - this is Paine's body of water
referred to in Gray's letter. In 1866
in Herkimer Co, on July 21 on Saturday, Clinton "Walked to Weavers (the
nearer of the 2 Little Lakes) Lake, & walked up the southerly &
easterly side to the Tamarack [x] (&c.) swamp at the head. Found there
Pyrola secunda v. pumila & Polemonium coeruleum, both nearly out of
flower. In a dryish swamp on the outer edge of the Lake, on the easterly or
southerly side, Eriophorum alpinum very abundant. In the wet wood, at the head of the lake, a trailing Smilax,
included, I suppose in Gray's herbacea, but very different from our erect
Smilax herbacea of the Plains." Richfield Springs,
where Clinton received his letter, was a postal village "near the head
of Schuyler Lake, in the n.e. corner of
the town [of Richfield, Otsego Co.]." The Richfield Springs ...
are celebrated for their medicinal
properties in the cure of cutaneous disorders, and large numbers of invalids
are annually attracted here." (French p. 537). Vol. 3. (114) [M 115] Cambridge 18 July 1866 Dear Clinton Thanks much for the stock of Spiranthes roots & fruit. As to yours of 11 inst. The Galium is G. trifidum ‑
me judice. The Grass from near Richfield Springs = Glyceria
pallida. We are melted with the heat, Mrs. Gray very much prostrated
by it. She goes down to sea‑shore to‑morrow. I in a few days. I am not sure she will be able to go with me to Sauquoit, and so on
to Buffalo to your meeting. We had counted on it ‑ though I ought not
to be away from here for more than a day or two, so much is to be looked
after. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. Aug. 12 Earlier,
on July 6. Clinton wrote in his journal: " Swamp by Allen's Lake,
Ritchfield Springs 'found a low grass (Gray writes = Glyceria pallida, Sed?)
which I took for examination." Apparently Clinton had his doubts. Vol. 3. (120) [M 109] Cambridge Aug. 6 [1866] My Dear Clinton I wrote you last at Richfield Springs. It is now pretty clear that Mrs. Gray will not accompany me to Buffalo
next week: but I shall hope to be there. She is too feeble to bear crowded
railway travel at this season ‑ having been reduced by a late ill turn,
and she goes, instead, to her Fathers on the sea‑shore ‑ where
she can be very quiet as well as cool. I regret it much, for I dislike to go off anywhere without her. My
very old friends the Hadley's have invited me to their house, where I go.
Paine leaves here to‑day, for New Jersey. Ever Yours A. Gray Recd. Aug. 12 Apparently Clinton was not acquainted with these Hadleys of Buffalo, for they do not appear in his journal. While everyone was at the Buffalo meetings, a little crew went for a row in the Niagara River. Clinton's journal records: "Aug. 17. I believe it was. Gray & I in one and Paine & Fish [a Rochester botanist] in another boat, left the Dam [at what is Sqaw Island in the City of Buffalo] & went down to Strawberry Island [mid-channel in the river]. Showed them, off Little Bay, Isoetes [Braunii] and Ranunculus reptans growing under the water & on the edge of the shore. In Big Bay [a downstream inlet on Strawberry Island], Paine's Nymphaea tuberosa, the Spongilla. All along shore the big Eleocharis palustris &, at the mouth of the Rattlesnake Channel [on the east |