October 9, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



52B 



his previous experience. It is one constant 

 panorama of wonderful scenes, with, land 

 nearly always in sight, often on both sides, 

 and with the water ordinarily as calm as 

 the surface of a small inland lake. The 

 fact that all who go wish to go again in 

 the best evidence that can be offered of 

 the great attractions offered by Greenland 

 to the geologist and naturalist. I feel that 

 this statement is warranted because it is so 

 greatly at variance with the common con- 

 ception of Greenland and the southern 

 Arctic. Ralph S. Tarr. 



COENELL TJNIVEESITY. 



ALBERT NELSON PRENTISS. 



Prof. Albert Nelson Prentiss, who for 

 twenty- eight years has occupied the chair 

 of botany in Cornell University, died at his 

 home on the University Campus, Friday, 

 August 15, 1896. He had been in failing 

 health for several years, and the readers of 

 Science will recollect that last February 

 severe illness induced him to ask to be re- 

 tired from active labor in the department, 

 and the Board of Trustees elected him pro- 

 fessor emeritus. 



Prof Prentiss was born May 22, 1836, 

 at Cazenovia, Madison County, N. Y. He 

 was a member of the first graduating class 

 of the Michigan Agricultural College, at 

 Lansing, in 1861, and the entire class of 

 seven young men immediately enlisted in 

 the army at the outbreak of the Civil War. 

 He was enlisted in the Signal Service Corps 

 at Battle Creek, Mich., and assigned to 

 special signal service duty in the interior 

 of Missouri. His connection with the army 

 was of short duration, owing to a reorgan- 

 ization on the retirement of the command- 

 ing general. In 1862-63 he was associate 

 principal of the Kalamazoo, Mich,, high 

 school, and in 1863-64 was instructor in 

 botany and horticulture at his alma mater 

 the Michigan Agricultural College, receiv- 

 ing the degree of M. S. in 1864. He was 



promoted to the professorship of botany 

 and horticulture in 1865, and held this 

 place until called to the professorship of 

 botany, arboriculture and horticulture in 

 Cornell University, at the opening of the 

 University, in the autumn of 1868. He en- 

 tered upon his work in this new field with 

 enthusiasm and planted the first autumn 

 seeds of a number of species of trees for a 

 nursery to provide trees for beautifying the 

 grounds. Many of these trees were trans- 

 planted in various parts of the campus, but 

 the rapid growth of the University has 

 called for their displacement to provide 

 room for buildings, so that now but three 

 pine trees remain of this original nursery, 

 which are of the same age as the Univer- 

 sity. 



Prof. Prentiss' work has been given 

 largely to teaching and to the supervision 

 of the large grounds of the University, and 

 there are not many published papers of his. 

 In 1871 he wrote an essay on the ' mode of 

 the natural distribution of plants over the 

 surface of the earth,' which won the first 

 Walker prize offered by the Boston Society 

 of l^atural History, and was published in 

 pamphlet form. Later, at the request of 

 Prof. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Divi- 

 sion of Forestry, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, he prepared an extended mono- 

 graph of the hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) ^ 

 that has not yet been published. 



In 1872 he studied for six months in the 

 Boyal Botanic Garden at Kew, London, 

 and in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. 



Prof Prentiss was one of the members of 

 the • Cornell Exploring Expedition,' as it 

 usually is called, which was organized by 

 Prof. C. F. Hartt, the then professor of 

 geology in Cornell. This expedition was 

 made possible largely by the generous gift 

 of funds by the Hon. Edwin Barber Mor- 

 gan, of Aurora, N. Y., and is known in 

 University history as the ' Morgan Expedi- 

 dition.' The party sailed from New York 



