Daniel Cady Eaton. 
GEORGE E. DAVENPORT. 
WITH PORTRAIT; PLATE XXVIA. 
The death of this eminent pteridologist, who has been for 
so many years our leading authority on the ferns, will be felt 
most keenly by all who love those beautiful plants with which 
his name has been so long associated that we cannot think of 
them without thinking of him, and it will be a long time, a 
very long time before we become reconciled, if we ever do, 
to his loss. 
There are always some with whom one does not like to as- 
sociate thoughts of death. The places which they fill and 
adorn seem to be so essential to the good and happiness of 
others that we wisn to think of them as being always with us, 
an ever living presence. But when the sudden taking away of 
such awakens us, however rudely, from this dream, and when 
the shock of the blow which stuns for the moment passes 
away, we happily find that we are left with the heritage of a 
memory sweeter and more precious far than even the living 
presence, and with a richer benediction that is immortal in its 
influence. Among such we can always think of Prof. Eaton 
which has come to her now. 
It is certain, however, that Prof. Eaton must have inherited 
a love for botany. His grandfather, Prof. Amos Eaton, of 
the Rensselaer Institute, Troy, N. Y., was one of the pio- 
neers of American botany. He published between the years 
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