CYRUS GUERNSEY PRINGLE. 915 



It is far easier to indicate the regions in Mexico where Pringle did 

 not collect than where he did. In the following states he collected 

 not at all or only to slight extent: Taraaulipas, the coastal portions 

 of Vera Cruz, Tobasco, Campeachy, Yucatan, and Chiapas. His 

 work extended to practically all the other states and most of them he 

 explored repeatedly and with all feasible thoroughness. 



He was very methodical in his work. At the outset he collected 

 about forty specimens of each kind selected. Later, as his reputation 

 increased and he was able to secure wider sales for his duplicates, he 

 augmented this number to fifty and at length to sixty specimens of a 

 kind. Returning to his home in Vermont after a season in the field, 

 he would make up his sets, submit one complete set to specialists for 

 expert determination, care for the printing of labels, and ship his 

 duplicate sets to the numerous subscribers both in this country and to 

 nearly all the important herbaria in other parts of the world. 



Although earnestly devoted to his work, he was very humanly 

 subject to a sort of rhythmic ebb and flow of enthusiasm. Each year 

 in returning from his long and arduous journeyings, he would assure 

 his friends that he could never return to Mexico, that he had ex- 

 hausted the botany of the country so far as it was accessible to a man 

 of his age and strength, that he believed he would devote himself to 

 indoor work in his herbarium. After several winter months, devoted 

 most happily to this indoor work, he would again become restless, 

 would earnestly study the map of Mexico, and as soon as sufficient 

 money returns accrued from the sales of his plants of the previous 

 season, he would be off on his way back to Mexico with even more 

 ambitious plans than any he had previously ventured upon. 



It has been estimated by a close friend and excellent botanist that 

 Pringle collected in all more than 500,000 specimens of plants, repre- 

 senting about 20,000 different species and varieties, of which about 

 12 per cent were new to science. 



From 1898 until his death Pringle was the officially appointed 

 Collector for the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, and it has 

 been at that establishment that the greater part of his remarkably 

 interesting collections of plants have been identified and the numerous 

 novelties have been given scientific study and publication, though 

 in this work several specialists elsewhere, notably at the Department 

 of Agriculture and United States National Museum, have given much 

 expert aid. 



From the beginning of his botanical work to the end of his fife 

 Pringle was greatly interested in developing his own herbarium and, 



