l894-j beckwith dr. samuel beach bradley. 261 



April 23, 1894. 



stated meeting. 



The President, Professor H. L. Fairchild, in the chair. 



Twenty persons present. 



Under the call for notes in departments of science, the following 

 two papers were read : 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. SAMUEL BEACH 



BRADLEY. 



By Florence Becrw^ith. 



Dr. Bradley, if not the earliest, was certainly one of the earliest 

 botanists of this section of country, and it is thought proper that the 

 Academy should put on record some of the facts of his life, since his 

 work was done in this vicinity, and we possess a portion of his herba- 

 rium, the gift of Dr. D. G. Hastings, of this city. 



As a botanist Dr. Bradley had a wide reputation. He is often 

 quoted as an authority in catalogues of plants, and in Gray's Botany 

 (5th edition) he is mentioned in like manner. The period of his work 

 is covered by the years of his residence in Monroe county, or from 

 1825 to 1880. 



He was a close and accurate observer, and his work along the 

 lake shore and the inlets and ponds adjoining was particularly 

 thorough. Some of the plants he found here have since become 

 extinct, or, at least, have never been reported by any other botanist, 

 and many others are now extremely rare. In " Paine's Catalogue of 

 Plants of Oneida County and Vicinity," published in 1865, Dr. 

 Bradley is given as the sole authority in this vicinity for twenty-one 

 species of plants. In the list of plants of Monroe and adjoining 

 counties which this Society is soon to publish, there are eleven species 

 credited to Dr. Bradley alone, no other local botanist having 

 observed them. Limuobium spongia was reported by him as found in 

 Braddock's bay, but has not been seen by any later botanist, although 

 sought for. During the 1892 meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science the visiting botanists spent an after- 

 noon in the locality without finding the plant. 



For the following sketch of Dr. Bradley's life, we are indebted to 

 Mrs. Annie Hastings Gott, whose family were his life-long friends. 



Samuel Beach Bradley, son of the Rev. Joel and Mary Anne 



