Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/261

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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF BOTANY
257

of a number of species new to science, several of which have been named in honor of their discoverer. This material has been submitted to Professor Chas. H. Peck, so it is authoritatively named.

In 1906 a list of this collection was published by the St. Louis Academy of Science.[1] The specimens are mostly in Dr. Glatfelter's private herbarium. Collecting has also been done in Pennsylvania in 1899, 1905 and 1900, and somewhat in other states. The herbaceous herbarium has been increased by exchanges, so that it numbers over 4,000 species. Dr. Glatfelter is a member of the local botanical societies and is still collecting the fleshy fungi, to which he is giving most of his attention.

The more recent botanical workers of St. Louis we find grouped into two distinct bodies; the staff of the Shaw School of Botany, and of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the investigators of the Mississippi Valley Laboratory of the United States Department of Agriculture. In the former group, which has existed for the longer time, the following persons should be mentioned: Dr. William Trelease, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden since the death of Mr. Shaw, and also professor of botany in the Shaw School of Botany. Besides administering the affairs of these two institutions, and bringing them to their present development and efficiency, he has published many scientific papers; the earliest ones were concerned with fungi and various plant diseases; then the pollination of flowers was taken up; and of late years his work has been in the systematic revision of certain groups, such as the genera Acer, Rumex, Yucca, etc. Under his management the botanical garden has issued eighteen annual reports of scientific material, which have given that institution a name for scientific research, although it can hardly even yet be said to have fairly emerged from the preparatory stage of its development. Associated very closely with Doctor Trelease since 1891: is Mr. H. C. Irish, who has had general charge of the grounds, greenhouses and outdoor planting. Mr. Irish has published papers on horticultural subjects, including a scientific revision of the genus Capsicum, and of the "garden bean," and has in preparation another extensive paper along similar lines. Mr. C. H. Thompson has been connected with the garden for a number of years, and is engaged also upon scientific investigations. Dr. J. A. Harris, librarian of the garden, has published a number of scientific papers, and is engaged upon others, in the preparation of which the extensive and excellent library facilities of the garden are being fully employed. Others who have been connected with the garden staff, and who are now well known scientifically, are Dr. L. H. Pammel, Dr. H. J. Webber and

  1. Glatfelter, N. M., "Preliminary List of Higher Fungi Collected in the Vicinity of St. Louis, Mo., from 1898 to 1905," Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 16: 33-94, 1906.