128 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the first summer to botanical investigations at Cambridge, and then 

 visiting his native land in company with his wife and son. In 1868 

 the family again visited Europe for a year, the son remaining to study 

 at Berlin. The mother died in January, 1879, and Englemann's own 

 health failed alarmingly. A journey to Germany was taken in 1883 

 and the voyage was so beneficial that he was able to resume his botanic- 

 al work. Serious symptoms soon caused him to return and the ocean 

 voyage again proved very restorative and he resumed his labors with 

 increased vigor. Increasing infirmities, however, gradually reduced 

 his working powers until his death, which took place on February 4, 

 1884. 



Upon first coming to this section of the country Dr. Engelmann 

 traveled on horseback through southern Illinois and in Missouri and 

 Arkansas; and during the latter part of his life he explored the moun- 

 tains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the Lake Superior region and 

 the Eocky Mountains and contiguous plains in Colorado and adjacent 

 territories, thus being able to study in place, and with the acuteness of 

 judgment which characterized his work, the Cacti, Conifers, and 

 other groups of plants which he had investigated for years. In 1880 

 he made a long journey through the Pacific states, where he saw for 

 the first time growing naturally many plants which he had described 

 and studied over thirtv vears before. 



Dr. Engelmann's papers are voluminous even for a man who could 

 devote all of his time to botany ; but it must be remembered that he had 

 a large practise as a physician, which took most of his time, and that 

 botany was taken up only in spare moments. When this is taken into 

 account, together with the fact that he was also interested in other 

 sciences (especially meteorology), their extent is nothing short of mar- 

 velous. The memorial volume of his papers published by Henry Shaw 

 contains eighty-seven different papers of varying length. These have 

 been grouped in this volume under the following headings or general 

 topics: Cuscutinese, Cactese, Juneus, Yucca and Agave, Coniferae, 

 Oaks, Vitis, Euphorbiaceaj, Isoetes, Miscellaneous, Lists and Collected 

 Descriptions of Plants, and General Notes. It was the custom of Dr. 

 Engelmann to take any scrap of paper and make notes upon it which 

 might occur to him, together with sketches showing characters of the 

 plant in hand. All such notes were at his death collected and mounted 

 in a set of large books which are now in the possession of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden. These notes were so numerous that they made a 

 library in themselves, filling sixty of these books. 



His method of working was to take a single group of plants and 

 work it out systematically so far as was in his power. His treatment 

 of the genus Cuscuta in his first monograph of that group increased 

 the number of species from one to fourteen without going west of the 



