THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. '2'2~i 



EDWARD TATNALL. 



Edward Tatnall was born on the 30th of September, in 

 the year 1818, in the village of Brandywine, then a suburb 

 of the Borough of Wilmington, Delaware, now a ward uf 

 that city. His first botanical lessons were under Joseph C. 

 Strode, at East Bradford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 

 and as botany was taught in that day (by memorizing pages 

 of glossary), the class of fourteen was disgusted, saying, if 

 that was botany they wanted none of it. Edward, alone, 

 scaled the glossary wall. 



He collected many plants in Chester County in 1831 

 and 1832, and in 1833 and 1834, while attending Haverford 

 College, also many in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In 

 1867 he spent three months in traveling through the far 

 West, from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Springfield, Illinois, by 

 private conveyance, which afforded opportunity for collect- 

 ing many specimens. At Chicago, then a village, he 

 collected seven plants between the " Lake House " and the 

 lake shores. The trip extended to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, 

 and later, to the Falls of St. Anthony, where there were no 

 signs of any habitation. About 1853 he first visited Dr. Dar- 

 lington at West Chester, seeking advice about a ScuteMaria, 

 found 011 the rocky banks of Brandywine Creek, which he 

 pronounced to be a variety of S. nervosa, but which was 

 afterward described as & saxatilis Ridd. It is the only 

 known locality east of the Alleghany Mountains. 



On June 3, 1859, he forwarded to Dr. Gray specimens 

 of Potamogeton crispus, which before that time had been 

 denied an existence in this country. Dr. Gray replied in 

 his usual laconic style : " The Potamogeton is P. crispus 

 exactly, and you have fixed it as a native of this country." 



