AUGUSTUS FEXDLER. 467 



of the year 1857. Returning to Missouri in 1864, he bought 

 some wild land at Allenton, cultivated and lived on it for 

 seven years (except one winter passed in the herbarium at 

 Cambridge), having the companionship and assistance of a 

 half-brother who had joined him, and whom, being rather 

 feeble-minded, he took care of for the rest of his life. In 

 1871, having sold his place in Missouri, he returned again to 

 Prussia, intending to remain in his native country. Hut lie 

 soon longed for the New World, to which lie returned in 

 1873; he settled in Wilmington, Delaware, where, having tin- 

 botanical companionship of Mr. Canby, he again interested 

 himself in his favorite pursuits, — but now much more in 

 speculative physics. For years the thoughts of his solitary 

 hours had turned upon the cause of gravitation and its prob- 

 able connection with other forces, and while at Wilmington 

 he wrote (and unhappily printed at his own expense) a thin 

 octavo volume, entitled " The Mechanism of the Universe." 

 Repeated attacks of acute rheumatism constrained him to 

 seek again a tropical climate, this time the island of Trini- 

 dad. He and his brother landed at the Port of Spain in 

 June, 1877, where he passed the remainder of his days, living 

 mainly on the products of the small plot of land which he 

 purchased, renewing his old interest and activity in making 

 botanical observations and collections, especially among the 

 Ferns, of which he sent to Professor Eaton collections worthy 

 of his better days. But, having exhausted in this respect the 

 field within his immediate reach, and lost the vigor needed for 

 laborious excursions, little had been heard of him for the pasl 

 few years, and it is only indirectly that the fact of his death 

 has been made known to us. 



It is needless to say that Fendler was a quick and keen 

 observer and an admirable collector. He had much literary 

 taste, and had formed a very good literary Btyle in English, 

 as his descriptive letters show. He was excessively diffident 

 and shy, but courteous and most amiable, gentle, and deli- 

 cately refined. Many species of his own discovery commem- 

 orate his name, as also a well-marked genus, a Saxifragaceous 

 shrub, which is winning its way into ornamental cultivation. 



