﻿4 Memorial of Edward Tttckerman. 



or three volumes, highly valued by those who fortunately pos- 

 sess them. Equally fortunate are the herbaria which possess 

 the u Caroli Wrightii Lichenes Cuba? curante E. Tuckerman," 

 which authenticate his thorough work upon that portion of Mr. 

 Wright's Cuban collections that he undertook to elaborate. 



Passing without notice various subsidiary contributions both 

 to journals and to the Reports of Exploring Expeditions 

 (which, however, are all enumerated in the appended list), we 

 come to a pamphlet which he independently published at Am- 

 herst, in 1866, entitled " Lichens of California, Oregon, and the 

 Rocky Mountains, so far as yet known," which, small though 

 it be (pp. 35, 8vo), is particularly noteworthy. For in this he 

 lays down the principles and matured opinions which he had 

 adopted, and which he firmly adhered to, for the taxonomy and 

 classification of Lichens. These are fully exemplified in the 

 two systematic works to which Professor Tuckerman's later 

 years and maturest powers were persistently devoted, — works 

 which, partly from their publication somewhat out of the ordi- 

 nary channels, are by no means so well known as they should 

 be, but which surely secure to their author the position of a 

 master in his department, — in which, indeed, we suppose he 

 has left behind him no superior. These works are, first, the 

 " Q-enera Lichenum, an Arrangement of the North American 

 Lichens" (pp. 283, 8vo), published at Amherst in the year 1872 ; 

 second, the "Synopsis of the North American Lichens," Part 

 I, comprising the Parmeliacei, Gladoniei and Coenogoniei, pub- 

 lished in Boston (by Cassino & Co.) in 1882. It is hoped, but 

 it is not yet certain, that some portions of the remainder, relat- 

 ing to the less conspicuous but more difficult tribes, may have 

 been substantially made ready for the printer. The loss, we 

 fear, is irreparable ; for the work cannot be completed by other 

 hands upon quite the same lines, nor in our day with the same 

 knowledge and insight; and Professor Tuckerman's mode of 

 exposition is inimitable. 



That which Professor Tuckerman did accomplish, however, 

 suffices to show the wide reach and remarkable precision of his 

 knowledge, his patience and thoroughness in investigation, his 

 sagacity in detecting affinities, and his philosophical and rather 

 peculiar turn of mind. He wrote in a style which — though 

 perhaps founded on that of his botanical model, Fries, for suc- 

 cinctness, and that of his favorite German philosophical masters 

 for involution — was yet all his own, and which was the more 

 pronounced in advancing years, when, owing to increasing deaf- 

 ness and delicate health, he led a more secluded life. In dis- 

 quisition, the long and comprehensive sentences which he so 

 carefully constructs are unmistakably clear to those who will 

 patiently plod their way through them, and his choice even of 



