Floiii of Miibigiin. Study at Michigan 15 



one in the life of young Smith. It took courage for a full bearded 

 youth to enter the Ionia High School, two weeks late, with few, 

 if any, acquaintances, and the difficult prospect of supporting him- 

 self during each of the years till graduation. 



Exceptional circumstances often give rise to exceptional solu- 

 tions. A wise principal, Anson P. DeWolf, educated at the 

 University of Michigan, seems to have realized this. Impressed by 

 Smith's "unusual intelligence, courteous bearing and evident ac- 

 quirements," ^^ he granted him " full permission to come and go 

 as the spirit moved." The eager young scholar-farmer from Hub- 

 bardston " had acquired a fine knowledge of the French language." 

 Indeed, he already "read extensively the French scientific books" 

 ., which laid part of his " foundation for the scientific work of his 

 later life." 



On October 27, 1876, Wheeler, by letter, encouraged him to 

 continue his botanical studies while going to school in Ionia. 

 "We must begin," he wrote, "to think of getting the materials 

 in shape for our Catalogue, Catalogus Plantarum circa Hubbard- 

 stonensem Nascentiuni. How will that do for a title page.'' You 

 are studying Latin I believe. Are there any errors?" By 1878 

 they had prepared a "List of Cent[ral} Mich[igan] Plants." 



Principal DeWolf never complained when his young student 

 dropped everything, filled his collecting can with food, and went 

 into the woods and fields to search the region for uncommon and 

 new species. 



Joseph Charles Arthur, student of Charles Edwin Bessey of 

 Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, was among the nationally 

 known botanists with whom they exchanged specimens of plants. 

 As early as 1870 he had sent a list of his duplicates and, both 

 then and in 1876, offered copies of his catalogues of plants from 

 the Iowa flora. On October 16, 1876, from Philadelphia, he wrote 

 of the Centennial where he had an exhibit of Iowa plants for 

 which he received a medal. Thomas Jonathan Burrill, botanist of 

 the Illinois Industrial University, displayed a collection of woods." 

 Other botanists from various quarters of the nation supplied ex- 

 hibits. Federal Commissioner of Agriculture Frederick Watts had 



^^ L. R. Jones, Erwin Frink Smith 1854-1927, a biographical memoir, Natl Acad, 

 of Sci. of the U. S. of Amer., 21:3, first memoir, 1939. 



^*J. T. Barrett, Thomas Jonathan Burrill, Phytopathology 8 (1): 1, Jan. 1918. 



