118 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



On coming to the Mississippi Valley, Dr. Engelmann 

 found himself surrounded by plants, most of which were 

 unknown to him. He studied them systematically in their 

 relations to each other, devoting himself to a particular 

 genus or group of plants until he had thoroughly mas- 

 tered it. Among his many investigations of plants was 

 that of the Cactus family, upon which his work was most 

 extensive and important. His treatise on this family is 

 still quoted as the highest authority. This stupendous 

 task was begun in his sketch of the botany of the expedi- 

 tion of Dr. Wislizenus to northern Mexico and was con- 

 cluded with two illustrated memoirs, one contributed to 

 the fourth volume of the Pacific Eailroad Expedition Re- 

 ports, and the other to Emory's Report on the Mexican 

 Boundary Survey. His splendid work on the two pe- 

 culiarly American groups of plants, the Yucca and 

 Agave, was published in the third volume of the Trans- 

 actions of the Academy of Science. His various papers 

 on the American oaks and conifers, published in the 

 Transactions of the Academy and elsewhere, are of the 

 highest interest to science. Nearly all that we know 

 scientifically of our species and forms of grapes is di- 

 rectly due to Dr. Englemann's investigations. Much of 

 his work on the grape vines of Missouri was published 

 by the Academy of Science. 



In the year following his death the principal professor- 

 ship in the Henry Shaw School of Botany, which was 

 then established, was named after him. His friend and 

 co-worker, Dr. C. C. Parry, named for him a peak in the 

 Rocky Mountains and also the picturesque canon through 

 which now passes the cog wheel railroad from Manitou 

 to the summit of Pike's Peak. The name Engelmann has 

 become unalterably associated with the Buffalo grass of 

 the plains, with the noblest Conifers of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and with the most stately Cactus in the world, ver- 

 ifying the prediction of his biographer that "the Western 

 plains will still be bright with the yellow rays of Engel- 

 mannia, and that splendid Spruce, the fairest of them all, 



