1918] , Sargent,— Charles Edward Faxon 119 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1897 Harvard conferred on him 
an Honorary Master of Arts degree. 
During the 70’s Professor D. C. Eaton was preparing an illustrated 
work on the Ferns of North America and the Faxons, who were inter- 
ested in Ferns, had opportunities for collecting northern material for 
him. This led to an invitation to Charles Faxon to make some of the 
colored drawings for Eaton’s book. The first of these, that of Aspi- 
dium Goldianum Hook., was published in June 1879, and is plate xl. of 
volume i. The remaining plates of this volume and all those of 
volume ii. were drawn by Faxon. 
Professor Spencer F. Baird, one of whose earlier papers was a cata- 
logue of the trees and shrubs of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 
was anxious that the Smithsonian Institution should publish a Silva 
of North America, and as early as 1849 Isaac Sprague began to make 
colored drawings of the flowers and fruits of trees under the direction 
of Asa Gray who was to prepare a North American Silva for the 
national Government. This plan was dropped at the end of a few 
years, but in 1882 I accepted Professor Baird’s invitation to under- 
take the preparation of a Silva of North America to be published by 
the Smithsonian Institution, and I asked Charles Faxon to join the 
Arboretum staff to take charge of the herbarium and library, and to 
make the drawings for the new Silva. He came to the Arboretum 
on May 12th of that year and remained in charge of the herbarium 
and library until his death, seeing them grow from insignificance to 
considerable importance; and much of the value and success of the 
Arboretum is due to the admirable manner in which he managed his 
departments. 
Faxon began at once the drawings for The Silva, but at the end of a 
few months it was found that at the rate the Smithsonian Institution 
was willing to pay for the work it would take at least seventy-five 
years to complete it, and another arrangement was made for the pub- 
lication of the book. Under the new arrangement Faxon made such 
good progress with the drawings that it was possible to begin publish- 
ing the first volume in 1891, and the last of his seven hundred and 
forty-four Silva plates appeared just twenty years after he began 
_ making the first drawing. 
= To illustrate some of the Guatemala plants described by faii 
Donnell Smith Faxon made thirty-four drawings which were pub- 
lished in The Botanical Gazette between 1888 and 1894. They repre- 
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