51 



science" * * * ''and I am glad to take this op- 

 portunity to acknowledge my indebtedness to him for 

 the assistance he has rendered me by studying the 

 trees, and especially the oaks of the Carolina Coast 

 Region." Dr. Asa Gray also noticed him in a highly 

 complimentary way. 



A botanist contemporary with Dr. Mellichamp, W. H. 

 Canby, has the following to say in the Torreya, Vol. 4, 

 No. 1, January, 1904, with regard to the work and 

 character of the man : 



"His good judgment in making observations and 

 clear statements of the results brought him the cor- 

 respondence and esteem of Doctors Gray, Engelmann 

 and other masters of the science. For Dr. Englemann 

 he investigated the flowering and fruiting of some 

 species of Yucca, the peculiar oaks of his region, and 

 especially Pinus Elliottii, which he practically discov- 

 ered, and, in the excellent notes he furnished, ade- 

 quately described. Very acute observations on the in- 

 sectivorous habits of Sarracenia variolaris were pub- 

 lished in the Proceedings of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. In this paper he re- 

 corded his discovery of the lure by which insects are 

 tempted to the fatal pitcher of the leaf; of the fact that 

 the secretion therein is more or less of an intoxicant; 

 and the curious fact that the larva of a certain insect 

 was able to resist the secretion and feed upon the de- 

 caying mass. Dr. Sargent, in his Sylva of North Amer- 

 ica, acknowledges his services in the studies of oaks 

 and other trees. Dr. Gray so esteemed his assistance 

 that he named a Mexican Asclepiad in his honor, Mel- 

 Uchampia. Desirous of helping others, he was one of 

 those men who, diffident and retiring, and not caring 

 to advance their own fame, always willingly give others 

 the benefit of the knowledge they have acquired. It 

 is not too much to say that but for him considerable of 

 value would have remained unknown of the flora of 

 his district; grateful acknowledgments of this have 

 come from European as well as American botanists. 



