858 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 387. 



growing, since in many cases herbarium 

 ' material is entirely inadequate for the pur- 

 pose. 



Without attempting further enumeration 

 or suggestion^ it may be said in brief that 

 for the study of tropical and semitropical 

 plants, both native and introduced, the 

 investigation of habit and structure as 

 adaptations to both climatic and edaphic 

 factors, and the demonstration of various 

 existing facts of plant distribution as a 

 phase of geological history now in progress, 

 the Tropical Laboratory at Miami offers 

 advantages that can hardly fail to attract 

 and reward earnest students for years to 

 come. 



V. M. Spalding. 

 Miami, Fla., 



February 27, 1902. 



HENRY MORTON. 



The death, in New York city, May 9, 

 of Dr. Henry Morton, President of the 

 Stevens Institute of Technology, removes 

 from the stage one who cannot be replaced 

 either in the field of his work or in the 

 hearts of his friends. Nor can his work be 

 fully appreciated by any one man or by any 

 one class of men, so varied has it been in 

 character, in its fields of action and in its 

 specialization. 



Physicist and engineer; chemist and 

 educator; investigator and legal expert; 

 linguist, editor and writer; man of busi- 

 ness and philanthropist; pioneer in the 

 reduction of the art of the mechanic and 

 inventor to a professional and scientific 

 form; mechanic, inventor and organizer 

 and administrator : his many-sidedness 

 necessarily precludes alike appreciation, 

 correct judgment and exact quantitative 

 measurement of his life's work. Whoever 

 studies the life of the man and endeavors 

 to Aveigh his work and its productive value 

 to the world will at least conclude the in- 

 vestigation impressed with the conviction 



that this was the rarest of rare cases, that 

 of the man of genius, at once brilliant and 

 versatile, and fruitful of good works in 

 many departments ordinarily supposed to 

 be far separated, as vocations, by the con- 

 stitution of the human mind. But heredity, 

 environment and an irrepressible ambition 

 conspired with extraordinary powers to 

 make this life fruitful, both in opportunity 

 and in accomplishment. 



Henry Morton was born in New York 

 city, December 11, 1836, the son of the 

 late Rev. Henry J. Morton, Rector of St. 

 James' Church, Philadelphia, and the 

 grandson of Col. James Morton, a patriot 

 of the Revolution, inheriting strength and 

 talent from earlier generations of well- 

 known families. He was educated at the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



While still an undergraduate he under- 

 took with classmates the translation of the 

 parallel texts of the famous Rosetta Stone. 

 Mr. C. R. Hale translated the Greek and 

 the Demotic texts and Morton the hiero- 

 glyphics. Young Morton also made the 

 smooth manuscript and illuminated it with 

 a skill and taste which proved his inherit- 

 ance from his father of remarkable artistic 

 ability. This work was published at the 

 suggestion of Henry D. Gilpin, later U. S. 

 Attorney- General, and was edited by Mor- 

 ton, who actually reproduced the manu- 

 script on the lithographic stone and all its 

 illustrations. The extraordinary task was 

 completed and the book issued from the 

 press in the latter part of the year 1858, 

 a volume of 172 pages with 100 illustra- 

 tions. The book remains one of the famous 

 and rare works in its department. It was 

 commended in enthusiastic terms by Baron 

 Humboldt. 



On leaving college, Morton delivered the 

 valedictory address and in admirable verse. 

 His talent as poet continually came to the 

 surface, even in later years and in the 

 midst of the most engrossing occupations. 



