﻿14 



Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



and Second streets. In later years his botanical excursions were some- 

 times made in the company (though he usually went alone) of Dr. C. 

 J. Funck and Dr. R. M. Byrnes. Dr. Salter seems to have been an 

 intimate friend, to whom Mr. Spurlock looked for companionship in 

 his studies, and to whose herbarium he made many contributions. 



During the -eight years' acquaintance which the writer enjoyed 

 with Mr. Spurlock, scarcely a week passed that he did not bring him 

 some rare or beautiful plant. He never collected for himself. He 

 gave freely to his friends the results of his herborizing. He admired 

 plants as they grew. Unlike most collectors, he cared more for their 

 preservation in the woods, the fields or on the hillsides than in herb- 

 aria. He 



"Loved the wood rose and left it on its stalk." 



He often refused to give information as to the locality of a rare 

 plant, for fear some ardent collector would destroy it and it might not 

 appear again. He watched even the most insignificant with as much 

 care as a gardener watches his choicest varieties. 



From its first budding to its fruiting the vilest weed, if rare, was 

 the subject of his constant attention, and when the seed had matured, 

 he carefully gathered and scattered it in new places, in the hope — 

 often vain, indeed — that it might germinate, and thus a rare species 

 would be preserved to our flora. It was a favorite scheme of his to 

 place the homely Jamestown weed {Datura stramonium) with the 

 beautiful flowered Datura meteloides. He scattered many seeds on 

 the hillsides and in the quarries, and though they germinated, the 

 beauty and fragrance of the flowers were the destruction of the plants, 

 and the plan, as might have been expected, failed. Less worthy, 

 though as characteristic, was his endeavor to establish the Xanthium 

 spinosum and Dysodia chrysanthemoides, and more fortunate for us 

 that he was unsuccessful. He desired to have unusual plants near 

 him, where he could readily get to them, watch them grow and flower 

 and gather a few now and then to please his botanical friends. 



The ferns Mr. Spurlock dearly loved and admired. It was a con- 

 stant source of regret that the rapid spread of the city was destroy- 

 ing the places in which the}- grew. The locality of a rare species 

 was to him a Mecca demanding a yearly pilgrimage, and how deeply he 

 felt the destruction of such a locality can only be known to those who 

 have heard him gravely complain of his misfortunes. 



When botanizing with Mr. Spurlock, he said to the writer: " Come, 

 and 1 will show you where the New York fern grows." (It is rare in 



