A Biographical SJ^etch xiii 



no instruction offered in botany, at least not to members of the 

 classical course in Yale College. However, Professor Eaton, hav- 

 ing some acquaintance with him as a result of the fern discov- 

 ery and appreciating his botanical ardor, opened the way. He 

 admitted him to his home, where, as Professor Setchell writes, 

 "I occupied a table in a corner of his combined library, her- 

 barium, and study room, a large and magnificent room with 

 mantelpieces carved to represent certain North American fern 

 species. A good library, a good herbarium, and a very sympa- 

 thetic instructor!" Various factors in this stimulating and satis- 

 fying environment went far in determining Professor Setchell's 

 future botanical inclinations as well as broadening his immedi- 

 ate botanical horizon. For a year or two he had been collecting 

 seaweeds, and the presence of W. E. Sailord in New Haven en- 

 couraged this pursuit. Saflord, then an ensign in the United 

 States Navy, had obtained leave to study the marine algae under 

 Eaton. Setchell and he immediately combined forces and soon 

 began to make progress in their joint phycological studies. At 

 the same time, he became acquainted with a fellow student, 

 J. B. Hatcher, who was then studying the Hepaticae. Hatcher, 

 who was graduated soon after Setchell's freshman year, obtained 

 an appointment in the United States Geological Survey and was 

 sent to Kansas to engage in paleontological field work. For two 

 or three years he collected representatives of the plains flora, 

 sending his specimens to Setchell, and with Eaton's aid, Setchell 

 determined them. His work on this material, containing, as it 

 did, genera and species almost all of which were new to him, 

 made the first considerable contribution to Setchell's knowledge 

 of the morphology and taxonomy of vascular plants and of the 

 factors which influence their distribution. 

 His earliest contact with what was to become his major re- 



