1899] BRIEFER ARTICLES 475 
field, making preparations for a repeated and thorough investigation of 
the Torreya region on the Apalachicola river, one of the most inter- 
esting localities in the southern states. This had yielded to him in 
former years a harvest of many new and interesting plants, and he was 
sure it harbored others equally interesting and ye. unknown, hidden 
in the dark ravines and steep hillsides, under the shade of the Torreya 
) and Taxus peculiar to this secluded spot. He left his home fully 
equipped for a long stay in the field. With the progress of the warmer 
season he was soon convinced that the work in such rugged territory 
under a subtropical sun was beyond his strength; several attacks of 
vertigo admonished him of the danger of sudden heart failure, so he 
relinquished this task and his anticipated pleasures, to spend the sum- 
mer at his home under the tender care of a granddaughter of his wife, 
Miss Kate Wood. He soon recovered from the exhaustion caused by 
this last attempt; his step was yet firm and he enjoyed to the last his 
daily walks. The end, however, was near. It came suddenly, although 
athis great age to be expected at any hour, after a day of the usual 
quiet and happiness which he enjoyed in the evening of his life. In 
_ the afternoon of April 6 he was taken down by heart trouble, and 
_ before those around him could realize that death had laid its hand 
upon him, he passed away quietly and peacefully as he had lived. 
The love and esteem in which this amiable, unassuming, yet firm 
and active character was held by his fellow-citizens was shown waen 
he was laid down to his last rest. He was looked upon with veneration 
as the last one among them who linked the past with the present, as the 
last survivor of a generation which had enjoyed the palmy days of 
Prosperity, who stood by them throughout the throes of the birth of 
_ the new future, which has now dawned upon the rising generate’ 
All the industrial establishments and most of the places of business 
were closed to give everyone a chance of paying the last honor to the 
departed. 
From a lady, a few years past an inmate of his house, we learn that 
“his writing was done with most beautiful precision, and the ones 
of his memory, his vivid powers of description, and nee : 
_ Manner made his narrative of events like a mental picture. The on y 
faculty that failed him was his hearing, and about this he was so sensl- 
tive as to become in late years somewhat a recluse. - 
_____ Dr. Chapman’s interest in natural science brought him ir i 
_ {act with the Smithsonian Institution, soon after its inauguration, Dy 
dihege acon) eer ine eoiaas Gunes 
SOK 
