William Cashman Ferguson 
19 November 1861—3 June 1930 
Norman TAYLOR 
In the summer of 1917 a man already distinguished in one 
science took the first step towards becoming the most distin- 
guished amateur on Long Island in a second. From a casual 
inquiry as to the identity of some weeds he found on the grounds 
of the Garden City Golf Club there ripened an interest that led 
Mr. Ferguson to gather the finest amateur herbarium in existence 
of Long Island plants. 
It was my privilege to guide him in his early botanical studies, 
and ultimately to be guided by him in the determination of difficult 
Long Island specimens in such genera as Salix, Panicum, the 
sedges, and many other groups in which he became quite extra- 
ordinarily proficient. Entering botany late in life, he brought to 
it a trained mind, finely polished by years of work in analytical 
chemistry. For he was a leading authority in copper smelting, 
chief chemist of the Nichols Copper Company, and later consult- - 
ing chemist for the General Chemical Company. 
By inclination an investigator, he early rebelled against the 
commercial sphere into which his father had started him, entered 
Columbia University at 22 and graduated in 1887. During these 
years he came in touch with Doctor Britton, who was then divid- 
ing his time at Columbia between geology and botany. Years 
later as Mr. Ferguson’s interest in botany grew, that friendship 
was renewed. 
He opened a wide correspondence with various botanists and 
institutions, and, as his herbarium increased, generously deposited 
duplicate specimens of his rarer finds. Hundreds of them nat- 
urally were given to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but large 
collections were sent to the Gray Herbarium, to Albany, and to 
the New York Botanical Garden. He took a keen interest in my 
work on the flora of Long Island, spending many hours checking 
records for it, collecting specimens, and doing all his ample leisure 
in the later years would permit. 
His carefully prepared herbarium, notebooks, lists, etc., he left 
to the New York Botanical Garden, together with a sum of money 
~ their care. He had published several critical articles on the 
specimens he found on Long Island, and other lists were in prepa- 
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