CYRUS GUERNSEY PRINGLE. 913 



to experiments in plant-breeding. With natural aptitude, unlimited 

 patience, and increasing skill, his achievements were notable, re- 

 sulting in improved strains of wheat, oats, grapes, and potatoes. It 

 has been estimated that these improvements effected by Pringle in 

 crops of fundamental importance have together brought to the Ameri- 

 can farmers an increase of profit amounting to several millions of 

 dollars. He was also greatly interested in horticulture and at one 

 time cultivated a very large number of different species of Lilium and 

 Iris, and experimented extensively in hybridization. He also turned 

 his attention to certain practical aspects of plant-surgery and plant- 

 pathology. 



During all this time he acquired an increasing interest in the native 

 flora of his region and, after making some admirably selected and 

 carefull}^ prepared collections in Northern Vermont, extended his 

 explorations to the White Mountains and to the region of the lower 

 St. Lawrence. 



About 1880 an attack of inflammatory rheumatism warned him to 

 seek occupation in a milder and drier climate. After consultation 

 with Dr. Asa Gray, Prof. C. S. Sargent, and others, who recognizing 

 his ability gave him aid, counsel, and several botanical commissions, 

 he started on what became his special career and chief life-work, 

 namely botanical exploration. His first journeys to California and 

 Arizona were undertaken in a variety of interests — in connection 

 with the forestry survc}^ embodied in the United States Tenth Census, 

 to secure wood samples for the American Museum of Natural History, 

 and to obtain specimens and data helpful to Dr. Gray, then writing 

 his Synoptical Flora of North America. Having accomplished 

 notable results in all these directions, Pringle was encouraged by Dr. 

 Gray to enter the more difficidt field of Mexico. This he did in 1885 

 and from that time until the end of his life in 1911 he made more than 

 twenty journeys to that country. He repeatedly penetrated its 

 wildest regions^ climbed lofty mountains, explored numberless canons, 

 traversed deserts, and cut his way through dense tropical jungles. 

 Each year he brought back collections of astonishing extent and 

 excellence. 



The difficulties and perils of his travels were great. Without 

 means to equip expeditions of size, in which safety may to some extent 

 be effected by numbers and cooperation, he travelled with methods of 

 Spartan simplicity, often alone, rarely with more than one assistant. 

 The nature of his work took him into the most primitive regions, 

 where neither the native food nor lodging was endurable, and in 



