VIII THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
and in the activities of the numerous scientific societies to which he 
belonged. 
Doctor Penhallow was born on May 25, 1854, at Kittery Point, 
Maine, on the opposite side of the Piscataqua River from the city of 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Descended from a long line of ancestors, 
many of whom, for over two hundred years, had been prominent in 
the public affairs of Portsmouth, he inherited their public spirit and 
love of enterprise, together with those habits of perseverance and tireless 
industry which had made them to be included in the honor roll of its 
citizens, qualities which helped him materially in his palaeobotanical 
work, a branch of science little understood or studied, and possibly less 
appreciated. 
At the age of nineteen (1873) Doctor Penhallow graduated (B.S.) 
from Massachusetts College. Later (1888) he received the degree of 
B.S. from Boston University. In 1876 he was awarded the degrees of 
B.Se. and M. Se. by McGill University, and in 1904 was made a doctor 
of science (D. Sc.) of the same university. 
In 1876 he was appointed professor of botany and chemistry at the 
Imperial College of Agriculture at Sapporo, in Japan, where he remained 
until 1880, serving as acting president of the college in his final year of 
office. Like many other young Americans to whom Japan turned in her 
anxiety to learn everything possible of western thought and civilization, 
he grew to love the country and its inhabitants. Long after his return to 
America he kept in communication with many of his Japanese friends 
and students, several of whom afterwards became well known men of 
science. After a short time spent as an instructor in physiological bot- 
any at Harvard University, he was appointed in 1882 as botanist and 
chemist at the Houghton Farm Experiment Station, a position he held 
until his appointment as professor of botany at McGill University, in 
1883. 
The duties of his professorship brought him into close association 
with Sir William Dawson, at that time principal of McGill University, 
and Professor Penhallow became an enthusiastic student of palaeo- 
botany. In collaboration with Sir William Dawson he prepared and 
published several papers dealing chiefly with the “ Erian (Devonian) 
plants from the various parts of the world as well as with the Pleistocene 
flora of Canada.” Then followed a long series of notes, articles, and 
government reports by Doctor Penhallow himself. Some of these pro- 
ductions were the direct result of the study of problems suggested or 
brought to his attention through his earlier investigations with Sir 
William Dawson; but on his own initiative he soon began to break new 
ground. 
Among the most interesting of his earlier papers are descriptions of 
the Nematophyton, or Nematophycus as it was called by Carruthers. 
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