62 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
after a time was appointed acting assistant surgeon at various posts in the 
West and Southwest, continuing to serve after the close of the war on 
frontier stations in the Indian country in Arizona and the Indian Terri- 
tory. In connection with his work of attending the sick, he familiarized 
himself with the properties and uses of the medicinal herbs growing in 
the vicinity of his station, and he occupied his moments of leisure in 
making collections of animals and plants for the Smithsonian and other 
institutions. 
In March 1869 he was sent by the Commissioner of Agriculture on a 
mission to New Mexico and Arizona, to report on the agricultural 
resources, commercial products, climate, and fertility of the soil, and the 
general habitable features of the Southwest. He afterward carried on 
archaeological investigations in southwestern Utah, and made extensive 
botanical and zoological investigations in that region, assisted in his work 
by a circular letter given him by Brigham Younc. The Commissioner 
of Agriculture, Horace Capron, in his report for 1870, called special 
attention to the value of his work, and he was congratulated upon his 
success by such eminent botanists as Professor ASA Gray, Dr. TORREY, 
and Dr. ENGELMANN, all of whom considered themselves fortunate in 
having valuable material collected by him. 
From a scientific point of view, the most important exploration made 
by him was that of Guadalupe Island, never before visited by a natural- 
ist. The bearing upon evolution of the remarkable fauna and flora of 
this island in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Lower California, is almost 
as important as that of the animals and plants of the Galapagos Archi- 
pelago, as demonstrated by Darwin. Every bird in his collection from 
Guadalupe, except a single sea bird, proved to be new to science; and. 
among the plants collected at this time there were 21 new species, the 
greater part of which have never since been found elsewhere. 
Other important collections were made by him in southern California 
and across the border in Lower California. Here, in a great canyon 
of the Cantillas Mountains, he discovered a plant which proved to be 
the type of a new genus, named in his honor Palmerella by Professor 
Gray, who stated that he did so in acknowledgment of Dr. PALMER'S 
“indefatigable and fruitful explorations of the botany of the south- 
western frontiers of the United States, from Arizona to the islands of 
Lower California, in which region he has accomplished more than all his 
predecessors.” 
he latter part of Dr. Patmer’s life has been devoted chiefly to 
exploration in Mexico, and the results have been published chiefly in 
