THE FERN BULLETIN 



Vol. XV JULY, 1907. No. 3 



IN MEMORIUM 



In the death of three of its most eminent men within 

 a year, American fern study has sustained a loss that 

 will cause the year 1907 to be long remembered. In 

 their demise we lose not only three leaders and author- 

 ities but the last of a group of men in which were in- 

 cluded D. C. Eaton, John Williamson, Thomas Meehan, 

 and others famous for their researches among the fern 

 worts. The men now most active in fern study were 

 all born since this group began their labors, or at least 

 they began their study of ferns long after these had 

 achieved distinction in the science. To these pioneers, 

 therefore, fell the task of laying the foundations for our 

 present knowledge of ferns and welding the scattered 

 facts and descriptions into one complete whole. They 

 found the study devoid of literature; they left it with 

 many books for its work. They began their work alone 

 and widely removed from one another; they ended with 

 fern students in every town of any size. 



First of the recent deaths was that of Benjamin Davis 

 Gilbert, which occurred at his home in Clayville, N. Y., 

 on June 3rd, 1907, after a protracted illness. Following 

 this came that of Lucien Marcus Underwood, who died 

 by his own hand in a fit of temporary insanity Nov. 16, 

 1907. Last to leave us was George Edward Davenport, 

 who expired suddenly Nov. 29, 1907, while walking with 

 his grandchildren in the Middlesex Fells reservation. 

 A short account of the life and work of each may be a 

 fitting memorial with which this page in fern study closes. 



Benjamin Davis Gilbert was born at Albany, N. Y., 

 Nov. 21, 1835, and graduated from Hamilton College 

 in the class of 1857. His father died before he was 



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