18 HOWARD S. REED 



and Physiology in 1902. He was for many years an associate 

 editor of the "Botanical Gazette" and later of the " Plant World." 

 In 1909 a group of his former students was moved to prepare a 

 memorial as a token of .their lasting gratitude to their honored 

 teacher. In addition to sending him a congratulatory message 

 engraved on vellum at the time of his sixtieth birthday, a bronze 

 tablet was struck. The inscription on the tablet reads: 



Volney Morgan Spalding 



In commemoration of the twenty-eight years of faithful service as 

 teacher of botany in this university (1876 to 1904) and as a token of 

 love and gratitude this tablet is erected by 100 of his former stud nts. 



Per naturae opera mentem ad humanitatem fingebat atque virtutem. 



Done in MCMIX. 



The tablet was erected in a prominent place in the recently 

 completed botanical laboratory at Ann Arbor. It was formally 

 dedicated at public exercises at which the President of the Uni- 

 versity presided. 



To those who knew him, however, he is best remembered, not 

 by tablets nor by monographs; but by the patient, sacrificing 

 toil with which he helped to build American botany and by the 

 lasting impression made on the lives of his students. The ideals 

 of his life are summed up in a few splendid words which came 

 from his own pen: 



Service, first wrung from the unwilling slave, then the free will offer- 

 ing of the citizen and patriot, is now the honorable goal of the worker 

 in science and here is no higher end to be attained. 



