264 



ects. His natural history collecting might be said to have begun 

 spontaneously, in his boyhood, before he knew anything of such 

 work as a pursuit. It began systematically as soon as his student 

 life had given him a knowledge of this branch of study, and, before 

 he had received his collegiate degree, his collections were already 

 of considerable extent and of no little local value. The wide 

 range of these collections, through animate and inanimate nature, 

 plainly indicated the character of his mind and the nature of his 

 future work as a teacher and investigator. His interest in the 

 inorganic world extended to chemical composition, so that chem- 

 istry early became one of his favorite studies, and he spent some 

 time in teaching it. When he took the degree of Ph.D. at Syra- 

 cuse University in 1879, he was recognized by both faculty and 



facts are here dwelt upon by virtue of their relation to what the 

 writer regards as Professor Underwood's special characteristic, 

 breadth of view. 



From these habits of study, it resulted that his superiors felt 

 able to assign him, at different times, to a wide variety of teaching 

 duties. He once informed the writer, with a smile of amused 

 reminiscence, that he had taught about everything that could, with 

 any degree of grace, be crowded within the range of work of any 

 one teacher. The many positions which he occupied as a teacher 



tion to settle only where there was opportunity for the pursuit of 

 his real life work. This opportunity he secured in 1 896, when he 

 became Professor of Botany at Columbia University, and assumed 

 important associated relations with the New York Botanical 

 Garden as a member of its Board of Scientific Directors, of which 



enhanced by the possession of unexcelled assistance in the teach- 

 ing department of the University, making it possible for him to 

 work in freedom from many of the distractions which often impede 

 the work of the scientific investigator. 



Professor Underwood's first actual scientific publication seems 

 to have been an account of original observations of the evergreen 

 wood fern (Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club, October, 1878). 



