Vermont Botanical and Bird Clubs 23 



NOTES ON THE EARLY BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS 



OF WILLOUGHBY LAKE 



W. W. Eggleston 



Dr. G. G. Kennedy^ in his "Flora of Willoughby, Vermont," 

 sketches the work of its early explorers. 



William Oakes in his "Catalogue of Vermont Plants" (Thompson's 

 History of Vermont, 1842), does not mention Willoughby. Neither 

 does Thompson in the Northern Guide of 1845. One could well wonder 

 why two fine collectors like Dr. J. W. Robbins and John Carey did not 

 visit these cliffs, for Robbins was at Brownington and Lake Mem- 

 phremagog in 1829 and Carey at Sutton in 1835 or 1836, and they were 

 in plain sight of the cliffs, if it were not for the lack of roads about 

 Willoughby Lake at that time. 



It was the good fortune of Alphonso Wood," pioneer author of 



1 Rhodora 6: 93-114. June, 1904. 



2 Rev. Dr. Alphonso Wood was born in Chesterfield, N. H., September 17, 

 1810. He graduated with honors from Dartmouth College in 1834. 



He immediately secured a position as teacher in Kimball Union Academy, 

 Meriden, N. H., and taught there about fifteen years, becoming associate 

 principal. One year was spent at Andover Theological Seminary and later 

 he studied theology with the elder Dr. Barstow of Keene, N. H., but he never 

 was to accept a pastorate because botany soon became his life work. 



His first Class Book of Botany was published early in 1845. In 1844 

 he married Lucy Baldwin of Bradford, Vt., a teacher at Kimball Union 

 Academy. His son was born in the spring of 184.5. The spring and summer 

 of 1846 he went with his family to visit his parents in Indiana and did 

 much exploration to perfect his Class Book of 1847, in which the range was 

 extended to the Mississippi Valley. 



In 1848 or 1849 First Lessons in Botany were published. 



In 1849 his health failed him and he resigned from the Academy and 

 took a position on the engineering force then making the survey for the 

 Rutland and Bennington (Western Vermont) Railway (opened in 1852). 



In 1852 he went as principal of the Cleveland Female Seminary and 

 in 1854 became principal of Ohio Female College, College Hill, O. In 1858 

 he founded the Terre Haute Female College. Despite all of his professional 

 activity he was hard at work getting material and information for another 

 extension of his Class Book, visiting the South twice. The longer trip South 

 in 1857 was extended well into Florida. 



In the fall of 1860, when preparing the third copyright of his Class Book, 

 he moved to Brooklyn, N. Y. 



The first three parts of the new Class Book came out late in 1860 and 

 the complete work early in 1861. 



In the spring of 1861 he opened the Brooklyn Female Academy which 

 proved very successful, even during the war. 



In 1863 his "Object Lessons in Botany" was started. 



In October, 1865, he started on a trip to the Pacific slope which occupied 

 him nearly 18 months. Starting in at San Diego in January, 1866, he traveled 

 northward nearly to Puget Sound, visiting Yosemite Valley, Mt. Shasta and 

 Mt. Hood, and returned via the isthmus. 



In the spring of 1867 he moved his family to West Farms, N. Y., where 

 he resided until his death. 



In 1869 was published his Liliaceae of the Pacific Coast. 



In 1869 fourth copyright of Class Book, 



1870, Botanist and Florist. 



1877, Illustrated Plant Record. 



1879, Fourteen Weeks in Botany. 



1879, Flora Atlantica. 



In 1879 he became Professor of Botany in the New York College of 

 Pharmacy, which he occupied until his death January 4, 1881. 



