APRIL 4, 1884. ] 
would have elaborated the whole order in ac- 
cordance with his latest views of the subject. 
He even proposed so late as last year to pass 
a considerable time in northern Mexico for 
the purpose of studying these plants in their 
native country before finally giving to the 
world the final results of his long investiga- 
tions. That he did not live long enough to 
elaborate the mass of material he had so in- 
dustriously collected for this work is an irrep- 
arable loss to botanical science ; for no other 
hand, in this generation at least, will be able 
to take up this family where he has left it. 
Other difficult genera have long been studied 
by Dr. Engelmann. His predilections, indeed, 
have always been for the most difficult and 
perplexing plants; and he willingly devoted 
himself to such genera only as less patient 
investigators hesitated to take up. Thus he 
mastered the North-American Euphorbiaceae, 
elaborating all recent collections of the fam- 
ily, without, however, undertaking a complete 
revision of the order as represented in this 
country. He published an elaborate and 
exhaustive paper upon the North-American spe- 
cies of Juncus, and, later, one on the North- 
American Isoetes. His published notes upon 
the North-American species of Quercus, for 
years one of his most engrossing subjects, and 
upon North-American Abies, Juniperus, of the 
section Sabina, and upon the genus Pinus, 
contain the most valuable and trustworthy 
information which has appeared upon these 
plants. In 1873 Dr. Engelmann published, 
under the title of ‘ Notes on the genus Yucca,’ 
his elaborate revision of the genus here first 
comprehensively treated. Two years later his 
notes on Agave appeared, in which are enu- 
merated and described the species detected 
within the limits of the United States, as well 
as a few foreign species previously imperfectly 
known. Dr. Engelmann studied for many 
years the genus Vitis; and our knowledge of 
the North-American species is due in a large 
measure to his investigations. His last bo- 
tanical publication, a sketch of the true grape- 
vines of the United States, although written 
some months earlier, and previous to his last 
European journey, was issued late in 1883. 
Dr. Engelmann’s botanical writings were 
not voluminous. All his work, however, is 
characterized by the most careful and con- 
scientious preparation, great good judgment, 
classical methods of treatment, and remarka- 
ble thoroughness. His investigations were slow 
and laborious, often lasting for years in the 
case of a single plant. No botanist was ever 
less anxious to publish prematurely the results 
SCIENCE. 
407 
of his observations, or was less satisfied with 
the extent of his own knowledge. Such admi- 
rable, and in these days unusual, caution has 
made Dr. Engelmann’s botanical writings mas- 
terpieces in their way, worthy to stand with 
the best productions of their nature which have 
yet appeared. ‘This very caution and desire 
to wait for completeness, however, which have 
made Dr. Engelmann’s published papers what 
they are, havé cost the world a vast store of 
valuable information collected by him during 
long years of careful investigation, but never 
quite ready, in his critical judgment, for publi- 
cation. 
Dr. Engelmann, in addition to his profes- 
sional and botanical labors, was a most zealous 
meteorological observer, and at the time of his 
death was probably one of the oldest meteor- 
ologists in the United States. He published 
many important papers upon this and various 
physical and topographical subjects, but the 
length to which this notice is already extended 
precludes more than the mere mention of this 
fact. His meteorological and other miscellane- 
ous papers, as well as his important botanical 
papers since 1859, have been published in the 
Transactions of the St. Louis academy of sci- 
ence, which he was largely instrumental in 
establishing, and which he long served as pres- 
ident. 
Dr. Engelmann was a member of the Amer- ~ 
ican academy of arts and sciences, a corporate 
member of the National academy of sciences, 
a foreign member of the Linnaean society of 
London, and an active or corresponding mem- 
ber of many other learned bodies. His career 
was eminently successful. He lived to see the 
correctness of his judgment in selecting St. 
Louis as his adopted home confirmed, the fron- 
tier trading-post grown into a great city, and 
himself at the head of his profession there, 
and then his place occupied and worthily filled 
by his only son. He long enjoyed the friend- 
ship, the respect, and the correspondence of 
many of the most distinguished botanists of 
the age, everywhere the recognized authority in 
those departments of his favorite science which 
had most interested him. 
George Engelmann, it is fair to assume, will 
long live in his botanical writings. The thor- 
oughness of his work leaves little to subsequent 
workers in his chosen fields to gather, and 
secures its permanent usefulness and value. 
When, however, his written words are forgot- 
ten, the western plains of his adopted land will 
still be bright with the yellow rays of Hngel- 
mannia ; and the splendid spruce, the fairest of 
them all, which bears the name of Engelmann, 
