Rbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 22. September, 1920. No. 260. 
FRANCIS EUGENE M’DONALD 
Virainius H. CHASE. 
(With Portrait) 
Francis EUGENE McDoxarp was born at Wyanet, Illinois, Feb. 
23,1860. The family moved to Peoria in his childhood and he received 
his education in that town. After completing his school days, F. E. 
McDonald took up the study of law under Judge Bigelow. He stood 
third in a class of twenty-six and was admitted to the bar, January 8, 
1883. He had taken the law course because his mother wished it, but 
controversies and quarrels were so absolutely contrary to his nature 
that he never could bring himself to practice his profession. 
On account of the illness of his father, who was in the railway mail 
service, he tock his place for some months as railway mail clerk be- 
tween Galva and Quincy, Ill., and in 1884 was given a regular appoint- 
ment between Rock Island, Ill., and St. Louis, Mo., which he held up 
to the time of his death. 
As a child he greatly admired a little “herbarium” prepared by his 
mother in her school days, but just how great his admiration for it 
was she never realized until she thoughtlessly gave it away. Before 
many years he began to collect and prepare herbarium specimens for 
himself, and by the time he was married, Sept. 25, 1890, to Miss Ida 
Trine of Chicago, he had a large local collection. He added to this 
by exchange with all the best collectors in the country, until at the 
time he sold it to the University of Illinois, about ten years ago, it 
numbered over ten thousand specimens. 
