164 ERYTHEA. 



bought books (which he afterward donated to the Academy),^ and 

 collected and studied plants (which he gave to the Academy's 

 Herbarium),' but, outside of a short note in defense of the priority 

 of the work of his friends, Drs. Kellogg and Behr, on the Big 

 Trees (Sequoia gigantea), it does not transpire that he ever appeared 

 in print; whereupon we find ourselves confessing some interest in 

 his history and personality. 



The botanist who nowadays does not publish few or many research 

 papers in more or less elaborate form is rara avis ; some there are, 

 indeed, who do not publish, but if one be well acquainted with all the 

 dark corners and shelves of botanical literature, evidences of early 

 indiscretion are likely to be brought to the light and testify against 

 them. But Mr. Bloomer's record, saving for the short note men- 

 tioned, is, we believe — ^and the reader may note our caution — quite 

 spotless; he belonged, we have reason to think, to the Most Estimable 

 Guild of Non-Writers. 



But he found work to his hand ; he attended with great regularity 

 the meetings of the Academy of Natural Sciences (as it was then 

 styled) from the earliest days of its organization, when scarce a 

 dozen members (nearly the total enrolment) came to its meetings, in 



2 Minutes of the proceedings run something like this: — Oct. 13, 1854. — 

 H. G. Bloomer presented the 3d vol. of London's Arboretum et Fruticetum. 

 Jan. 15. 1855. — Mr. H. G. Bloomer presented five volumes of the Edinburgh 

 Encyclopedia. Feb. 2, 1863.— Vols. 1 to 27 of the Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, etc. 



Every botanist is acquainted with the annoyance attending consultation of 

 and reference to the botanical papers in the Pacific Railroad Survey Reports. 

 There is a volume in the Library of the Academy containing only the 

 botanical papers of the survey, which was the handicraft of Bloomer, and 

 is an excellent example of his systematic and careful work. 



For the whole volume he contrived a generic and specific index, which is of 

 an extremely useful nature. All of the papers were repaged in sequence. 

 The first column on an index page refers to the repagination, the other 

 columns cite the original pagination, with the name of the expedition; for 

 example, Pope's, as commonly quoted. There is a similar index to the 

 plates. 



^Nov. 19, 1855, appears the interesting record: "From H. G. Bloomer, a 

 cone of Taxodium giganteum [Big Tree]." At the next meeting: "From 

 Mr. Bloomer, several hundred specimens of California plants," will serve to 

 illustrate the character of his series of donations. 



