Flora of Michignn. Study at Mk higan 21 



In 1881 Real's famous address, '■The New Botany,'" was pub- 

 lished, and its presentation before a Michigan teachers' conven- 

 tion became an important event historically in the science. The 

 "new botany" signified new methods of study and instruction. 

 A maxim which Dr. Heal taught all of his life was " Details and 

 facts before principles and conclusions." He, before beginning 

 his forty years of teaching at Michigan Agricultural College, had 

 taught for two years and obtained a master's degree in science at 

 the University of Chicago. His doctorate of science was later 

 secured at Michigan Agricultural College. But by 1880 his alma 

 mater, the University of Michigan, had invested him with an 

 honorary degree of doctor of philosophy. 



When Wheeler and Smith had their catalogue of Michigan 

 plants ready to be published, they went to Beal who consulted 

 Charles W. Garfield, a graduate and former teacher at the agri- 

 cultural college, now a farmer, banker, and business man still 

 vitally interested in horticulture, agriculture, and forestry, in fact 

 secretary of the state horticultural society. Bcal told him that 

 " two Hubbardston boys had something that was very valuable 

 but they had no money." Garfield saw in their work " just what 

 [he] wanted [for his] next horticultural volume and it was 

 printed in the 1880 report"-^ of the society. Reprints at a small 

 cost were made and Smith and Garfield became warm friends. 

 So recognized for its merit was the flora that copies containing 105 

 pages of descriptive material, corrections, and a preface which 

 elaborated " main features" of the vegetation of the upper penin- 

 sula, areas around the Great Lakes, in river valleys, upland re- 

 gions, marshes, pine country, the lower peninsula, and other 

 special localities, were published in bound form under the title, 

 Flora of Michigan. 



How much of a part Volney Morgan Spalding had in its prepa- 

 ration before the year 1881 cannot be said positively. He had 

 published a " List of native medicinal plants of Michigan," and its 

 use as source material was acknowledged by Smith and Wheeler. 

 Spalding also was an easterner. In 1849 he had been born at 

 East Bloomfield, New York. But his advanced education had 

 been acquired at the University of Michigan where in 1873 he 

 had been graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Soon 



" Letter, Garfield to William Alton Taylor, April 22, 1927. 

 2 



