xlii Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



June 2, 1913. 



President Engler in the chair; attendance 37. 



The following donation to the Library was announced : 



Julius Hurter. .Proceedings of the Seventh International Zoological 

 Congress. 



Dr. Hermann von Schrenk spoke on "Recent Epidemic 

 Appearance of Termites in St. Louis Houses." 



Dr. H. M. Whelpey gave an illustrated account of ' ' The 

 Shrunken Human Heads of Bolivia." 



Messrs. C. S. Mepham and J. Max Wulfing were elected 

 to membership. 



The death of Mr. Julian Bagby and Mr. Geo. W. Let- 

 terman was reported. 



George Washington Letterman. 



With the death of Mr. George W. Letterman in Allenton, Mo., on May 

 28, 1913, there passed one of the few persons who have worked upon 

 the botany of St. Louis and vicinity during their whole life time. His 

 herbarium represents the flora of St. Louis county probably better than 

 any other in existence. 



While Mr. Letterman had worked especially in Missouri, he was an 

 authority on the plants of the region included in eastern and northern 

 Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. 



George W. Letterman was born in Pennsylvania seventy-two years 

 ago. While at State College in Center County, the Civil War broke out 

 and young Letterman enlisted as a private, serving until the end of 

 the war, when he was mustered out of the service with the rank of 

 captain of volunteers. 



He crossed the plains to New Mexico in 1866, returned to Pennsyl- 

 vania, and again going west to Kansas with the idea of farming in that 

 state, he settled finally in 1869 in Allenton, Mo., a hamlet about thirty 

 miles west of St. Louis. 



Here Mr. Letterman taught school for many years also serving as 

 superintendent of schools in St. Louis county. 



Shortly after settling in Allenton, Mr. Letterman met August Fend- 

 ler, the botanist, who had a farm in that neighborhood. This meeting 

 stimulated his interest in plants, especially in trees. For Dr. Engel- 

 mann Letterman made large collections of plants in the neighborhood 

 of Allenton, with many notes on the oaks and hickories. 



In 1880 he was appointed special agent of the Census Department of 

 the United States to collect information about the trees and forests of 

 Missouri, Arkansas, western Louisiana and eastern Texas. Later he 

 collected specimens from the same region for the Jesup Collection of 



