130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



History almost from childhood, and trained to investigation in one de- 

 partment, in which he had made successful explorations in a distant 

 field, he was confidently expected to add new celebrity to the distin- 

 guished name he inherited, when a career of unusual scientific promise 

 was thus suddenly arrested. 



He was the eldest son of the late Hon. Horace Mann (of whom it is 

 unnecessary here to speak), and was born in Boston on the 25th of 

 February, 1844 ; therefore had not completed the 25th year of his age. 

 His earlier studies were pui'sued mainly under the immediate direction 

 of his parents, with both of whom education was a specialty. Soon 

 after his father's death the family removed from Antioch College, just 

 as Horace was prepared to enter upon the regular course. He studied 

 at Concord for some time with private tutors, and then entered the 

 Scientific School at Cambridge, giving himself first to Zoology, espe- 

 cially Conchology, under Professor Agassiz, and afterwards to Botany 

 under Professor Gray. In 1864 he joined his friend William T. 

 Brigham in a visit to the Sandwich Islands by way of the Isthmus 

 and California ; and they explored this group in company, Mr. Mann 

 taking the Botany as his particular department, while Mr. Brigham 

 attended more to the Geology and Mineralogy. On his return to 

 Cambridge he took up the special study of Hawaiian plants, and re- 

 joined the Scientific School of Harvard University. Upon applying 

 for the degree of Bachelor of Science (which he obtained with honors 

 in 1867), he laid before his examiners, as his thesis, an elaborate and 

 critical " Enumeration of Hawaiian Plants," which was deemed worthy 

 of a place among the publications of this Academy. It fills almost 

 one hundred pages of the seventh volume of our Proceedings, and has 

 been recognized in the botanical world as a contribution of sterling 

 value. It had been preceded by two other papers in the Proceedings 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History upon certain new plants of 

 the Sandwich Islands, and it was to be followed by a complete Flora 

 of those Islands for the use of general botanists on the one hand, and 

 of the residents of the country on the other, such a work being a de- 

 sideratum for both. Mr. Mann had actually written out the greater 

 part of it, and three fasciculi were printed by the Essex Institute ; it is 

 hoped that the work may be completed from the notes and materials 

 left by him. The smaller papers and articles contributed by Mr. Mann 

 to the Boston Natural History Society and to scientific journals are at 

 least twelve in number. All his writings, in their simplicity, directness, 



