Reminiscences of The New York Botanical Garden, 1925-1940 ALBERT C. SMITH

Smith, A. C. (Department of Botany, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A.). Reminiscences of The New York Botanical Garden, 1925-1940. Brittonia 48: 337345. 1996.--Reminiscences of employment at The New York Botanical Garden between 1925 and 1940 are given.

The close relationships between The N e w York Botanical Garden and C o l u m b i a University during the 1920s and 1930s will always be treasured memories to those of us who were caught up in them. My own undergraduate years at Columbia have b e c o m e slightly vague, but I recall m y first intention to major in English and bec o m e a "journalist." In those easy-going days our curriculum at C o l u m b i a was practically entirely elective, but we had to have two " m a j o r s " with a certain number of credits (hours) in each. As a second major I selected botany, but, in fact, I also acquired the necessary credits in zoology for a third. This will suggest, unfortunately, how few credits I earned in math, chemistry, physics, philosophy, sociology, and such. With extraordinary good luck I fell into English classes taught by such men as Mark Van Doren, Henry K. Dick, Harrison Ross Steeves, and Roy E Dibble. The first two, in particular, were martinets in their composition classes, tolerating no lapses in grammar, no faulty syntax. Through Steeves I read much of the English literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and through Dibble much of that of the nineteenth and (as far as it existed) twentieth. In retrospect, I owe much to these scholars and their colleagues, who made me aware of the first imperative for a student in any discipline: to read and write his native language with total comprehension, speed, and flawless ease. In zoology I roamed aimlessly through courses in protozoa with Gary N. Calkins and in primate anatomy with W. K. Gregory and J. H. MacGregor. The latter subject was excitingly taught by the two masters who held their classes at the American M u s e u m of Natural History, and when I had the good fortune one day to have

a conversation with Carl Akeley, I very nearly became a physical anthropologist on the spot; but he didn't seem inclined to take me with him on his next trip to Africa. There was another course, taught by a professor at Barnard, on m a m m a l i a n anatomy; I knew the name of practically every muscle on " m y " cat (I do mean " m i n e " - - I had the thing for the entire semester). N o w I don't know the name of a single muscle on anybody's cat. In botany my preceptor was C. C. Curtis, a gentle and definitely old-fashioned morphologist from w h o m I learned a great deal. One never probed deeply into evolutionary philosophy with Curtis, but he pointed me toward the tropics and I owe him thanks for that. A m o n g other botany professors were R. A. Harper, a distinguished cytologist with a fringe of white hair surmounting his rotund, cherubic face; he was as kind as he looked and e v e r y o n e ' s favorite teacher. In Sam Trelease's physiology course, even though he was chairman of the department, ! dozed and dawdled. My best botany professor was probably Edmund W. Sinnott, for whose genetics course I again had to cross Broadway and go to Barnard; his lectures and labs were models of organization and clarity, although genetics, needless to say, was a different subject in the 1920s than it is now. J. S. Karling and Edwin Matzke were young graduate assistants, but their specialties left me cold; Matzke was already enraptured by the shapes of plant cells, and Karling spent hours making meticulous clots on bristolboard, from which emerged his superb drawings. Curtis was perceptive enough to see that I would never make a good morphologist or anatomist, and he convinced N. L. Britton to let me

Brittonia, 48(3), 1996, pp. 337-345.

9 1996, by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458-5126

ISSUED: 16 Oct 1996

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FIG. 1.

take a " r e s e a r c h " course at T h e N e w York Botanical G a r d e n in m y senior year. I f o u n d m y way to the end o f the Third A v e n u e " E l " a n d the N Y B G to h a v e m y first m e e t i n g w i t h Britton. T h e i n t e r v i e w was brief, as Britton's m i n d was elsewhere, but it was adequate to p r o v i d e m e with an indelible i m p r e s s i o n of that spare figure, h a w k l i k e face, a n d quick, decisive s p e e c h and action. A f t e r a c o n v e r s a t i o n of a b o u t t w o m i n utes, Britton took m e to Mrs. Britton in the m o s s herbarium, and I was g i v e n a place to sit w i t h her and R. S. Williams, and s o m e c r y p t o g a m specimens to c o n t e m p l a t e through an old monocular m i c r o s c o p e . After I had listened to the g o o d - n a t u r e d (or was it'?) bickering of these two ancient moss specialists for a few days, Mrs. Britton said, " W e l l , Mr. Smith, I d o n ' t k n o w what you c a n do with the mosses, but you k n o w the fern h e r b a r i u m has been s h a m e f u l l y neglected since Mr. U n d e r w o o d ' s recent . . . uh . . . accident. W h y d o n ' t you put it b a c k in o r d e r ? " T h a t was m y " r e s e a r c h p r o j e c t " - - t o sort a n d resort the n e g l e c t e d fern a c c u m u l a t i o n , put it into clean covers, a n d arrange those c o v e r s in

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Diels's E n g l e r & Prantl sequence. I t h i n k I learned to recite that s e q u e n c e d u r i n g the year, unaware that it was rapidly b e c o m i n g o u t m o d e d . But at least I did learn h o w to h a n d l e h e r b a r i u m material, to m a k e things superficially tidy, to read labels a n d e n v y tropical collectors, w h a t a " t y p e " was, a n d w h a t was in the Library; m o s t exciting o f all, I b e c a m e acquainted with one o f the most r e m a r k a b l e aggregations o f brilliant, productive, u n p r e d i c t a b l e , and irascible p l a n t t a x o n o m i s t s e v e r a s s e m b l e d in one U.S. institution. T h e r e were the Brittons and Percy Wilson, w h o were i n c l i n e d to d i s a p p e a r for considerable periods into the West Indies, a n d old R. S. Williams, w h o h a d been in the A l a s k a n gold rush o f 1898 a n d w h o s e plant s p e c i m e n s f r o m P a n a m a a n d the P h i l i p p i n e s are a m o n g the best. T h e r e was Per A x e l R y d b e r g , d e s c r i b i n g countless species f r o m the Rockies. A n d J. K. S m a l l (who really w a n t e d to be a flutist a n d was reported to b e a pretty good one), for w h o m anyone w h o d i d n ' t b o t a n i z e in Florida was d o w n right perverse. T h e r e was M a r s h a l l A. H o w e , the e m i n e n t phycologist, w h o s e r v e d as B r i t t o n ' s

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Assistant Director and, for long periods during his absences, acted as Director. And there was J. H. Barnbart, the bibliographer, who knew everything about every botanical book and e v e r y botanist and whose files were spread in disarray from one end of the Library to the other. And Arthur Hollick, the distinguished paleobotanist, holding forth in the basement among his dusty rock collections but occasionally emerging " u p stairs." These new acquaintances were among the founders and supporters of the " A m e r i c a n C o d e " (first published in Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 31: 249-290. 1904), the defenders of unflinching priority, the protectors of a rigid type concept, the scoffers at botanical Latin ( " r e a c h e s the height of arbitrary action"), the unyielding opponents of nomenclatural compromise. Many of them never did compromise, but some lived long enough to see their better ideas written into a real international compromise. Best of all, for me, there was H. A. Gleason, recently returned from British Guiana with a fine collection and, unfortunately, with a severe case of malaria. Gleason was not one of the American Code diehards; he was an early U.S. ecologist who only comparatively late got into the tropics, found them infinitely more exciting than prairies and cornfields, and became a melastomatologist of great perception and competence. However, as an undergraduate I scarcely became acquainted with him. In the late spring of 1926, as I was wondering what I would do with my C o l u m b i a A.B. except put it in the bottom of a trunk (where it may still be), Britton c a m e to me one day and told me that the N Y B G , Smithsonian, Gray Herbarium, and Arnold Arboretum were going to make up the munificent sum of $3,000 to permit E. R Killip to make another collecting trip to C o l o m bia; Killip needed an assistant, and if I was interested I had better go d o w n to Washington and see if he would take me along. As I momentarily hesitated, wondering whether I had the $15 for train fare, he added, " O h , well, if y o u ' r e not interested, then never m i n d . " I assured him that I was indeed interested, and somehow, the next afternoon, I located the old red Smithsonian building in Washington and found Killip in his room on the little balcony. My knowledge of Killip had c o m e only from seeing his name, with those of E W. Pennell and Tracy E. Hazen, on many beautifully prepared fern specimens from Colombia. He proved to be a lean, enthusiastic,

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quick-moving person about fifteen years my senior, and the first thing he did was to turn to a map of C o l o m b i a on the wall and say, " N o w , this is where we are going on this trip. Can you be ready to start early in O c t o b e r ? " I found out later that Britton and Killip, who worked together on some groups o f legumes, never took very long to make up their minds. This is not an account of field trips (I do have some journals here, h o w e v e r . . . ) , but during those months in C o l o m b i a I learned how to collect and prepare specimens, how to keep orderly field notes, and how to enjoy the tropics, under the tutelage of a real pro. We revisited some of Jacquin's localities near Cartagena for a start, then went up the Rfo Magdalena to Puerto Wilches, and spent several months on or near the pfiramos of the Eastern Cordillera, coming out through Cucutfi and Maracaibo with 7,000plus " n u m b e r s " in sets of four or five. This, of course, was long before there were any roads in the region, while the northern Andes were still cloaked by marvellous diverse forests, the pittamos yellow with E.~peletia, and the paramillos a tangle of ferns, labiates, scrophs, gentians, and e v e r y w h e r e the exquisite red flowers of superblueberries. One day Killip casually remarked, "Say, hombre, this would be a fine group to work on, and nobody is doing anything with it. W h e n we get back why don't you take up the T h i b a u d i e a e ? " I thought about it. But when we got back, the $3,000 was spent and I had no job. I borrowed an antique microscope from R. S. Williams and spent the summer in New England looking at mosses and trying to name them with Grout's M o s s e s with a H a n d Lens. By great good luck, somebody offered me a job teaching in a private school for boys, and I spent the academic year there. In charity I refrain from mentioning the locale of the school, but I can honestly state that I was, without much doubt, the most incompetent teacher of young boys who had ever shamelessly accepted salary checks, h o w e v e r minuscule. In the late spring of 1928 I received a lifesaving note from Britton, to the effect that the N Y B G could use another assistant curator; if I wanted the job, stop fooling around up there and c o m e down to the Bronx. I went. My assignment was the best possible one I could have c h o s e n - - t o be Gleason's assistant and do anything he wanted me to. Space in the G a r d e n a d m i n i s t r a t i o n building, originally

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p l a n n e d by Britton, was at a p r e m i u m , b e c a u s e it was felt n e c e s s a r y to d e v o t e the first two floors to exhibits; m a n y o f these were ghastly pale fruits in liquid or n a u s e a t i n g medicinal roots sent back from S o u t h A m e r i c a by H. H. Rusby, o f Black Waters a n d W h i t e fame (and also a signatory of the A m e r i c a n Code). I b e c a m e well acquainted with Rusby, n o w a visitor f r o m the College o f P h a r m a c y d o w n t o w n , and also with Orlando W h i t e o f the B r o o k l y n Botanic G a r d e n , the " b o t a n i s t " o f that m a l i g n e d expedition to Bolivia and the M a d r e de Dfos. R u s b y a n d W h i t e hilariously regaled us with " t r u e " accounts of their a d v e n t u r e s , w h i c h were substantially at v a r i a n c e f r o m those that h a v e a m u s e d so m a n y i n n o c e n t readers. M y starting salary was a splendid step up from that o f m y late a n d u n l a m e n t e d t e a c h i n g job. I f o u n d a f u r n i s h e d room in the h o u s e o f a congenial Mrs. Ryan, on D e c a t u r A v e n u e across the street f r o m the old Britton house, w h e r e for some years I lived a five-minute walk f r o m the Garden, at $7 p e r week. And at that time o n e could still inhale in N e w York, e v e n in the Bronx. G l e a s o n , c r o w d e d as he was, gave m e the use of a table in his room, and for m a n y years we w o r k e d there together. F r o m the start he m a d e it clear that I was a colleague and not a student, but he was doubtless one o f the m o s t erudite teachers o f plant t a x o n o m y of his period. It c a n n o t b e said that the Brittons were cordial hosts to their j u n i o r staff m e m b e r s . D u r i n g the several years that I lived across the street f r o m them, I was n e v e r a visitor in their home. It was very different with G l e a s o n and his gracious wife, w h o lived in B r o n x v i l l e with their three y o u n g children. O n e s u m m e r the w h o l e G l e a s o n family took off on a j a u n t to Europe, a n d I was asked to take up r e s i d e n c e in their h o u s e as caretaker, gardener, a n d general overseer, a delightful c h a n g e from m y solitary room on D e c a t u r A v enue. T h e G l e a s o n s occasionally gave parties for the y o u n g e r s t a f f and students, and I recall that at one of these a contest was a n n o u n c e d ; we were to h a v e thirty m i n u t e s to scout the g r o u n d s and to write d o w n the scientific n a m e o f e v e r y plant we recognized. I was stymied, quite unstudied in the local flora, garden plants, and weeds that a b o u n d in e v e n a well-kept garden. But M o l d e n k e was in his e l e m e n t a n d w o n hands down. T h e prize was a book, H o w to Tell the Birds f r o m the Flowers, w h i c h facetious trifle I fear that M o l d e n k e d i d n ' t appreciate.

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M y c o n t e m p o r a r i e s , a m o n g others t h a n H. N. M o l d e n k e , were E. J. Alexander, E d m u n d Fulling, and the horticulturist Tom Everett; and there were others s e e k i n g C o l u m b i a degrees, a m o n g t h e m Earl L. Core. We started a " c o f f e e - k l a t c h " that met late e a c h a f t e r n o o n around a table in G l e a s o n ' s office; only t a x o n o m i s t s were welcome; and e v e r y b o d y c o n t r i b u t e d to the coffee fund according to an appropriately seasonal sporting formula. In this g a m b l e you n e v e r won, but you put a nickel in the kitty Ibr e v e r y w r o n g guess. As n o n e o f us were sportsmen, there was always a substantial surplus. During that daily half hour I l e a r n e d m o r e ( a m o n g the wild stories and atrocious p u n s ) a b o u t t a x o n o m y , n o m e n c l a ture, p h y t o g e o g r a p h y , and h u m a n nature than could be t a u g h t in any classroom. Actually, this was about all the formal botanical instruction G l e a s o n offered, e x c e p t to a n s w e r our questions with unfailing g o o d nature and patience. As a full-fledged staff member, I b e c a m e better acquainted with colleagues other than taxonomists. M o s t o f the G a r d e n ' s scientific activities were still limited to the third floor: research offices, Library, a n d the entire flowering p l a n t herbarium. A t " o u r " e n d of the third floor, the locale of G l e a s o n ' s c o n g e s t e d room, were also the p h y s i o l o g i s t A. B. Stout and his assistant Clyde Chandler, w h o s e laboratory looked d o w n on their e x t e n s i v e plots of daylilies; I n e v e r really found out what they were a t t e m p t i n g to accomplish, but it was h i g h l y regarded b y p r e s u m ably less mystified colleagues. Also at our e n d was the dark r o o m a n d adjacent office o f F l e d a Griffith, w h o for m a n y years j e a l o u s l y guarded her p r e m i s e s (but cordially shared t h e m with staff m e m b e r s she liked, helpfully i n s t r u c t i n g t h e m in the p h o t o g r a p h i c arts and e v e n h a n d c o l o r i n g t h e i r o l d - f a s h i o n e d l a n t e r n slides). Nearby, the p l a n t p a t h o l o g i s t B. O. D o d g e cartied out occult e x p e r i m e n t s , s o m e t i m e s m i n g l i n g with the t a x o n o m i s t s for a friendly cup o f coffee and chitchat. T h e m y c o l o g i s t Fred S e a v e r was cordial but a trifle distant, s o m e t i m e s s e e m i n g not entirely sure that fungi were " p l a n t s " and so entitled to their c o n s i d e r a b l e share of congested space. In the m i d d l e o f the third floor, with tentacles s p r e a d i n g into small adjacent cupboards, was the a l a r m i n g l y e x p a n d i n g Library, presided o v e r by the always helpful S u s a n Hatlow, w h o e v e n u n d e r s t o o d B a r n h a r t ' s filing system. At the " o t h e r " e n d of the third floor were the c r y p t o g a m i c h e r b a r i u m as well as all the

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flowering plants. T h e ferns a n d special collections o f cultivated plants had already been banished to the east e n d of the first floor, to an area filched from public displays to m a k e room for E v e r e t t ' s horticultural staff. To the best of m y k n o w l e d g e , Britton n e v e r taught formal courses, but he was a not ineffective teacher. I recall that o n e day, while I w a s w o r k i n g in the h e r b a r i u m , he and Percy W i l s o n were sorting s o m e l e g u m e s on a case top. A m o n g t h e m I noticed a s p e c i m e n that Killip and I h a d o b t a i n e d in C o l o m b i a ; this consisted of a single large fruit p i c k e d up f r o m the ground. For s o m e reason we h a d b e e n u n a b l e to cut the tree, but we t h o u g h t that B r i t t o n ' s passion for l e g u m e s would m a k e the s p e c i m e n , with its fairly a d e q u a t e notes, of s o m e use. Before my horrified gaze Britton s u d d e n l y r e a c h e d out a b o n y claw, seized that particular h e r b a r i u m sheet, tore it into pieces, and s h o v e d it into a wastebasket, at the same time saying in a loud voice, "Percy, d o n ' t h a v e any m o r e r u b b i s h like that m o u n t e d for the h e r b a r i u m [ " T h a t was perhaps an effective f o r m o f teaching. Percy (as e v e r y o n e called him), w h o was the mildest o f m e n and w h o had n o t h i n g to do either with the s p e c i m e n or m o u n t ing it, could only w r i n g his h a n d s in e m b a r r a s s m e n t and murmur, "Yes, Dr. B r i t t o n . " B r i t t o n m o v e d on silent feet. O n e day, as I was p o r i n g over a d o z e n or two s p e c i m e n s spread out on a h e r b a r i u m counter, he stood beside me. "Well, y o u n g man, w h a t ' s troubling you'?" h e asked. "Dr. B r i t t o n , " I said, " p l e a s e advise m e on these s p e c i m e n s ; I think that these four or five m i g h t b e substantially different f r o m the others, but to describe a novelty here m i g h t b e a m i s t a k e . " W i t h i m p e r c e p t i b l y smiling, narrow eyes, he said, " I n this profession, Mr. Smith, if you d o n ' t m a k e mistakes, you d o n ' t m a k e a n y t h i n g . " A n d he was silently gone. Let m e b a c k t r a c k f r o m these general recollections. Early in 1929 Killip again took me to S o u t h A m e r i c a as his assistant. This time we were s p o n s o r e d by a subsidiary o f Standard Oil to find out what " c u b e " was and w h e r e it grew. It is hard to realize, now, that in 1929 n o b o d y really k n e w the A m e r i c a n source of rotenone; f r o m the data supplied by a couple of i n n o c e n t b o t a n i s t s I would j u d g e that our s p o n s o r parlayed its i n v e s t m e n t of $6,000 travel m o n e y into a slight profit, as " F l i t " a n d s u n d r y other insecticides gained in effectiveness. (As to the p r o p e r n a m e s for " c u b e , " " b a r b a s c o , " and " t i m b o , "

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that's a n o t h e r story . . . ) Starting in the h i g h Peruvian market town o f H u a n c a y o , we traced the elusive ingredient o f a cattle-dip d o w n the And e a n slopes, finally located it along the Apurimac, and followed it to the center of illegal fishp o i s o n cultivation f r o m the lower H u a l l a g a to Iquitos and eastward, at length w i n d i n g up our trip in Beldm. T h e i n d u c e m e n t o f the undertaking to Killip, o f course, was authorization to m a k e any collections, related to r o t e n o n e or not. We c a m e out o f that trip with s o m e t h i n g over 9,000 n u m b e r s from Peru and Brazil, m o s t of t h e m with two to five duplicates. T h e freighter that took us f r o m Beldm to New York had a schedule calling for a thirteen-day n o n s t o p trip. All m y collecting trips (at least t h r o u g h 1953) have b e e n m a d e by ship, and I w o u l d m a i n t a i n that these periods gave time to put field notes in order, to draft label forms, and to h a v e all the details " r e a d y to g o " upon arrival h o m e . T h e a d v e n t o f the air age, indeed, m a y be the r e a s o n w h y m o d e r n collectors n e v e r seem to get their field materials into shape to study or distribute promptly. O n this trip, as we c a m e close to New York on T h a n k s g i v i n g eve in 1929, the rudder "fell o f f " o u r freighter, as the captain casually i n f o r m e d us. As the b a r was well supplied, neither the officers n o r the handful of passengers s e e m e d m u c h c o n c e r n e d that we had our T h a n k s g i v i n g d i n n e r s o m e w h e r e off the New Jersey coast. F r o m sketchy notes in the n e w s p a p e r s o f Manaus and Betdm, we h a d b e e n aware that s o m e thing was h a p p e n i n g in the U.S. business world. S i n c e I n e v e r had a n y t h i n g to invest, for reasons i m p l i e d above, the financial world was a closed b o o k to me; but Killip ( w h o did have s o m e t h i n g to invest) e x p l a i n e d it to me, after a fashion, as we s t e a m e d northward. His e x p l a n a t i o n n e v e r m a d e things very clear to me. T h e r e were also c h a n g e s at my h o m e institution. Britton had finally retired from the Directorship, and we eagerly awaited the arrival of his successor, E. D. Merrill, at the b e g i n n i n g of 1930. Britton, the first and only Director of the N Y B G since its o r g a n i z a t i o n in 1896, w h e n his exceptional foresight and organizational skill c a u s e d it to b e c o m e a secure entity, had left a record that no s u c c e s s o r c o u l d hope to emulate. But we soon learned w h a t a fortunate selection had b e e n made, as Merrill, with his extraordin a r y b a c k g r o u n d in oriental b o t a n y acquired by long residence in the P h i l i p p i n e s and with ad-

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ministrative skills sharpened by his briefer stay at the University of California, took charge with characteristic determination. The Great Depression was ominously under way, and Merrill managed to acquire scores of "technical assistants" under the starting W P A program. Tours through basement vaults had appalled him, for it became obvious that hundreds of thousands of botanical specimens had been stashed away for handling and mounting at some unspecified future date, Since Britton's primary interests were in North and tropical America, the Old World collections of the N Y B G had been neglected. Merrill found the ideal supervisor in a graduate student, Gus Wittrock, and Gus was soon in charge of a " h a r e m " of elderly but willing and able ladies who prepared labels and mounted plants with amazing celerity, under his good-natured prodding. Ancient and useless exhibits disappeared, and the second floor of the building b e c a m e transformed into part of the herbarium. Merrill segregated all the " O l d World" collections into the eastern end of the second floor, these expanding at a prodigious rate through the mounting of available material and through his abundant contacts with active collectors. Then as always, Merrill knew no working hours but could usually be found at his own studies in the Old World herbarium. In the early 1930s our coffee-klatch was joined by B. A. Krukoff, who spent m a n y years in close collaboration with the N Y B G , though never a salaried staff member. With Gleason's encouragement, Krukoff made many A m a z o n i a n expeditions and turned his material o v e r to us to handle, identify, and sell to other institutions, in return for the "first set." It was my assignment to handle this material, which I did for K r u k o f f ' s first three or four trips. His specimens were uniformly excellent, as he reached remote areas and enlisted crews who attacked the largest trees. Later we collaborated in some research on curare and fish-poisons, and Krukoff began to develop his own monographic interests. Merrill had a penchant for one-word titles for periodicals, and in 1931 he established a new house organ for the N Y B G under the obvious and euphonious title of Brittonia. The masthead of early v o l u m e s never indicated an editorship, but one day, after seeing the first number through the press, Merrill remarked to me in his offhand way, "Say, Mr. Smith, you take care of

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Brittonia, will you'?" It is pure coincidence that the first three volumes included quite a few pages by a single author. Since our return from C o l o m b i a in 1927, I had taken seriously Killip's advice about the Thibaudieae, an alleged tribe of the Vacciniaceae. Subsequent studies have indicated that it is not a natural tribe, but 1 followed the delimitation outlined by the German rnonographer Rudolf Hoerold in 1906 and attempted to bring his work up to date. This, my first revisional effort of any consequence, was conducted under Gleason's tutelage (but I hasten to free him from any part in the ultimate conclusions!). During 1931, having b o r r o w e d all the available material from major herbaria (including, fortunately, the many types then deposited at Berlin), I took a first draft to Washington and went o v e r it with Killip and W. R. Maxon, then Curator of the Smithsonian's Division of Plants. To Maxon, a supercritical editor, I am indebted for whatever competence I have acquired in standardizing a manuscript. In direct and often colorful language he reshaped my prose into something that his Division would sponsor. In my recollection Maxon was the best of all editors, patient and considerate in spite of his superficial gruffness, always willing to explain and justify his viewpoint as to any change (and annoyingly logical in every decision). He told me I was a damn fool to give up ferns for angiosperms, but his most damaging comments were accompanied by a faint, sometimes a very faint, smile. Gleason, who had spent an extended period in Germany in his early years, advised me that I should get back to the sources of U.S. plant taxo n o m y and " t a k e the tour." The Garden was quite willing to have me do this at my own expense, continuing my salary, which was now a splendid $2,000 per annum. The depression was by now desperately squeezing the less fortunate, and nobody was silly enough to expect a raise. If you w e r e n ' t around in 1931, you have no idea of what a long way $2,000 would take you. From the fall of 1931 to the spring of 1932, I spent s o m e six months in London, Paris, Geneva, and Berlin, carrying with me many troublesome " m i s c e l l a n y " from our C o l o m b i a n and Peruvian trips to compare with types and other historical material. Botanists of the visited institutions were so cordial and helpful that to name my new friends would be to recite staff lists; they included many of the period's great names

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in taxonomy. A t K e w m y " s p o n s o r " a n d closest friend was Noel S a n d w i t h , the only b o t a n i s t there deeply c o n c e r n e d with S o u t h America. H e i n t r o d u c e d m e to m a n y b y w a y s o f Surrey as well as to L o n d o n theatres a n d concert halls, and during working h o u r s he gently taunted m e for writing a m a t e u r i s h Latin a n d insisted that I give up the arrogant A m e r i c a n i s m o f describing novelties in E n g l i s h with d i a g n o s e s in alleged Latin. W i l l i a m S t e a m , w h o was then at the Royal Horticultural Society b e f o r e his m o v e to the British M u s e u m , h a d not yet p r o d u c e d his m a s t e r f u l b o o k on b o t a n i c a l Latin, with w h i c h nobody, not e v e n a h a l f - e d u c a t e d A m e r i c a n , need ever again c o m p r o m i s e on a two-line " d i a g n o s i s . " W h i l e at K e w for a final w e e k or two, I rec e i v e d a cryptic note f r o m G l e a s o n to the effect that a couple o f m y colleagues (I a s s u m e that he was referring to M o l d e n k e and Core) were close to finishing their doctorates, and p e r h a p s I h a d better t h i n k a b o u t s u c h things myself. F r o m G l e a s o n , this was a fairly b r o a d hint; so w h e n I got h o m e I asked h i m w h a t ! should do a b o u t getting a Ph.D. M y recollection o f g r a d u a t e t i m e spent on the C o l u m b i a c a m p u s is particularly hazy, but apparently I h a d a c c u m u l a t e d a certain n u m b e r o f credits b y g o i n g to colloquia, registering for and participating in seminars, taking a stray course or two, a n d p a y i n g fees for " r e s e a r c h " courses at the G a r d e n . It turned out that I h a d e n o u g h credits, a n d G l e a s o n a s k e d Trelease to set up a final e x a m for m e and to accept m y T h i b a u d i e a e p a p e r ( w h i c h had b e e n published in J u n e 1932) as a dissertation. A t that t i m e C o l u m b i a w o u l d grant a Ph.D. only w h e n a dissertation h a d actually b e e n published, but the idea of accepting a p a p e r o f 237 pages, already in print a n d u n r e v i e w e d by a C o l u m b i a c o m m i t t e e , m u s t h a v e m a d e Trelease gasp. A p parently G l e a s o n a n d Merrill were persuasive, for nothing was said to m e about a " p r e l i m i n a r y " e x a m (ah, the g o o d old days!), a n d a date was set for m y dissertation defense. I recall this as a rather cordial occasion, w h i c h n o n e o f us (my C o l u m b i a faculty m e n t i o n e d a b o v e plus G l e a s o n a n d Merrill) s e e m e d to take v e r y seriously. Trelease kindly r e f r a i n e d f r o m asking m e any searching q u e s t i o n s a b o u t physiology, Sinnott limited his q u e s t i o n s to those that e v e n a t a x o n o m i s t c o u l d answer, and H a r p e r quizzed m e on the dissertation, k n o w i n g , as all professors do, that the a u t h o r o f a m o n o g r a p h has a substantial h e a d start o n questioners. (As to that

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particular publication, I try not to t h i n k of it any more. No t a x o n o m i s t , with the a c c u m u l a t i o n o f twenty times the material that he once had, a n d with m o d e r n t e c h n i q u e s available, should e v e r look at a p a p e r that he p u b l i s h e d h a l f a c e n t u r y ago.) Merrill a s k e d me w h e r e I w o u l d find bibliographic i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t a c e n t u r y - o l d p u b lication, k n o w i n g , o f course, that I w o u l d m e n tion Pritzel's Thesaurus, a b o o k that we h a d s o m e t i m e s c o n s u l t e d together. By this time I was feeling good e n o u g h to v e n t u r e the facetious answer, "'I would ask Dr. B a r n h a r t . " This, as a matter of fact, was an excellent answer, but it j u s t a b o u t c o n c l u d e d the proceedings, and I was told to go and wait in the hall. I d o n ' t k n o w w h a t m y c o m m i t t e e talked a b o u t for the next h a l f hour, but finally G l e a s o n c a m e out a n d congratulated me, and they took m e to the Faculty C l u b for lunch. (I sincerely h o p e that the a b o v e rem a r k s will not entirely discredit the C o l u m b i a Ph.D. p r o g r a m ; but times h a v e c h a n g e d ! ) In 1927 the A m e r i c a n M u s e u m o f Natural H i s t o r y had s p o n s o r e d the first o f several exploratory trips to the " l o s t w o r l d , " that r e m a r k able range o f s a n d s t o n e m o u n t a i n s lying a l o n g the V e n e z u e l a n - B r a z i l i a n border, t h e n quite u n k n o w n except for l a t e - n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y visits to its eastern end, M o u n t Roraima, by E v e r a r d i m T h u r n and a few o t h e r explorers. M u s e u m zoologists c o n c e n t r a t e d o n the w e s t e r n e n d o f the range, M o u n t Duida, and one o f t h e m , G e o r g e Tate, m a d e a superb series o f botanical collections, m a n y o f w h i c h were totally unk n o w n and unsuspected. G l e a s o n studied these, with the aid o f collaborators, and aroused a n e w interest by his p u b l i c a t i o n of the b o t a n i c a l discoveries o f the T y l e r - D u i d a Expedition. T h a t 1931 p u b l i c a t i o n led to g r a n d plans for a j o i n t u n d e r t a k i n g by the A m e r i c a n M u s e u m and the N Y B G to explore parts o f the u n k n o w n area bet w e e n R o r a i m a and Duida. A n elaborate broc h u r e was printed and s o m e d o z e n or fifteen m e m b e r s o f the p r o p o s e d expedition were recruited, mostly specialists in various areas o f zoology but i n c l u d i n g S a n d w i t h and m e as botanists. Alas for our a m b i t i o u s prospectus, the G r e a t D e p r e s s i o n h a d dried up sources of funds, and those few r e m a i n i n g solvent b e n e f a c t o r s o f e x p l o r a t o r y science had so constricted their ben e v o l e n t intent that o u r plans collapsed, the ele g a n t b r o c h u r e s b e c a m e waste paper, and the " l o s t w o r l d " h a d to wait a n o t h e r decade or t w o for the fantastic series o f botanical and geo-

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graphical discoveries initiated by Bassett Maguire. During the 1930s some old-timers thought of retiring, and among new staff members were H. W. Rickett, who so ably replaced Barnhart as Bibliographer, Carol Woodward to help with editing the Bulletin and to perform many other duties, and Elizabeth Hall, who took over the Librarian's duties about 1937. A new staff taxonomist was W. H. (Red) Camp, who plunged into the tangled thicket of North American blueberries and who added greatly to the general tone of the third floor west. It would be an understatement to suggest that Camp enlivened our afternoon informal discussions, especially when they touched on nomenclature. I had sometimes chatted with Merrill about my interest in the Pacific, fostered by boyhood reading of Melville, Stevenson, and Conrad. He was the right person to talk to, for he knew exactly who was doing what, botanically, in every corner of the Pacific. In the preceding few years J. W. Gillespie, a young Stanford proteg6 of Le Roy Abrams, had been publishing accounts of the plants he had collected in Fiji; but Gillespie, whom I never knew, died in 1932 as a very young man. In the late spring of 1933 Merrill told me, in effect, that Gillespie's work ought to be continued and that if I wished to apply for a Bishop Museum Fellowship in Yale University for a year of fieldwork, the closing date was imminent and he would write a letter. I thought this a splendid suggestion, and by following it I found myself, in September of 1933, en route to Honolulu and Suva. Returning to New York in August 1934, I learned of Britton's death, which caused sadness among his colleagues. Even though many of us had not been closely or long associated with him, we all respected him as a botanist and an organizer, realizing what an outstanding part he had played in the development of plant taxonomy in the United States. Although I seldom saw Britton during the last three years of his life, I never walked up those broad front steps of the Garden's administration building without feeling the presence of his slim, gliding figure and his penetrating, questioning but friendly gaze. I identified my Fijian plants as far as possible, planning to take the residue to Kew in the thll of 1935 after attending the Sixth International Botanical Congress in Amsterdam. In 1935 the sudden, and to me very unwelcome, news that

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Merrill was going to accept a new position at Harvard as a sort of "botanical coordinator" was announced. That this left a vacuum at the NYBG is an understatement, but in his five years there Merrill had made a tremendous impression. The overwhelming backlog of specimens had been essentially incorporated into the herbarium, the Library had grown substantially, aided by exchanges for Brittonia, and the staff had acquired a new look. Howe was appointed Director, and taxonomic activity flourished with Gleason as Deputy Director and Head Curator. The 1935 Congress was critical, as the compromises worked out in 1930 at Cambridge were strengthened in detail. But the history of Botanical Congresses is well reported elsewhere, and I mention only my pleasure in meeting many old friends, both European and American, and in making new ones. A few months at Kew, which I was coming to regard as the one and only place to solve tropical botanical problems, permitted me to put my Fijian collections into shape for publication. Back in New York again, I stayed put for a year and a half, working primarily on Krukoff's plants and other South American collections, and becoming much interested in such families as Myristicaceae and Hippocrateaceae. We were all saddened by Howe's death in late 1936, for he was much liked by the staff for his friendly interest and concern in all their activities. Gleason, as the senior botanist, was asked to serve as Deputy Director while retaining his Head Curatorship. To the taxonomic staff his appointment as the new Director seemed a formality, but no announcement was forthcoming. In 1937 the American Museum was planning an expedition to British Guiana, and Gleason recommended me for the only slot assigned to botany. This, the Terry-Holden Expedition, was planned by its organizer and leader, the medical doctor William H. Holden, to ascend the Essequibo to its sources in the Akarai Mountains that form the Brazilian boundary. A high point (although, to be sure, there were many incidents and accidents along the way) came when we reached the confluence of the Cuyuwini with the upper Essequibo on the precise 100th anniversary of the day that Robert Schomburgk reached the same point in his famous and well-described travels. Thus avoiding the falls of the middle Essequibo, we proceeded to its headwaters and

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spent an e x t e n d e d period there and in the A k a r a i Mountains. D u r i n g m y absence, o u r new Director, William J. R o b b i n s , f r o m the U n i v e r s i t y of M i s s o u ri, h a d taken charge. A f t e r Britton and Merrill, to h a v e a physiologist at the h e l m m a d e the taxo n o m i s t s hold their collective breath, but R o b bins p r o v e d b r o a d in his interests and directed G l e a s o n to c o n t i n u e the G a r d e n ' s traditional e m phasis on t a x o n o m y and horticulture. He h i m s e l f set up a physiological lab in the b a s e m e n t a n d set a b o u t soliciting funds for the " L a b o r a t o r y " that soon h o u s e d the m a n y e x p e r i m e n t a l aspects o f the G a r d e n ' s p r o g r a m s . C o n s e q u e n t l y , R o b bins was not m u c h in e v i d e n c e to the t a x o n o m i c staff, a n d we w e n t our various ways, G l e a s o n on his m e l a s t o m e s , C a m p on his blueberries, Ale x a n d e r on his horticultural and local plants, M o l d e n k e on his V e r b e n a c e a e , and ! on m y Guia n a collection a n d hippocrats. N e w c o m e r s to our t a x o n o m i c group in the late 1930s were C h a r l e s Gilly, Joe M o n a c h i n o , and A r t h u r Cronquist. T h e n , as t h r o u g h o u t his later career, K r u k o f f h a d a genius for finding f u n d s to help p r o m i s i n g students with field studies or h e r b a r i u m travel. It m a y not h a v e b e e n by purely altruistic c h a n c e that they c h o s e to revise g e n e r a o f interest to M e r c k & Co., with w h i c h K r u k o f f then h a d close ties, as potential pharm a c e u t i c a l s or such. N e v e r t h e l e s s , the students m e n t i o n e d , and m a n y others subsequently, were thus e n c o u r a g e d to p r o d u c e substantial and valuable systematic r e v i s i o n s a n d to gain experience. O n e day in late 1939 or early 1940, R o b b i n s called us all into a m e e t i n g in the Director's ofrice a n d i n f o r m e d us that G l e a s o n had agreed to u n d e r t a k e the p r e p a r a t i o n o f a n o t h e r edition o f Britton & B r o w n ' s Hlustrated Flora o f the Northern United States. T h i s was to be a c o m pletely new work, in a n e w format, and all taxo n o m i s t s on the staff w o u l d join in m a k i n g it t h e i r m a j o r effort. He p r o c e e d e d to give us o u r assignments. W h e n it was m y turn he said, "Dr. Smith, you will do the f e r n s , " fixing m e with that clear and u n f l i n c h i n g blue gaze that we all r e c o g n i z e d as the c o m m a n d of a leader. " B u t Dr.

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R o b b i n s , " I sputtered, " I h a v e no real interest in ferns and h a v e n ' t w o r k e d on them for years, and besides I am deeply c o m m i t t e d to South A m e r i c a n work and h a v e several projects . . . . " U n c l e Bill (as I certainly w o u l d n e v e r have called h i m to his face, a l t h o u g h that was his sob r i q u e t in private) j u s t c o n t i n u e d to fix me with that steely blue gaze across the table. ( M a n y years later, and u n d e r very different circumstances, w h e n I k n e w U n c l e Bill m u c h better, I w o u l d watch h i m tell a story across a d i n n e r table and would a d m i r e that straight, steely gaze that gave n o t h i n g a w a y but always c h a n g e d to a slight twinkle at the p u n c h line. This time, t h o u g h , there was n o twinkle.) In spite of the o m i n o u s situation in Europe, J a m a i c a Plain was p l e a s a n t in the fall o f 1940, after I had decided that 17 years in N e w York were e n o u g h for a n y o n e , especially for a reluctant pteridologist. A l t h o u g h K r u k o f f told me that I was crazy, G l e a s o n n e v e r u p b r a i d e d me on m y d e c i s i o n to leave, a l t h o u g h I could read his thoughts. Alfred Rehder, at the age of 76, had c o n c e d e d to r e t i r e m e n t f r o m the curatorship of the h e r b a r i u m at the A r n o l d A r b o r e t u m ; u n d e r the c i r c u m s t a n c e s , Merrill's invitation to replace h i m was entirely appealing. A t that time, Merrill and Lily Perry were d e e p l y i n v o l v e d in w o r k i n g up the exciting collections o f L e o n a r d Brass f r o m N e w G u i n e a and S. E Kajewski f r o m the S o l o m o n s , and I was d e l i g h t e d to turn to that field. H e r b a r i u m routine was s m o o t h e d b y the d e v o t e d care of C l a r e n c e Kobuski and C a r o l i n e Allen; and in C a m b r i d g e , at H a r v a r d as well as at our sister Gray H e r b a r i u m , new doors o p e n e d a n d new friends were made, a m o n g t h e m the scholarly and erudite I r v i n g W. Bailey. In the Bronx, the fine c o r n e r second-floor ofrice to w h i c h I had g r a d u a t e d was not e m p t y for long. Within two or three years it was o c c u p i e d and m y duties were m o s t efficiently u n d e r t a k e n by Bassett Maguire. A l t h o u g h I d o u b t if he was ever asked to turn out any t e r n manuscript, Maguire did w h a t I n e v e r c o u l d and o p e n e d for the N Y B G the pages of a n e w book, the book of the " l o s t w o r l d " o f the G u a y a n a Highlands.