AUGUSTUS FENDLER. 467 
of the year 1857. Returning to Missouri in 1864, he bought 
some wild land at Allenton, cultivated and lived on it for 
seven years (except one winter passed in the herbarium at 
Cambridge), having the companionship and assistance of a 
half-brother who had joined him, and whom, being rather 
feeble-minded, he took care of for the rest of his life. In 
1871, having sold his place in Missouri, he returned again to 
Prussia, intending to remain in his native country. But he 
soon longed for the New World, to which he returned in 
1873; he settled in Wilmington, Delaware, where, having the 
botanical companionship of Mr. Canby, he again interested 
himself in his favorite pursuits, — but now much more in 
speculative physics. For years the thoughts of his solitary 
hours had turned upon the cause of gravitation and its prob- 
able connection with other forces, and while at Wilmington 
he wrote (and unhappily printed at his own expense) a thin 
octavo volume, entitled “The Mechanism of the Universe.” 
Repeated attacks of acute rheumatism constrained him to 
seek again a tropical climate, this time the island of Trini- 
dad. He and his brother landed at the Port of Spain in 
June, 1877, where he passed the remainder of his days, living 
mainly on the products of the small plot of land which he 
purchased, renewing his old interest and activity in making 
botanical observations and collections, especially among the 
Ferns, of which he sent to Professor Eaton collections worthy 
of his better days. But, having exhausted in this respect the 
field within his immediate reach, and lost the vigor needed for 
laborious excursions, little had been heard of him for the past 
few years, and it is only indirectly that the fact of his death 
has been made known to us. | 
It is needless to say that Fendler was a quick and keen 
observer and an admirable collector. He had much literary 
taste, and had formed a very good literary style in English, 
as his descriptive letters show. He was excessively diffident 
and shy, but courteous and most amiable, gentle, and deli- 
cately refined. Many species of his own discovery commem- 
orate his name, as also a well-marked genus, a Saxifragaceous 
shrub, which is winning its way into ornamental cultivation. 
