ANNUAL DINNER FOR 1914 



THE annual dinner of the California Botanical Society for 1914 

 was held December 12 at the Hotel Carlton in Berkeley. Dr. 

 W. L. Jepson presided as toastmaster and introduced Mr. 

 S. B. Parish of San Bernardino, as guest of honor. A hearty welcome 

 accorded the guest by the toastmaster was joined in by Dr. H. M. 

 Hall and Miss Rosalind Keep. Mr. Parish responded as follows: 



I confess, Dr. Jepson, to a feeling of surprise this evening when 

 I look upon this goodly company that is before me, to see that 

 there are so many botanists here in central California. I did not 

 suppose there were. The most that I am accustomed to, when 

 botanists gather together, is two or three, and to see so many is an 

 agreeable surprise to me, and it must be very agreeable to you to 

 know that there are so many interested in the subject. It must be 

 very stimulating to you in your studies, and in your investigations 

 of nature. It brings to my mind very prominently the last time I was 

 in Berkeley. That was a generation ago, I am sorry to say — thirty 

 odd years — and Berkeley at that time was not a botanical center 

 by any means. I remember coming over from San Francisco in 

 company with Dr. Parry, who was then staying there, to call upon 

 the only working botanist in Berkeley. I suppose there was some- 

 body up at the University, tho I do not know. But the only working 

 botanist was the Rev. E. L. Greene, afterwards Professor of Botany 

 in the University, but who was at that time rector of a little wooden 

 church. It was a very small and plain structure — I do not remember 

 where it was situated 1 — and I came over and attended the morning 

 service and afterwards went with the rector to his home and we 

 talked about plants the rest of the evening. That seemed to be the 

 extent of botanical activity in Berkeley at that time. What activity 

 there was on the coast of California at that time centered in San 

 Francisco at the old Academy of Sciences, which then occupied a 

 church at the top of the hill, 2 and the botanical department was 

 located in the gallery of this old church. There were perhaps three 

 or four persons in the Academy who were more or less interested in 

 botany. Dr. H. W. Harkness, who was interested in fungi but who 

 has left no impression on my mind, was one. Dr. Hans Behr, who 

 was the best educated botanist of all, but whose interest in botany 

 at that time had all turned to spiders. He cared not very much for 

 plants, but was very much interested in spiders. The th ; rd botanist 

 and the one who was working the most was Dr. Albert Kellogg, and 

 I remember him very distinctly when one would go to the church 



1 St. Mark's Church, Bancroft Way. 



2 California Street. 



Madrono, vol. 1, p. 71-86, Sept. 30, 1922. 



