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Correspondence of Charles Mohr and G. W. Clinton |
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The
Correspondence of Charles
(Carl) Theodore Mohr (1824‑1901) and George
William Clinton (1807‑1885) 1871 Vol. 7, no. 136 [E 95] Mobile January
12th 1871 I thank you for your kind letter of 30th of last month
and reciprocate most cordially your kind wishes to the commencement of the
new year. I have ben on a hurried business visit to Donaldsonville La., where
I picked up some Lichenes wich I have send yesterday to Miss Wilson. There
added to the parcel a few good specimens of the beautiful and rare Riccia
lutescens, as well as of another species wich I think is not described in Gray; see what you or
Miss Wilson can make of it; you will also a few fungi from this Locality. I am glad indeed to have received the desired names of
the Gramen & Cyperac. I wish you would be so kind to give me a little
information about the geographical distribution of the Eragrostis oxylepis
Torr. about wich you refer to Mercers report; this book being not accessible
to me. I am grieved to hear that you suffered in health lately,
I hope and wisch sincerely that this greatest of the blessings in life will
be bestowed upon you to the fullest extent during this and many more years to
come. My prospects for more extended botanical explorations
are about as slim as they have ben last year; Still I hope that I will stumble
upon object wich I might find worthy of yor intrest, and wish to transmit to
you I shall never fail. ‑ Hoping to hear from you soon again I remain most
sincerely Your Chas. Mohr P. S. If you ever could arrange a vacation from your
professional dutys to seek recreation in a more southern clime, please
remember that my humble roof here would be ever ready to receive you, and
that nothing could give me greater pleasure than to see you share its
hospitality. Yours C. M. Recd Jan. 19 Vol.7 no. 156 [E 75 & 74 ‑ two pieces of
paper] Mobile February 5th 1871 Most esteemed friend! Your kind letters of 26th and 28th of l. month as well
as the excellent pakage you sent to me pr. Express have reached me in due
time; I sent to you by these lines my best thanks for the same. I assure you that I feel highly pleased and gratifyed
for this most intresting contribution to my herbarium. I can scarcly tell what pleases and intrests me more,
the intresting japanese plants showing such stricking points of affinity with
our flora or the specimens from Arisona and the Indian territory; Amongst the
later I found some old acquaintances wich I collected 21 years ago upon my
trip across the plains to the newly discovered gold field in California; I
recognised imediatly in the beautiful Gilia coccinea a plant wich attracted
frequently my attention during that journy and wich to name at the time I
failed with old Eaton in my hands. Did no California plants come in the
distribution by Bolander during my stay in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada
in the valley of the Yuba I collected extensively made under great
difficultys a find herbar of several thousands of specimens, wich I lost all
on my return to the states during the transit of the Isthmus of Panama. Since
that time I have never seen a California phanegamous plant, till I did come
across a few in your pakage. The Thuringian mosses I value also highly the fill up
many a gap in my collection of german musci. ‑ I was never so fortunate
to obtain a fertile specimen of a Riccia, so as to enable me to examine the
peculiar fructification of that genus myself with the aid of the microscope.
The R. lutescens seems to be constantly infertile; I should feel much
gratifyed if you could help me to get a fructifying specimen; I always like
to get for demonstrativ ad oculos a clear understanding of the generic
character of a plant. ‑ I will send to you all I collected of the
(probably) R. crystallina; I took it with Mr. Peck for the same species, by comparing
it with the short diagnosis as furnished in Sprengels Sys. plant [L...] ‑
Perhaps by this Mr. Peck will be enabled to establish definitely its specific
character, it is certainly not described in Sullivants Musci & ... I have taken due notice of your remarks about P. Maria
Wilsonii & Acridium Peckii and altered the labels accordingly. I am much
obliged for the determination of the Fungi and the species you had the
kindness to send in your letter. ‑ The comon name [smutgrass?]. ‑
This fungus I have never found to invest any other graminen but the above
named it excited my attention years ago, but I always did regard it as a
Puccinia. My progress in a clear comprehension of the generic characters of
this plants is extremely slow, I have not found the right path yet, my former
efforts with the scanty aid of the antiquated IV. Volume of Sprengl. Spec:
plant. have proofed futile to lead me to a correct understanding of generic
differences; I hope that with the book I received a few days ago, Berkeleys
outlines of brittish fungologie I will be able to make better progress; I am
not a little dissappointed in these otherwise excellent work, as it gives
descriptions of only the larger species of fungi, more than half of the pages
being devoted to the large agarics omitting all characters whoes recognition
requires more than the aid of an ordinary pocket lens; Consequently the
generic description of the fungi of the lower orders are very defficient and
the species are only nominally mentioned; forming for the same nothing more
than a systematic catalogue. I send you enclosed a smal bit of a very
peculiar and intresting hyphomycetous fungus; whoes station amongst that
large group I must leave to you to determine; The cellular threads are
compacted to a variously branched [second sheet]
stem, strong and rigid, whose branches terminate in extremely fine
tufts of hyaline sporiferous fibrilla, forming a most beautiful object under
the microscope. ‑ I yet have observed amongst mosses of this fibrilla
several times a few larger uniseptate free spores; but I can not tell if the
[sic] belong to the plant or not. It grows upon the smaler limbs and branches
of our apple trees growing rapidly around the invested [?] branch, wich after
being completely encircled by the fungus suddenly dies. It is certainly the
cause of the blight so destructive to our apple trees in this latitude. I am
anxious to learn from you the place assigned to this Fungus in the system;
You will oblige me by giving me at the same time the detailed specific
character of the same. I look forward with much anxiety to the publication of
Tuckermanns Generas [sic] of Lichens. I hope the work will be obtainable by
the ordinary channels of the book trade. ‑ I am very thankful for the naming of the plants by Dr.
Torry; through my correspondent Mr. Ths. Meehan in Phi'd or Torrey has a
fascicle of mexican Cyperacea & Gramini of mine since the last 3 years in
hand. whenever they come bak to me, I shall make up a set of duplicates for
your Academy. I have not heard from our estimable friend Profess.
Lesquereux for a long time; anxious as I am to hear from him I am somewhat
reluctant to trouble him with my letters, knowing that the affliction wich
impaired his sight in such a deplorable degree almost forbids him to read and
to write. It is very sad to know him to suffer so much and to be
compelled to persist in a state of inactivity wich to his active mind must be
a sore trial. ‑ I send to you in the course of this week a full set of
my american musci & hepatici. I selected the same with great care sending
the best and most characteristic specimens, so as to facilitate the work of
determination as much as possible; This set is intended to remain with a few
exceptions in the hands of the investigator; Should there be amongst the
units some species new, or otherwise of a particular interest to the
same I beg they might be retained. ‑ I feel sure that most of this
mosses are already described as Deppe [sp.?] & Schiede and Lieber have
collected in the same localities i.e. in the mountains of the Orizzava [sic]
and the adjacent plains. The mosses of the first collectors have been years
ago described in the 'flora' and the later [sic] by Carl Mueller. After I
have received the name I shall make up as perfect and good sets for you and
Miss Wilson as my material left will permitt [sic]. ‑ Having devoted
more time and attention to mosses than to any other cryptogams I hope to
avoid the danger of confusion in identifying with the authenticated species
and give you correct names. ‑ I hope that you will be enabled for many
years to continue your fruitfull labors in the field of botanical science
from wich in the course of time you saw retire so many a devoted and
enthusiastic colaborer [sic]. Where is the younger generation to take their
places? What a pity that circumstances will not permitt us to
join together in a grand tour of exploration of South florida. Mobile would
be a first rate starting point. This always longings in that directions, but
have now given up the hope, to see the same ever satisfyed. ‑ [sic] I shall not fail to send you few specimens of the
[Hydrochloa?] with the mosses. I feel very sorry that I am not able to make
new contributions, so as to help you to deminish the number of desideratas on
your checklist. We have delightful spring weather, the sward is assuming its
green velvet, plums and peaches begin to show their blossoms if the weather
continues this way vegetation will push rapidly forward; I am afraid that a
visit of Feb. first will nip the precocious vegetation before this month is
to end. I did send you in one of my pakages a plant named Gardoquia [sp.?]
Hookerii I found since that it is the Calamintha coccinea Nutt. ‑ If there is a new edition of Manns Catalogue printed I
would like to see the few plants added wich I have observed here and wich are
not yet mentioned in any of our floras. ‑ Is there ever a prospect of
seeing the since years abandoned work of Torrey & Gray "flora of
North america," taken up again? ‑ With the best wishes for your happiness and welfare I
remain very truly Yours Chas Mohr P.S. The fungus mentioned will come in the pakage with the
mosses. Recd Feb. 11 wrote [29th
& before?] [Mohr
is referring here to his disastrous gold mining venture to California in 1849
with around 50 young men from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked "in the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada in the valley of the Yuba."] [There
is a Puccinia Mariae‑Wilsoni described by Clinton and an Aecidium
Mariae‑Wilsoni by Peck. The Thomas Meehan of Philadelphia may be the
Thomas Meehan (1826‑1901) mentioned in the Index Herbariorum
"Collectors 'M'" who collected in western North America in the
1880's, Greenland, around 1894, Pennsylvania from 1850's and Colorado in the
1870s "with I. C. Martindale"]. This Martindale, of
Philadelphia, was a correspondent of
Clinton's.] [In
the Index Herbariorum "Collectors 'M'", there is a Ferdinand Deppe
(? ‑ 1828 who collected in Guatemala and Mexico, together with
Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede (1798‑1836, collecting in Mexico.] [Miles
Joseph Berkeley (1803‑89) was a distinguished British mycologist.
The Outlines of British Fungology was published in 1860. Mohr had a chance to
study this book when confined to bed and disliked it intensely (see October
ii, 1871 below)."] [Leo
Lesquereux wrote the following letter:] "Columbus
[O] Feby 22d [18]71 G. W. Clinton My
dear friend, Your
favor of the 14th is recd here just now. I came home on Monday night,
recalled by a bad case of sickness in my family. Had a very pleasant
time at Cambridge, was in fine health &c, &c. but the best things of
this world have an end. I can not write much; only will say that Mohr's
Mexican mosses are here at Sullivant's after having passed through my hands
(not my eyes). What you have got are probably duplicates; dear friend Mohr
despairing of ever seeing his specimens named here. I can do nothing; my
sight is good enough for doing nothing but that is all. Mr. Sullivant will
examine Mohr's mosses some times when he is out of the 2d vol. of his Icones.
Besides there is nobody in the U.S. capable of determining even approximately
Mexican species of mosses which are most of them difficult or new. It was
Mohr who authorised me to give them to Sullivant. Tell him that you will send
them to him (Sullivant) or to me and you will see what he says."] Vol.7 no. 180 [E 47] Mobile, March 4th, 1871 Most esteemed friend! I have received your kind favor of 25th ultima. The
answer you received from our esteemed friend Prof. Lesquereux to your inquiry
about the determination of my mexican mosses, is just exactly as I did expect
it. If you recollect I mentioned to you on a former occasion
that I left a set of this mosses with him as far back as the year 1866, and
that he handed the same to Mr. Sullivant, as his pressing labors at that time
would not permit him the necessary time for the work. The last time I heard from him about the
matter about 4 or 5 months ago he tells me that Mr. Sullivant is in such way
engrossed by his business affairs that he had to put the microscope almost
entirely aside; After this intelligence I invoked Miss Wilson and your aid to
find some one interested to take the matter in hand. I see from his reply to you, that our friend still does
hold out the hope, that Mr. Sullivant might yet at some time examine the
mosses; if I had had any idea of such a prospect I certainly would have
waited patiently for that time coming. Being fully aware of the great difficulty, wich our friend
finds in his way since the last two years as caused by the distressing malady
of his eyes, I would not venture to press the matter upon him. ‑ Spring with all its beauty is now upon us. The flowering
season of the plum and peach has already passed and strawberrys and peartrees
are now in their glorious bloom. It is now a splendid time for the collector
of cryptogams down here, the balmy airs and plentyful showers are most
propitious to the development of the ... fungi, mosses et., et. [sic], but I
am sorry to say that all this enticing advantages have to pass by me without
being properly profited; On my way from my dwelling to the drugstore I found
a beautiful Acidium upon the leaves of the Trifolium carol. of wich I send
you herewith a few specimens. Did you see the four fungi I send you with the
mosses? With my next I shall send you a few seeds of the desired Pennisetum
([?]Phyphoridium spicatum) you might sow the same in a rich warm border. It
is certainly one of the noblest of the panicea [?], and will repay well for
the trouble of its culture. I got latly by accident hold of a most intresting and
comprehensive work, The History of the ...chlamydeous
plants by Don [?]; It affords me a long missed and most effective assistance in
the Study of the genera of most of the plants collected during my visit in
Mexico, a great number of these plants of the ... orders included in the work
I find accurately described, and my acquaintance with the botany of tropical
America made in the years 1845 and 46 in Suriname is getting [considerably?]
renewed: Hoping to hear from you once again I remain as ever yours et. et. ' Chas. Mohr Recd March 11 Vol.7 no. 214 [E 10] Mobile May 2nd
1871 Most esteemed friend! Two months have elapsed since I was in receipt of your
kind letter wich continued the interesting notes of Dr. Peck about the
Aecidium specimens. Since that time I suffered much with severe attacks of
rheumatism wich deprived me as much of spirit as well as valuable time to
discharge my duties towards my friends, or to devote myself after business
hours to those pursuits we both delight in and wich always afford me the most
agreeable recreation. ‑ In short I feel myself of no account, little
fit for study. It is this the only excuse I can offer you for my seeming
neglect. ‑ This spring was a most unpropitious to me so far, even the
flowery month of May made no exception [to?] put on most unseasonable airs,
prevailing, seldom that the leaden hue of the skies was dispersed ... the
efforts of the sun to assume its rights. I have to thank you for the honor to see myself elected
a corresponding member to your Natural history society; I wish that I could
succeed in doing honor to your kind recommendation. ‑ I have also
received through the kindness of Mr. Lee the intresting report upon the
Ornithologie of Florida to the Society; You will do me a favor if you will be
kind enough to express to Mr. Lee my best thanks, and my pleasure in seeing
myself friendly rembered by him. ‑ In accordence with your wishes I collected after the
receipt of your letter quite a number of trifolium leaves with the pretty
Acidium during a spell of sickness the whole lot got some way or other lost. ‑
About the middle of last month I wanted to make good my loss, but instead of
the Acidium I found upon the leaves of newly formed stolons (the plants ...
first inverted with the Acidium seemed to me almost completely died out) a
Puccinia. The specimens of that lot, as bad luck would have it, shared
the same fate except one specimen wich I had put away in the box of my
microscope, and wich I send you by the present. ‑ I went today to the
same spot again, the closest observation did not reveal a single Acidium but
in abundance a Puccinia wich seem to differ from the last form collected
about 4 weeks before upon the same species (I will by no means say
specimens); The black soredii being much smaller and collected in dense more
or less confined groups, whereas the spores of the specimen collected in
April are collected in fuscous dots, larger and singly scattered over the
plants. ‑ Now by this, my observations coincide with those of Dr. Peck,
if we have in these instances a true case of abiogenesis before us, of course
only a series of microscopical observations will proove, in seeing from the
Acidium spore developed a Puccinia. ‑ This dimorphism moreover has been
actually prooved by the researches of Tulasne about 8 or 10 years ago,
finding by direct experiment, that the spores of the Acidium Berberidis upon
the culm and leaves of the cereals, as Oats, Wheat et. et. develop the
Puccinia graminis, and setting by that a controversy between the practical
agriculturist and Botanist, wich was carried on over a half century; as the
later would not admit the evil influence of the barberry shrub over
neighboring grain fields. [lines marked out]. All the serious complaints
brought forward from time to time by the farmer against the barberry as the
cause of the ruin of its filds have been scorned by the scientific till consciencious
research bore out triumphantly the practical experience of the unlearned. What did you or Dr. Peck make of the hyphomycetous
fungous, so destructive of our apple trees? I am anxious to learn something
about it. ‑ Please send to Dr. Peck the enclosed specimens, hoping to
hear from you soon I remain verytruly your sincere friend Carl Mohr Please remember me to the esteemed Miss Wilson, Yours. ‑ Recd June 5 [abiogenesis:
the origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; spontaneous generation.
Tulasne ([Edmond] Louis Rene, 1815‑85; and Charles, 1816‑84.
"L. R. Tulasne, the 'reconstructor of mycology', was from 1842 in a
position at the Paris Natural History Museum and in more than 50 papers he
made additions to the knowledge of smuts, rusts, ergot, subterranean fungi
(Fungi Hypogaei, 1851), Pyrenomycetes, lichens, and higher plants while
Charles, who gave his brother much help, made the beautiful and detailed
Icones for the Selecta Fungorum Carpologia (3 vols., 1861‑5, in Latin
.... An important new idea in the Carpologia ... was that of pleomorphism in
fungi." pp 417‑418, Ainsworth, G. C., 1967. Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi.
Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey.] Vol.8 no. 41 [H 184 & 183, two sheets of paper:] Mobile October ii, 1871 ‑ Esteemed friend! You have certainly a right to think that I have you
neglected by delaying so long in answering your very kind last letter. ‑
I could not help to treat my other friends and correspondents in the same
manner, as continued sickness has been pressing me sorely, and robbed me of
time and chance to perform amongst others this always pleasant duty. For the same reason I have done allmost nothing in regard
to botanical matters yielding however reluctant, to my feelings and desires,
to stern duty and necessity. ‑ During some of the weary hours confined to my bed I
sought instruction by studying the Characters of Fungi as given in Berkeley,
outlines of brittish fungologie, Trusting to this great author I find myself
somewhat deceived; the descriptions I find very dry and barren, the
terminologie often unexplained that I come to the conclusion, that I was but
little benefitted and my outlay for the book a poor investment. ‑ The
authors view must have been to write a popular work, but by doing so he
certainly missed its aim and made it alike unpalatable for the begining
dilettant as well the scientific student. ‑ I am anxious to learn from you the name of the beautiful
red Polyporus I send you last May or June. ‑ Did you ever get the views
of your esteemed friend Dr. Peck, about the alternation of generations taken
place amongst some of the lower forms of fungi, wich He suspects going on
amongst the Puccinias and wich has actually been proofed in the change of
Puccinia graminis into a different plant developed from its spores upon the
Berberis vulgaris, as I stated in one of my last letters. ‑ The matter
has important bearings in biologie and it would be ... the trouble worth [second sheet:] to find further proofs amongst our
Puccinias, and give it a full investigation. How devotedly or I wish to
posess the necessary time and ability for the prosecution of such studys. ‑ Is there any prospect for the determination of my
mexican mosses? If the work of C. Mueller Synopsis muscorum frondosorum, wich
I possess should help Dr. Peck in the examination of the same it would give
me pleasure to lend it to him. ‑ Hoping that you will not pay me in the same coin I have
served to you, and give me the pleasure to hear soon from you I remain as
ever Your sincerely Carl Mohr Recd Oct. 18
ansd Nov. 14 Vol.8 no. 69 [H 154] Mobile December
10th, 1871 My dear friend! Many thanks for your welcome and kind letter of the 14th
of ...m; it has given me a great deal of pleasure, I must tell you it did me
really good, in giving me the assurance of your welfare and contentment, and
the hope that our mutual intercourse by the way of correspondence will be in
future continued. I congratulate you in having passed safly the ordeal of
an election, and that the vox populi proofed itself truly as vox Dei; I must
say that by looking at matters as they are going down here, my confidence in
the old adage is sadly shaken, and I should tremble for the fait [sic] of any
friend of mine whose destiny should depend upon the decision of that tribunal
wich finds its expression in a popular election. ‑ I also have just passed a turning point of my life,
towards wich I was steering through a really critical period, the cares of
wich latly wheighed very heavily upon me. ‑ As I have come now to the
firm conclusion that I shall (for years to come) remain in the path of life I
here pursued during the last two decades; I have found again the wonted
states of my mind and the cares wich disturbed me have left me. ‑ My
hopes and aspirations for a independent and quiet life upon my farm on the
Gulf coast (so much more in harmony with my feelings and tastes, and
congenial to my health) have to yield to the present circumstances of the
times; and the realisations of the same are to be defered to that future in
wich my children will be able to work their own way through the world. My
plans almost matured after much toil and sacrifices, shipwraked upon the same
cliff, wich makes all enterprises in agriculture so extremely hazardous in
the South, and particularly in the special locality, i.e. the great trouble
in procuring labor and the utter unreliability of the same. Enthusiastic in
my hopes in the agriculture resources, under the new era, of the South. I
either could or would not (I do not know wich) realise the ful force
of the above difficulty; but my latest experiences in that respect opened my
eyes ["at once"? written above line] to the full dangers and to the
risks I would expose my existence to; prevented me of taking the last steps,
wich would have led me into new spere of life. ‑ About the mexican mosses I think it best to wait until
Mr. Sullivant finds sufficient time to determine the same. He is allready in
the possession of a full set of the same, transmitted to him in 1866 by our
friend Mr. Lesquereux and it seems to me that according to his statement as
quoted in your last, he still holds out the hope for us to undertake the task
whenever he finds sufficient time. I have no doubt that after the publication
of the supplement to his Icones, a copy of it will reach your hands. ‑
In that case please inform me, if some new species from this locality did find
a place in the work. About 2 or 3 years ago I sent Mr. Sullivant by his
request through Mr. Lesquereux also my mosses I had collected here as a small
lot of specimens snet before excited his interest greatly discovering several
new and interesting forms amongst the same, particular in regard to
geographical distribution of Species. ‑ Since that time I have never
heard of the matter. ‑ So your suggestion meets my views exactly and I request
you to keep for the present the mosses in your hands. My best thanks for the
fungi you had the kindness to send to me; In Sprengels Species plantarum I
find both Polyporus cinnab. [sp.?] & sanguineus described. I am fully
satisfied that my specimens belong to the later species; the very small sori
distinguishes it sufficiently from the first. From the very interesting
remarks of Dr. Peck upon you Tubercularia, as quoted in your last of Nov.
20th I learn anew, that the subject is one ful of difficulty and any
conclusions arrived at must be taken with great caution; Dr. Peck seems to
treat it wth a masterly hand; ‑ I am glad to state that a few days ago
I received a letter from Mr. Lesqu. ‑ Please give my best regards to Miss Wilson, I am most truly your Chas. Mohr. Recd. Dec. 17 [In
1870 the Superior Court Chief Judge Verplanck died and Clinton, himself a
Superior Court Judge, had to stand an election to replace him as Chief Judge.
Although Clinton won his election in Buffalo, New York, it does not appear to
have been a pleasant ordeal.] ‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ [On
December 12, 1871, Leo Lesquereux wrote to George Clinton the following:] "We
can do nothing with dear Mohr's mosses till Muller's second edition
(synopsis) is out. But the more he works the more new species are sent to him
and there is no end of his work. Mexican mosses are as yet little known. I
tried hard to determine Mohr's species but could do but little. We have few
exotic species in our colections. I had lately a good letter of him.
He is better now and out of trouble with his farming hallucinations." |
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