2 40 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A BIOGKAPHICAL HISTOEY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS, 



MISSOUEI. IV 



By Dr. PERLEY SPAULDING 



laboratory of forest pathology, bdreau of piant industry, 

 u. s. department of agricultdre 



ONE of the best known of the botanical collectors of this conntry who 

 worked shortly after the middle of the last century was August 

 I'endler. He, like numerous others, came to America from Germany 

 in the late thirties. From 1864 to 1871 he lived at Allenton, Mis- 

 souri, about thirty miles from St. Louis. While living at Allenton 

 I'endler arranged the first botanical specimens in the herbarium which 

 was just being started by Henry Shaw for his Botanical Garden. 

 These numbered about 60,000 and consisted of the herbaria of Bern- 

 hardi and Eiehl, the latter containing a considerable number of local 

 species. Because of his extensive and excellent collections, he became 

 known to botanists and botanical institutions. While he was widely 

 known by reputation, he seems not to have been well known personally, 

 because of his excessive diffidence. 



August Fendler^^ was born August 10, 1813, in the town of Gum- 

 bmnen, in eastern Prussia. When he was six months old his father 

 died, and two years later his mother married again. His parents had 

 but scanty means and his school training for a number of years could 

 scarcely be called schooling. When about twelve years old he was sent 

 to the Gymnasium, and was here for about four years, when his parents 

 were obliged to take him from school because of financial troubles. He 

 was apprenticed to the town clerk's office, and here began to think of 

 traveling in foreign countries. 



At the end of his apprenticeship he had an offer to accompany a 

 prominent physician as his clerk in a journey of inspection along the 

 Eussian frontier of Prussia where the cholera was beginning to be 

 feared. Fendler was soon in the midst of the cholera and remained for 

 some time, returning home when the disease had abated. He now 

 learned the trade of tanning and currying during the next two years. 

 In the fall of 1834 Fendler was admitted to the Eoyal Gcwerbeschule, 

 but the strain upon his already frail health caused him to abandon it 

 after finishing the first year with credit. 



"Canby, W. M., Bot. Gaz., 9: 111-112, 1884; 10: 285-290, 301-304, 319- 

 322, 1885. 



Gray, Asa, Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, 3d series, 29: 169-171, 1885. 

 Sargent, C. S., " Silva of North America," 12: 123-124, 1898. 



