PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 189 



of Columbus housed a group of men whose scientific work and 

 reputation reflected great distinction on the capital of our state. 

 Prominent in this group were the two Sullivants, William and 

 Joseph, sons of Lucas Sullivant who brought the virtues of his 

 Scotch-Irish-English ancestry from Virginia to Ohio near the 

 end of the eighteenth century. As a surveyor of our Virginia 

 Military lands, he laid out, in 1798, the village of Franklinton 

 (long ago absorbed in that part of the city of Columbus west 

 of the 'Scioto river) where he spent the remainder of his life. 

 There his son William was born in 1803. He was graduated 

 at Yale College in 1823 and in the same year his father died 

 leaving upon him, the eldest son, the responsibility of the man- 

 agement of a large landed estate. In the discharge of this 

 responsibility he found it desirable to take up the profession of 

 his father and until late in life he was occasionally active in the 

 work of a surveyor or civil engineer. Interested in botanical 

 studies from an early age, he published in 1840, the results of 

 an exhaustive study of the flora of central Ohio. He next 

 began the study of mosses and in a few years became the fore- 

 most authority as a bryologist in this country, without a superior 

 anywhere in the world. The results of his studies were pub- 

 lished in the memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences and in the scientific journals of this country and of 

 Europe. Mosses collected in various parts of the world were 

 referred to him for examination and report and he made extensive 

 journeys himself principally for the purpose of gathering speci- 

 mens. His rnagnum opus was the magnificent "Icones ^lus- 

 corum" published in 1864, followed by a supplement which ap- 

 peared shortly after his death in 1873 — at the age of seventy 

 years. Dr. Asa Gray said of him, "His works have laid such a 

 broad and complete foundation for the study of bryology in this 

 country and are of such recognized importance everywhere that 

 they must always be of classic authority. Wherever mosses are 

 studied his name will always be honorably remembered. In this 

 country it should long be remembered with peculiar gratitude." 



The American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, in 

 a lengthy notice of his life and work printed in their annual re- 



