GEORGE EDWARD DAVENPORT. 865 



GEORGE EDWARD DAVENPORT (1833-1907) 



Fellow in Class II, Section 2, 1898. 



George Edward Davenport was born in Boston, August 3d, 1833; 

 he was the son of WilHam E. and Deborah (Skidmore) Davenport, 

 both of Boston. He went through the regular course in the Boston 

 schools, graduating from the High School. In 1853 he married Miss 

 Mary Frances, and in 1875 he removed to Medford, Massachusetts, 

 where he resided for the rest of his life, dying Nov. 27, 1907. 



His interest in botany began in his school days; at first it was 

 general, but soon concentrated on ferns. Though their study was 

 only an avocation in connection with an active business life, he was 

 soon recognized as a careful and accurate student. For many years 

 he was in continual correspondence with Professor Daniel C. Eaton 

 of Yale, and contributed much to the completeness of Eaton's gieat 

 work on the Ferns of North America. After Eaton's death Mr. 

 Davenport became the recognized authority on North American 

 ferns. He never published any extensive work but many and valuable 

 shorter papers. A list of his botanical writings, by Miss Mary A. 

 Day, librarian of the Gray Herbarium, was published in Rhodora, 

 Vol. X, p. 1, January, 1908, and includes 109 numbers. When at 

 last he was able to give up business, and could give his time more 

 freely to his favorite studies, his strength and his sight were unequal 

 to the task of completing the manual of North American Ferns, which 

 he had planned many years before, and to which he had already 

 given much time. 



His knowledge of ferns was not merely nor mainly a knowledge of 

 herbarium conditions; he studied them growing wild, and at his home 

 in Medford he had under cultivation and observation nearly every 

 form growing in New England, as well as flowering plants adapted for 

 studies of variation and heredity. His thorough scientific knowledge 

 of plants did not impair his appreciation of their beauty, and he was a 

 lover of nature all his life. He was one of the most active in the work 

 of securing for the public the Middlesex Fells, the beginning of the 

 chain of reservations of wild lands, of which Boston is now so proud. 

 In early life he was active in the anti-slavery movement, later inter- 

 ested in labor conditions and developments; always enthusiastic 

 and ardent; sensitive, kind-hearted, but unyielding in his convictions. 

 He was a life member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 and an original member of the New England Botanical Club. 



F. S. Collins. 



