THE BHYOLOGIST. 
Vol. X. May, 1907 No. 3. 
A MEMOIR OF CLARA E. CUMMINGS. 
Bruce Fink. 
To the writer has been assigned the sad duty of adding to the statements 
that have already appeared regarding our lamented member of the Sullivant 
Moss Chapter. More especially, the request made was that something should 
be written regarding her work as a botanist. It was my good fortune to have 
met Miss Cummings several times at Wellesley College and elsewhere, so 
that to the impressions that came from correspondence was added that 
knowledge of 'personality which comes only through meeting a co-worker. 
That hers was a rare spirit was manifest, both in the personal touch and in 
correspondence. There was a very manifest unselfishness, frankness and 
devotion to the work that she did because she loved it. The earnestness 
patience, enthusiasm and friendliness which made her the ideal teacher also 
conduced to her success Jn aiding in the advancement of botanical science. 
All who have come into intimate relations with her in either capacity must 
have felt her delight in service. 
Miss Cummings was a botanist in the highest sense, thoroughly in sym- 
pathy with all that is best in her chosen science. Her reputation was by no 
means confined to our own country, but she was well known in Europe 
through personal acquaintance and correspondence. She will be remembered 
especially on account of her contributions to Lichenology, and it is in the 
main our present task to place before botanists a somewhat adequate view 
regarding her labors in this special field; but we could do no greater injustice 
than to do this without referring to her more general knowledge of botany, 
and to the strength of character and breadth of culture and sympathy, 
which touched the lives of those who .came in contact with her as friend, 
teacher or co-wdrker in botany. 
We have read with keenest appreciation the statement in the “ Wellesley 
College News”, for February 6, 1907, regarding Miss Cummings’ life work as 
a teacher in Wellesley College and as a contributor to botanical reseach, and 
we can only hope to enlarge somewhat upon the latter. Miss Cummings’ 
first paper was the “ Catalogue of Musci and Hepaticae of North America, 
north of Mexico,” which appeared in 1885. Just when she began her work on 
the mosses can hot be ascertained, but I find in my herbarium specimens of 
her “New England Mosses ” collected as early as 1880, and specimens of her 
“Mosses of North America” collected early in 1884. The packets are not 
numbered, and the writer does not know how many plants were distributed 
in each of these two sets of exsiccati. Their existence, however, if it may 
be assumed that the same accuracy which characterized her later work on 
lichen exsiccati obtained, demonstrates that their author possessed a knowl- 
edge of mosses before she began her more extended work on lichens. 
The March BRYOLOGIST was issued March 1, 1907. 
