7 
of Fl aaa ae a territory, and a state since 1845—is ne: early 
yold. Th 
mong 
these were botanists and plant-lovers, the most prominent 
among whom was H. B. Croom. 
Well-known early botanists were not as numerous in that 
region, to be sure, as they were in the settlements of the mae 
seaboard ; but many of their successors, 
here, spent more or less time at Tallahassee, Florida's pictur- 
esque capital. 
e yards and public grounds in Tallahassee give the t 
the stamp of age. In them you will find many old specimens cel 
ardy Bryan Croom (1797-1837), was born i ir C , North Car- 
olina. He graduated at the University of his native state in 1817, and was 
admitted to the bar, _ practiced his iecieas for nly a sho rt time; he 
New Bern. 8. 
a oie in nates on the west bank of the ee River, opposite 
Aspalaga, and it wa: n. this vicinity that he Bs aeedane Tumion (Torrey a) 
and C 
} 
Croomia earl: In 1837 I home 
9. 
of Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), for wh the ge: nus Poinsettia 
South C: his 
in 
residence. During the summer of the same year he brought h mily, as 
was his custom, to New York City, and in October sailed for Charleston 
in the steam-packet ‘“‘Home."" This was a new 
aa built for the Sse hate Service; a it hs wrecked off Ocracoke ae 
south of Cape Hatteras ber 9, 1837), and Croo 
xe i mae family, wife, sah children, and’ maid, perished. His peut 
personality and scholarly attainmefits intensified the sorrow of Torrey, 
ray, piaen and his other Sadtatecy friends. ieee his oe of 
the aes f New Bern, Cro it d Ameri. 
can Journal of Science and en and one to the Annals of the Lyceum of 
Natural ‘History of New York. Death, however, claimed him when he seemed 
on the very threshold of an unusually productive botanical career. A monu- 
} f C: d his family ds in fi f the E 
church at Tallahassee.—J. H. B 
