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HENRY W. RAVENEL. 



Henry W. Ravenel, botanist, was born in St. John's 

 Parish, Berkeley, S. C, May 19, 1814; died in Aiken, S. 

 C, July 17, 1887. He was graduated at the South Car- 

 olina College in 1832, and settled in St. John's, where 

 he became a planter. In 1853 he removed to Aiken, 

 S. C, and there he spent the remainder of his life. 



As a young man he evinced a fondness for natural 

 history and pursued studies in botany with enthusi- 

 asm throughout his long life. He studied critically the 

 phaenogams of South Carolina, extending also his 

 work largely into. the field of cryptogamic botany. Mr. 

 Ravenel discovered a large number of new species of 

 cryptogams and besides not a few new phaenogams. 

 With the probable exception of the Rev. Moses A. Cur- 

 tis, he was the only American of his time who knew 

 specifically the fungi of the United States, and it is 

 doubtful whether any other botanist has covered so 

 wide a range of plants. 



In 1869 he was appointed a botanist of the Govern- 

 ment commission that was sent to Texas to investigate 

 the cattle disease prevalent there, and at the time of 

 his death he was botanist to the department of agri- 

 culture of South Carolina. The degree of LL. D. was 

 conferred upon him by the college in Winston-Salem, 

 N. C, several years before his death. 



Unfortunately Dr. Ravenel's deafness prevented his 

 acceptance of two offers of a professorship in botany — 

 one in a college in Baltimore, which offered to establish 

 a chair of botany if he would fill it; the other in a col- 

 lege in California. He was a member of various societies 

 in the United States and Europe. In 1849 he was elected 

 a correspondent of the Academy of Natural Sciences. 

 A few years later he was elected a member of a scien- 

 tific association in Vienna. 



