Vol. 45 TORREYA September 1945 



Kennedy and Heller (1905-1913) 



Alan A. Beetle 



Two of the lesser though bright lights in the botanical galaxy of the 

 United States are P. B. Kennedy and A. A. Holler, the paths of whose orbits 

 briefly converged during the early part of this century. The former died in 

 1930, the latter in 1944. Both were college trained men whose interests tended 

 strongly although not exclusively toward taxonomic botany. 



The years 1905-1913 seem to have been critical ones in the lives of both 

 and are, as indicated by their correspondence, the only years during which 

 their affairs were interrelated. The initiative was Heller's who first wrote on 

 January 5, 1905 from Los Gatos, California, where he was in the printing 

 business, to Kennedy, a professor of botany at the University of Nevada, in 

 Reno, Nevada. Heller was offering specimens for exchange, at least 400 num- 

 bers from California collections of the past three seasons. He mentioned he 

 was getting out original descriptions of North American plants, issuing them 

 in series of 500 for $5.25 postpaid. The first series containing Ribes, Castilleja, 

 Artemesia, and Trijolium he expected to be ready in March. 



Kennedy, who was then undertaking a monographic study of Trijolium, 

 responded immediately asking for both specimens and descriptions, so that on 

 the 25th of the same month Heller wrote again in some detail not only of his 

 own clover collecting which claimed his interest in spite of lack of time (how 

 familiar a complaint) but asking for thorough collections of Castilleja, 

 Lupinus, and Ribes, all of which he intended to study taxonomically. 



Correspondence continued intermittently between the two until May, 1907 

 when Kennedy toured California and was able to spend several days visiting 

 Heller at Los Gatos, collecting with him as far afield as Pacific Grove. The 

 interest of both in Trijolium continued unabated even as did that of Laura 

 McDermott, one of Kennedy's students who had gone to the University of 

 California in Berkeley for graduate study. 



This, common enthusiasm for Trijolium seems to have brought the two 

 men together and Kennedy decided to add Heller to the staff at Nevada. By 

 October, 1907 Heller had already expressed his willingness to go to Reno 

 but apparently there was red tape involved for in April of the next year 

 Heller was still writing from Los Gatos and asking when. If it was going to 

 be within two or three months he wanted to devote about all his time to the 

 Catalogue but if later he wanted to do some collecting. 



Kennedy seems to have received sympathetically this hint that Heller's 

 living was in part dependent on his botanical collecting and subsequently set 

 Heller to collecting clovers for him, at first in the vicinity of Los Gatos. But 



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