Rbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. a june, 19oo. No. 18 
EDWIN FAXON. 
GEORGE G. KENNEDY. 
(With portrait.) 
THE progress of botanical research in any region is seldom effected 
by the professional botanist alone. Every herbarium contains sheet 
after sheet of the rarest and most interesting plants from collectors 
whose names are associated rather with business or professional careers 
than with the publication of any botanical work. ‘To such collectors, 
full of devotion and enthusiasm for their loved avocation, botanists owe 
a debt of gratitude for valuable assistance freely rendered in the solu- 
tion of many a perplexing problem, and for the discovery of many an 
unrecognized and interesting plant. Surely these less-known investiga- 
tors, often men of high attainments and rare powers of observation, 
deserve to be borne in remembrance, for their work may well serve as 
an inspiration and stimulus to faithful and unselfish study. Chief : 
among such students of our New England flora was Edwin Faxon, 
whose death not long ago brought sincere sorrow to many a heart. 
Edwin. Faxon, son of Elisha and Hannah (Whiting) Faxon, was 
born in Abington, Massachusetts, September 16, 1823, and died in 
Willoughby, Vermont, June 12, 1898. He was of old New England 
stock, being a descendant in the eighth generation of Thomas Faxon, 
who came from England to Braintree before 1647. His early boyhood 
was passed in his native town, where, in the company of a much-loved 
relative who knew the wild flowers by name, he rambled in lane and 
meadow, acquiring there the interest in plants which was a source of 
so much pleasure to him in after years. ‘There also, under private 
tuition, beginning at the early age of seven years, he laid the founda- 
tion of a sound knowledge of Greek and Latin. When a lad of thir- 
