The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. u. 



JUNE, 1899. 



No. 9. 



ALVIN WENTWORTH CHAPMAN. 

 By F. H. Knotvlton. 



The venerable Dr. Chapman, long known 

 as the leading authority on the flora of the 

 southern United States, died at his home in 

 Apalachicola, Florida, April 6, 1899, a:nd his 

 remains were interred on the following day in 

 the old cemetery in that city. As a mark of 

 respect to their distinguished and much-loved 

 fellow-citizen, business was suspended through- 

 out the city, and all combined to do honor to 

 his memory. " The passing of Dr. Chapman 

 is to this community like the fall of a mighty 

 oak which leaves the landscape desolate." 



Alvin Wentworth Chapman was the youngest of five children, 

 and was born. in Southampton, Mass., September 23, 1809, the year 

 which gave to the world Gladstone, Darwin, Lincoln, Tennyson, 

 Holmes, and many other distinguished men whose works will be their 

 most lasting monument. Chapman graduated from Amherst College 

 in the class of 1830, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 

 May of the following year he removed to Georgia, where, until 1834, 

 he engaged in teaching. In 1835 he went to Quincy, Florida, and 

 later to Marrianna, where he engaged in the practice of medicine, 

 having studied this profession, in intervals of teaching, in both Georgia 

 and North Carolina. He received the honorary degree of M. D. from 

 the Louisville Medical Institute in 1846, and the next year removed to 

 Apalachicola, which was thereafter his home. 



Soon after he became a resident of Florida Dr. Chapman made the 

 acquaintance of Stephen Croom, a well-known botanist of those days, 

 and in the friendship which followed he became interested in the 



