34 SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
went on, possibly due to his finding new species of mosses, hepatics, 
and lichens. Some time in the latter half of the 60’s a piece of 
swampy meadowland, lying due west of what was then the Re- 
formed Church Parsonage of Closter, had been cultivated and 
seeded down by a neighbor living a little distance away. Опе day 
the pastor’s little daughter came rushing to her father excitedly, 
saying a man was stealing Freddie’s turnips. . Rev. Hammond, 
for that was the pastor's name, went out to see who the intruder 
was. He saw him on his knees, scraping earth with his hands. 
. As he came near he found it to be the botanist, who joyously ex- 
claimed, “I have found a new lichen." He walked with his friend 
up to the parsonage, telling about ‘his discovery as they went. 
When he reached there he was bubbling over, and he asked Miss 
Isabelle, who had caught some of his enthusiasm, what he should 
name it and she replied, ‘‘Austini.”’ It was this pastor who as- 
sisted him in his study of classical Latin, but he had to study out 
botanical terms without assistance. He maintained a large cor- 
respondence with scientists in all parts of America and Europe, 
his knowledge of Latin being a benefit to him, but desirous of 
corresponding with a noted German botanist, and being ignorant 
of the language, he laid aside everything until he had so far mas- 
tered it that he was able to communicate with this person. 
Many specimens were sent to him to be named, from foreign 
countries as well as the United States and Canada, in which he 
was so intensely interested that with his beloved microscope he 
would work until two or three o'clock in the morning, seeming 
oblivious of the passing of time, God giving him to see in the 
humble mosses and lichens which the world tramples under foot 
oceans of beauty and interest. He seemed to have a contempt for 
the riches of this world, his gold mine being the dense forest or the 
rugged mountain, rich with his beloved mosses. 
I recently received a letter from Dr. J. J. Haring, of Toledo, 
Ohio, formerly of Tenafly, N. J., an old friend of his, still living, 
from which I quote the following: “I remember many conversa- 
tions with your father in his best years—upon botanical matters, 
especially in relation to that of mosses, of which he was a close 
and enthusiastic student, devoting to them most of his time, of 
years not a few. I remember his pride in having the opportunity. 
