CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 7 
Cc. F. Baker. 
Baker undoubtedly was the most indefatigable and the most 
prolific botanist in America. He cannot be said to have been in 
any sense a model botanist for he burnt life’s candle at both ends 
and thereby killed himself when he should have been in his prime. 
He had no sense of obligation to his body, but rode it te death, 
often working all night, as well as day, to deliver some promised 
consignment,(Once he and his wife labeled and put up 6000 insects 
in one night, for he was also an entomologist. 
ever met him but he began sending me things to name, 
cies published by Greene from the same collection, Recently, in 
aker was what [ would call a good botanical collector, but a 
sloppy scientist, for his work was not done scientifically. He 
made no effort to know each species as it grew, all its varying 
forms. So they have little value ecologically. Botanizing should 
be an honest attempt to know the flora as it is, and not a wild 
scramble to make a few extra dollars selling alleged novelties. 
