IRbofcora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 4 September, 1902 No. 45 



THE PRINGLE AND FROST HERBARIA AT THE UNI- 

 VERSITY OF VERMONT. 



L. R. Jones. 



The past year has been one of unusual prosperity for the botan- 

 ical department of the University of Vermont, opening with the 

 acquisition by special bequests of some $500 worth of valuable books 

 and closing with the transfer to its halls of the library and herbarium 

 of C. C. Frost, and the transfer and endowment of the Pringle herba- 

 rium, the fitting up of a suite of rooms for its reception, and the 

 appointment of Mr. C. G. Pringle as its keeper. Since both the 

 Frost and the Pringle herbaria are unique in character and of 

 more than local significance, some account of their condition and 

 the disposition to be made of them may be of interest. 



Charles C. Frost, "the shoemaker botanist" of Brattleboro, Ver- 

 mont, was well known to the cryptogamic botanists of the middle of the 

 last century, in Europe as well as America. Most of his botanical work 

 was done between the years 1845 and 1875. He was, during this 

 time, in correspondence with the leading cryptogamistsof this country 

 and evidently exchanged specimens quite extensively. He gave 

 special attention to various groups of the lower plants, at different 

 times, but his best work was upon the fleshy fungi, in which he was 

 closely associated with Mr. Charles. J. Sprague, Professor C. H. 

 Peck, and others. His most important publication is the cryptogamic 

 portion of the Amherst Catalogue issued in 1875. Since his 

 death, in 1880, his library and herbarium have remained in the pos- 

 session of his family, who deposited them about 1890 in the public 

 library building in the keeping of the Brattleboro Natural History 



