ALVAN WENTWORTH CHAPMAN 



1809-1899 



Ghapmannia Floridana TORREY AND GRAY 



I managed with great difficulty to secure a 

 copy of the Flora of the Southern United States 

 (1860), by Alvan W. Chapman, of Apalachi- 

 cola, Florida, but I had not much success in trac- 

 ing the life of the author. He was born in 

 Southampton, Massachusetts, graduated at Am- 

 herst College in 1830, and began practice in Apa- 

 lachicola in 1847. His Flora was preceded by 

 A List of Plants Growing in the Vicinity of 

 Quincy, Florida, 1845, while the Flora ran 

 through two extra editions, 1882 and 1896, and 

 became the leading authority for the Southern 

 States. Gray and Torrey named one of the papi- 

 lionaceae Ghapmannia Floridana after him; and 

 Gray, writing in his Journal, 1839, says, Chap- 

 mannia exists in Bartram's old collection here, 

 which you saw at the British Museum." 



Chapman's first and larger herbarium went to 

 Columbia University, and a later collection with 

 most of his library, is owned in Biltmore, North 

 Carolina, by the Vanderbilt estate. 



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