43 



CHARLES EDWARD FAXON DEAD 



Distinguished as a Botanist and Illustra- 

 tor, He Had Been Assistant Director of 

 the Arnold Arboretum 



Charles Edward Faxon, assistant di- 

 rector of the Arnold Arboretum, died 

 suddenly at his home in Jamaica Plain 

 this morning-. Born in Roxbury on Jan. 

 21, 1846, he was the son of Elisha and 

 Hannah Mann (Whiting) Faxon. He was 

 a graduate of the Lawrence Scientific 

 School and an instructor of botany at 

 Harvard from 1879 to 1S84. In 1907 he 

 was made an hononary Master of Arts 

 by Harvard. 



Like his brothers, Charles Faxon was 

 interested from boyhood in nature, and 

 as a boy roamed the v/oods in search of 

 birds and plants. He kept his interest 

 birds and their habits until the end 

 and few men who were not professional 

 ornithologists had a more comprehensive 

 iwledge of this subject, 

 [r. Faxon began early to draw plants 

 and showed so much ability in this work 

 that he was asked to make some of the 

 colored plates for Eaton's "Ferns of 

 North America," published in 1879-1880. 

 For the first volume of this classical 

 book he made six drawings and for the 

 second volume thirty-three drawings 

 When the Smithsonian Institution began 

 the preparation of the work on trees 

 which was afterwards known as "Sar- 

 gent's Silva of North America," Mr. 

 Faxon was selected to prepare the il- 

 lustrations. For this work he made 

 749 drawings accompanied by carefully- 

 prejpared analyses of the flowers and 

 fruits. He made 642 drawings for Sar- 

 gent's "Manual of the Trees of North 

 America" and the drawings for the 100 

 plates of trees and shrubs; and several hun- 

 dred drawings which were reproduced on 

 the pages of Garden and Forest, including 

 those afterward republished in "The Forest 

 Flora of Japan." His drawings of many 

 Central American plants were published 

 from time to time in The Botanical Gazette. 



Among the artists who have made bo- 

 tanical drawings in the last four centu- 

 ries few have equaled Mr. Faxon in 

 taste, skill and knowledge, and the 

 works which he illustrated owe their 

 chief value to his pencil. 



Charles Faxon had an unusually wide 

 and general knowledge of literature and 

 taught himself to read currently every 

 European language. Modest and retiring 

 he impressed himself publicly only 

 through his pencil, and only those per- 

 sons who could appreciate the value of 

 its work, or who came into daily contact 

 with him, realized that one of the re- 

 markable and distinguished men of the 

 country was living here in Boston prac- 

 tically Unknown to the general public. 

 He was a Fellow of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Science. 



The final volume of "The Silva" was 

 dedicated to Charles Edward Faxon "In 

 grateful appreciation of the skill and 

 learning which for twenty years he wael 

 devoted with untiring zeal to 'The Silva 

 of North America,' " by the friend who, 

 for forty years, had been his almost 

 laily associate. 



DEATHS 



7J7T 



i Two, Part Two. 



FAXON— At Jamaica Plain. Feb. (5, suddenly, 

 Charles Edward Faxon, aged 72 years. Funeral 

 at the Chapel of the Massachusetts Cremation 

 Society, Wallt Hill street, Friday, at 2.30. 

 Please omit flowers. 



