American Fern Society 
A short time before her death, Mrs. Judith H. Coffin, 
of Newburyport, Mass., donated to the American Fern 
Society, in memory of old friends of the Linnean Fern 
Chapter, Vols. 13 to 18 (from 1905 to 1910) of the Fern 
Bulletin and Vols. 1 to 7 (from 1911 to 1917) of the 
AMERICAN FERN JoURNAL. These magazines are given 
to the Fern Society either to keep or to sell, the pro- 
ceeds to be added to the funds of the Society, or used 
in any way desirable. The American Fern Society is 
indeed very grateful for this kind and generous gift. 
Mrs. Blanche Turner White, a member of the Society 
since 1916, died January 17, 1919—one of the many 
victims of last winter’s epidemic of influenza. Mrs. 
White was descended from some of the early French 
settlers of St. Louis: one may imagine that their friend- 
ship with the wilderness had, in some degree, come 
down to her. She was a naturalist by nature—one 
who, it seemed, “as by instinct knew where, in far 
fields, the heather grew”’—and she possessed the charm- 
ing enthusiasm of her kind. Much of her brief life of 
thirty years was spent in the country about Arcadia, 
Missouri, where her desire to know about the rocks, 
plants and birds could be, and was abundantly, gratified. 
Eager to learn and to help others, she was much sought 
after. A member of several natural history societies, 
she was most actively connected with the work of the 
St. Louis Bird Club, serving that organization not only 
as officer, teacher and leader of excursions (especially 
of children), but in certain larger practical aspects of 
its work which touched on the planning of parks and 
residence districts and the teaching of the value of 
out-door life. She herself learned and put into her own 
life the best nature has to give. 
£6 
