AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY te « 
in uniform he contracted influenza, and died of that 
disease in New Haven, Connecticut, in the autumn of 
1918. His great love for plants, his skill as a pianist, 
and his enthusiasm and his kindness to everyone are a 
few of the principle characteristics of this man which 
we shall not forget—Wmn. L. Doran 
Miss Lura L. Perrine, for 23 years a member of the 
Society, died recently at Vancouver, B. C. Miss Per- 
rine was born in 1854. She graduated from Albion 
College and soon afterward took up teaching. After 
her father’s death in 1882, the family, consisting of the 
mother and three daughters, moved to a prairie farm 
in North Dakota. They were the first family to settle 
in their township and among the first unmarried women 
to enter that region, but they faced bravely and success- 
fully the labors and trials of pioneer life. Miss Perrine 
had her share in building up the local school system, 
and in 1892 was offered and accepted a position in the 
Valley City Normal School. She soon became head of 
the Department of Science in that institution and 
remained a member of its faculty until her death. 
Herself full of enthusiastic interest in her subject, 
she was an unusually inspiring and successful teacher. | 
In addition to her direct work of instruction, she founded 
a school museum which, under her direction became 
one of the best of its kind in the country, well stocked 
‘with illustrative material in all the branches of science 
aught 
Indigenous ferns are very rare in the prairie state of 
North Dakota. On the terraces of her yard, sloping 
to the river, Miss Perrine had a fern garden, in which 
various species brought by her from all the northern 
parts of the country from Maine to Vancouver Island, 
throve under her care. ‘‘Her love for all plants was a 
veritable passion.” 
