DR. RUDOLPH GMELIN AND HIS COLLECTION OF 
MINNESOTA, WISCONSIN AND IOWA PLANTS 
R. I. CRATTY 
Through the kindness of Mr. Henry C. Gmelin of Elkader, 
Iowa, a collection of dried plants numbering two hundred and 
sixty-nine species which were collected by his father. Dr. Rudolph 
Gmelin, in southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and north- 
eastern Iowa, between the years 1874 and 1894, were presented 
to the Iowa State College. It fell to the lot of the writer to 
arrange and mount the collection, and because of the prominence 
of the collector and the unusual care taken in preparing and 
preserving the specimens, it has been thought proper to place 
on record a short biographical sketch of Dr. Gmelin and append 
a list of the plants. 
When, as in the present case, such painstaking care is shown 
in pressing the plants, straightening out the leaves, selecting good 
typical specimens and so forth, it is truly a labor of love to iden- 
tify, mount and distribute in the herbarium, instead of a vexation 
of spirit as is sometimes the case. Not many of the plants had 
been named, except those possessing medicinal value, in which 
he as a practicing physician was more especially interested, as he 
compounded many of his medicines himself, from barks and 
roots. 
Through the courtesy of his son, Henry C. Gmelin of Elkader, 
in sending to Dr. Pammel some notes regarding his father’s life, 
the writer is enabled to present this brief biographical sketch. 
Dr. Rudolph Gmelin, born at Darmsheim, Wurtemburg, Ger- 
many, October 30, 1831, was the son of Rev. Heinrich Gmelin 
and Christina Louise (Pfeiderer) Gmelin. He graduated from 
the University of Tuebingen in medicine and surgery April 19, 
1854, after which he studied in the Royal Medical College of 
Wurtemburg, and then went to Vienna, Munich and Prague, 
spending a year at each place studying and practicing in the hos- 
pitals. Several years following were devoted to the practice of 
his profession in Europe, a part of the time with the German 
army as he was a volunteer surgeon during the Franco-Prussian 
