228 Rhodora [NOVEMBER 
labors in this field have added many millions to the profits of the 
American farmer." ! 
The latter half of these sixteen years Mr. Pringle became more and 
more engaged in collecting rare native plants both for dealers at home 
and abroad, and for several distinguished botanists such as Daven- 
port, Tuckerman and Gray. He thus became deeply interested in 
the study of the flora of Vermont. In 1876 he discovered the botanical 
treasures of Smugglers’ Notch and re-explored the cliffs of Wil- 
loughby previously visited by Alphonso Wood. Of his joy and 
success in these labors he gave a delightful account in a paper before 
the Vermont Botanical Club in February 1897.2 As a sample of his 
charming style, we quote one of the closing paragraphs: 
“Tt were going beyond the limits of my subject to tell of extended 
trips made during these years to the White Mountains, to join there 
the Faxons, till we became as familiar with those tempest-swept 
heights as with our native fields; or to tell of boat journeys, and the 
ample fruits of such, made in three successive years to the cold fir-set 
shores of the Lower St. Lawrence, to the Saguenay low between its 
palisades of giant cliffs, and through the lone lakes and unbroken 
forests of the St. Francis to the St. John of northern Maine; — ex- 
periences calculated to fill one with large thoughts, to raise him above 
fear, and to make the modern world of conventions and fads show 
paltry.” 
But circumstances were opening the way for wider work in remoter 
fields. In February 1872 Mrs. Pringle separated from her husband. 
Only a few words need be said of this painful event in his life. The 
wife was zealous to engage in ‘evangelistic work,’ going from place to 
place, and persistently urged her husband to engage in the work with 
her. But believing that he had neither taste nor talent for it, he as 
persistently refused. She was, moreover, in poor health, and was 
persuaded that it would be better for her to live with her own mother 
than with her husband’s mother. A formal divorce was obtained 
October 16, 1877, the wife receiving $2,000 alimony and the custody 
of their only child, now Mrs. Annie R. Wright. E 
In the autumn of 1880 Mr. Pringle made his first trip to the Pacific 
1 We are pleased to learn that this pioneer work of Mr. Pringle in plant-breeding is j 
to be written up by Prof. Burns of the University of Vermont. 
2 This paper was published in full in the Bulletin of the Torrey Club 24: 350. July 
1897. 
