IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. jg 



lege with the hope of completing his college course, which he did in 1896 

 He received the M. S. degree in 1898. He becane an assistant in the depart- 

 ment of botany and continued in this capacity till July, 1898. During this 

 time he acted as instructor in botany in the college, assistant botanist of the 

 Iowa Agricultural Experiment station, and botanical collector in Cuba Mr 

 Combs was largely interested along economic lines. He published several" 

 papers of much merit, one on the anatomy of corn leaves in the proceedings 

 of the Iowa Academy, another on the alfalfa leaf spot in the biennial report 

 of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts for 1897 and 

 1898. During the early days of the Cuban insurrection, 1895, he was on the 

 Island of Cuba. Here Mr. Combs was sugar chemist for a large concern near 

 Cienfuegos, and after the sugar season was over he began to make a large 

 collection of Cuban plants. These were distributed to leading institutions 

 The results of his labors were embodied in a paper of considerable length on 

 the plants of Santa Clara province published in transactions of the St Louis 

 Academy of Science, Vol. VII, p. 393. In this paper ara described a num- 

 ber of new species and one species, the Bondeletia Combsii, was dedicated to 

 our young, enthusiastic naturalist by Mr. Greenman. No one was more 

 worthy of such rocognition than Mr. Combs who imperiled his life both 

 by fever and the insurgents, with whom he had several unpleasant experi- 

 ences. While collecting on the island he had occasion to meet many of the 

 country folk and soon learned that they were much interested in the plants 

 of the island for medicinal purposes. He found that the native Cubans 

 made extensive use of many native plants to cure diseases of various kinds 

 The results of his observations were embodied in a paper on the medicinal 

 plants of Cuba published in the Pharmaceutlcat Beview. It is the only 

 English account we have of the medical plants of the island. The only 

 other published paper of his on corn appeared in Bulletin No. 36 of the Iowa 

 Agricultural Experiment station. In July, 1898, he accepted a position as 

 field agent for the division of agrostology, U. S. department of agriculture 

 and at the time of his death had ready for publication a paper on the forage 

 conditions and forage plants of Florida. Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner in a 

 letter to the writer says of him, "I had come to admire the sterling quali- 

 ties of manhood and marked abilities of Mr. Combs, and felt assured that 

 he had a brilliant future in store. It is with more than ordinary feelings 

 of sorrow the news of his death brings me, for I not only held a deep per- 

 sonal regard for him, but science has lost an earnest and most promising 

 student.- Mr. Combs, though never of a rugged constitution, was endowed 

 with a will that overcame any obstacles on account of physcial weakness 

 He was prompt and punctual in all his work„ fle never undertook any- 

 thing except that it was done well. As an illustration, when he returned 

 from Cuba he entered the senior year when the term was nearly half gone 

 His trigonometry, a sophomore study, was nearly half completed, but with 

 the energy characteristic of him he was able to complete all of his work 

 with credit to himself. It is such enthusiasm that makes naturalists and 

 this was given him in an unusual degree. During the siege of his illness 

 his letters were always hopeful of doing something for the cause of science 

 to which he was so devoted. Just a week before his death he wrote to the 

 writer about his return to his home in Kansas to do some work in a limited 

 way, but that he would have to give up his work with the department of 



