152 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY 
MARCUS E. JONES, A. M. 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
Marcus E. Jones, always called Prof. Jones by his friends and ac- 
quaintances (because of his many, though intermittent years of teach- 
ing), was born in Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio, Apr. 25, 1852, of 
old Yankee stock, his ancestors having come to America on one of the 
later trips of the Mayflower. His mother was Lavinia Burton, a sister 
of the late U. S. Senator Theodore E. Burton of Cleveland, Ohio. His 
father was Publius Virgilius Jones, a lumberman and a local captain of 
“roughing it”, exploring Lower California. Some of his botanical 
friends speak of him as the last of the great pioneer, exploring botanists. 
n spite of poverty and hardships, Marcus Jones graduated from Iowa 
College (established 1843; now Grinnell College), with the degree of Bach- 
elor of Arts in 1875. After three years of post-graduate work while teaching 
Latin and Mathematics, he received his M. A. degree with high honors 
in 1878. He had previously won medals and prizes for fine scholarship, 
and years later, when a Phi Beta Kappa chapter was organized at Grin- 
nell, he was elected to membership and awarded a key, which he wore 
with much pride. He had received an unusually thorough classical 
training in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Anglo Saxon as well as being 
familiar with German and Italian. And yet he was not a natural lin- 
guist and found that he detested teaching Latin, although he proved to be 
a very successful teacher. Science was his hobby and exploring his joy. 
But practically all training in these things he gained for himself after col- 
