161 



Mrs. Alillington came to South Haven with her ljr(Aher, Dr. 

 Bishop and family, who established a medical practice and became 

 a prominent citizen. (I remember his fur cap and coat.) She pur- 

 chased a small peach orchard in bearing age, returned to eastern 

 New York, came back in the autumn with her husband and son, 

 Frank. Their daughter and older son were married and did not 

 come west with them. The family settled temporarily in the eastern 

 part of the village, and it was there I began to visit her. They built 

 a house on the orchard land, and my memories of her are mostly 

 associated with the new home. 



She always received me pleasantly, calmly, without haste. She 

 listened to my joys of wonderful discoveries, told me the names of 

 my plants and pronounced the strange words as if they were her 

 common speech. She told me of her trips and her collecting in the 

 Adirondacks whence she had come. She asked me to come again. 



About two years the Millingtons lived there, and in that period 

 she took such pains to encourage me and resolved so many of my 

 puzzles that memory of her is yet a luster of my youth. In recent 

 time one of her nieces wrote me that her aunt told her long ago of 

 our "walks together through the pine woods and over the sand 

 dunes near Lake Michigan." 



One of the brilliant recollections was her remark about a broad- 

 leaved grassy plant with a head of hanging stamens I had picked 

 in Dyckman's Woods. She said it was a Carex, a very difficult 

 group I should not then undertake to study. I suppose it was Carex 

 alhursina. That old challenge has followed me through life. 



The Millingtons returned to northeastern New York, and I 

 never saw them again. She left me a precious memento, however, 

 which I still cherish. It is a small botany-case, painted bright red 

 when she gave it to me and which I yet keep in that color. It is 

 shown in the picture. The strap, of course, is recent but it is a 

 duplicate of the old one, with the original buckle. The box is 

 eighteen inches long and seven and one-half inches high, three 

 inches thick. The right-hand end, as the reader sees it, is a compart- 

 ment about three inches deep with a cover, in which to place mov- 

 ing or special things, for Mrs. Millington collected other objects 

 than plants. On the other end is an open cup in which she carried 

 a bottle of water, for she had a microscope and had studied in- 

 fusoria. This collecting-case I carried through my college years and 

 long thereafter. 



