Vol. 35 



No. 1 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



JANUARY, 1908 



A biographical sketch of Lucien Marcus Underwood 



* 



Carlton Clarence Curtis 

 (with a portrait) 



Lucien M 



on October 26, 1853, in a 

 New Woodstock, in central 



New York. He died at his home in Redding, Connecticut, Novem- 

 ber 16, 1907. 



From early childhood he responded to the healthful surround- 

 ings of his home and developed into a lad with a buoyancy 

 of spirit, a whole-heartedness, and with an interest in natural 

 objects that remained the striking characteristics of the man. 

 In the early days of his childhood there appeared those traits 

 and predilections that were to guide him in his life-work. As a 

 child he played with plants, making collections of grass-leaves and 

 other objects. As he learned to read and write, he became 

 interested in collecting papers and documents of all kinds and 

 would prepare lists of celebrities and of events. Later, when his 

 school days brought him in touch with natural science subjects, 

 the house became the repository of rocks and minerals and the 

 laboratory for such physical and chemical experiments as his 

 ingenuity could devise. While at work on the farm as a mere 

 lad, it was his custom to carry in his pocket a box so that no new 

 thing, such as an insect, could escape him. In this connection, it 

 is noteworthy that the stories and reading that are offered to child- 

 hood did not appeal to him unless true, nor did he have any liking 

 for his studies until late in his teens when he began such subjects 

 as the Peck-Ganong Physics, Gray's Structural Botany, etc. 

 These subjects completely transformed him and he be came 



* Read at a memorial meeting of the Torrey Botanical Club, January 29, 1908. 

 [The Bulletin for December, 1907 (34 1 579~ 6 3°- P L 34) was "sued 27 F 1908.] 



1 



