SYNOPSIS OF PROCEEDINGS. 243 



social characteristics, though naturally unobtrusive and undemonstra- 

 tive, he was singularly warm-hearted, and cheerful even to jocularity. 



Since my first personal acquaintance with him, in 1848, when I called 

 on him at St. Louis before starting on my first exploring trip with Dr. 

 D. D. Owen, in the then North-west, our friendly intercourse has been _ 

 constant, and the letters received from him would make up a respect- 

 able volume. Kow much I owe to his wise counsels, his substantial 

 encouragement, and not less to his sharp criticisms (always well meant), 

 I can now best realize by feeling their loss. 



Ten years ago I had the pleasure of accompanying him on his first 

 trip to the Rocky Mountains, where I had preceded him as an ex- 

 plorer, but not as a knower ; in fact, he was the first one to show me 

 how to look at things instriicth'ely (to use a favorite term of his). It 

 was at this time he was brought into familiar intercourse with our late 

 lamented associate, J. Duncan Putnam, who was then suffering from 

 the first attacks of that insidious disease that eventually brought his 

 promising life to an untimely end. A characteristic incident, related 

 to me by young Putnam, will help to show some of the peculiar traits 

 of our mutual friend. It was while the two were awaiting my arrival 

 at their Rocky Mountain rendezvous. At my suggestion. Dr. Engel- 

 mann was directed to a locality where, near his hotel, he could observe 

 the growth and development of the pine mistletoe {Arcenthobium), which 

 he had previously studied only from dry specimens. Selecting there a 

 tree abundantly garnished with this curious parasite, he sat down under 

 its shade to study it in his own thorough way. As young Putnam re- 

 marked, he hardly took time to eat or sleep for three days till he had 

 mastered all its details, and was so wrapped up in his subject that his 

 answer to all common questions was, " Arcent/iohinmf" Pointing out 

 to his companion some of its peculiarities, he would break out occa- 

 sionally with the petulant remark, "Why did they not tell me this (or 

 that) before." Ah, the answer to that pregnant question would not be 

 hard to express to that now closed ear — viz., that it needed the eye 

 of a master, and not of a novice, to know just what to observe. Just 

 here was the true secret of his power as a botanical investigator ■ — he 

 knew just what to look for, and, when seen, he also knew its signifi- 

 cance in elucidating the system of nature. 



Not to finger on these pleasant reminiscences, which it is to be hoped 

 some abler biographer will bring together, to illustrate the character of 

 the man and the student of nature, I must come down to a still later 

 date, when he had passed his three-score years and ten. He had hardly 

 recovered from the shock of losing his life companion when he was 

 persuaded to undertake a trip to the Pacific coast, in company with 

 Prof. C. S. Sargent and the writer, in 1880. On this memorable occa- 

 sion, how deeply interesting to note the fresh light of manly vigor shin- 

 ing out of those experienced eyes as he looked for the first time upon 

 scenes that he had so long thought over, gathering with his own hand 

 the fruits of oak or pine that he had before only studied in the dried 

 mummies of the herbarium ! To watch the instructive processes by which 

 he arrived at scientific results, to see the enthusiasm brightening up as 



