130 THE PLANT WORLD 



THOMAS CONRAD PORTER. 



By a. a. Heller. 



ON April 27th, at his home at Easton, Pa., at the ripe age of 79 

 years, death claimed the last of the older botanists who added 

 so much to the taxonomic knowledge of the science during the 

 latter half of the 19th century. 



Thomas Conrad Porter, D. D., LL. D., was born at Alexandria, 

 Huntingdon county. Pa., January 22, 1822. In 1840 he graduated from 

 Lafayette College, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1844. 

 His j&rst charge was a mission at Monticello, Georgia, where he spent 

 one year, dating from April, 1846. This southern field was an enjoy- 

 able one, as it afforded an excellent opportunity for botanical explora- 

 tion at such interesting localities as Stone Mountain and Toccoa Falls. 

 A number of strange plants not easily determined were carefully de- 

 scribed and figured by him, and these were usually sent to Asa Gray. 

 On Stone Mountain he discovered Gymnolomia Porteri, expressing the 

 opinion that it was an undescribed plant. Dr. Gray did not agree with 

 him at first, but shortly afterwards described the plant as Budbeckia ? 

 Porteri. It was always a source of regret to Dr. Porter that he failed 

 to obtain specimens of Quercus Georgiana which he noticed on Stone 

 Mountain before the species was described. 



Only last December while visiting him at Easton, the writer had 

 the pleasure of listening to the reading of an interesting and beautifullj^ 

 written letter sent from Monticello in 1846 to one of his relatives. 



After serving as pastor of the Second Reformed church at Reading, 

 Pa., for one year, he went to Mercersburg, Pa., in 1849, as Professor of 

 Natural Sciences in Marshall College. When that institution was 

 merged wdth Franklin College at Lancaster in 1853, he removed to this 

 city, occupying the same chair in the newly organized Franklin and 

 Marshall College, which he filled until July, 1866. 



He was one of the founders and the first presidertt of the Linnaean 

 Society of Lancaster. While located here he collected assiduously in 

 many parts of the county, whose flora is one of peculiar interest on 

 account of the work done upon it a century ago by Muhlenberg, and in 

 1869 the results of these explorations appeared in a list entitled " Enu- 

 meration of the Indigenous and Naturalized Plants of Lancaster County, 

 Pennsylvania," published in Mombert's " Authentic History " of Lan- 

 caster county. 



In 1866 he was elected Professor of Botany, Zoology and General 

 Geology in Lafayette College at Easton, Pa., which position he held 

 until 1897, when he was retired as Emeritus Professor and Curator of 

 the herbarium. 



