Lucien Marcus Underwood; a memorial tribute* 



Marshall Avery Howe 



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wood that shall be wholly impartial and dispassionate can hardly 

 be expected of those who were intimately associated with him 

 during a considerable number of the most productive years of his 

 life. Yet those, more than others, knew the man as he was and 

 as he worked, and they are for that reason entitled to a hearing. 

 It was my privilege to begin a correspondence with him in 1892 

 at a time when I was making the acquaintance of some of the 

 Californian Hepaticae in the field and was trying to learn some- • 

 thing of their published history without the advantage of access 

 to much of the pertinent literature. Professor Underwood had 

 then for ten years been accumulating Hepaticae and the literature 

 relating to this group of plants, had published his "Descriptive 

 Catalogue of North American Hepaticae, North of Mexico " and 

 his elaboration of the group in the sixth edition of Gray's Manual, 

 and was the acknowledged American leader in this line of taxo- 

 nomic research. The ferns and their allies, knowledge of which, 

 also, he had been efficient in popularizing, were likewise submitted 

 to him, and his generous and helpful responses did much to foster 

 and stimulate my interest, as they did that of many others. In 

 the autumn of 1896 he assumed the duties of the professorship 

 of botany in Columbia University, and my more intimate personal 

 association with him began at that time, for he then offered me 

 an opportunity to continue my studies of the Californian Hepaticae 

 in New York and most generously and encouragingly placed at 

 my service not only his extensive library and herbarium but also 

 the results of his wide experience. In this connection, and in 

 acknowledging my lasting gratitude to Professor Underwood, I 

 am constrained to remark that the breadth of a man's mind and 

 the purity of his desire for the truth is often best indicated in his 

 attitude toward opinions and beliefs which may chance to differ 



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



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