[140] Jules Emile Planchon, a French systematic and horticultural botanist, was born in Ganges (Herault) in 1823, and died at Montpellier in 1888. Planchon was a writer of many valuable monographs on botanical subjects and in combination with F. Sahut and J. Bazille discovered that the cause of a mysterious and serious malady which had been affecting the French vineyards for some years, was due to an insect on the roots, the phylloxera. Later, he and C. V. Riley determined that this insect was a native of America. Planchon was one of the first to suggest, and always urged, the reconstitution of French vineyards by the use of American stocks. During the later years of his life he was professor of botany in the School at Montpellier. His most noted contribution to grape literature is his monograph of the grape vine and other plants of the Ampelopsis family which appeared as the second half of the fifth volume of the continuation of De Candolle’s Prodromus Systematis Naturalis.
[141] Martin Vahl, a Norwegian, was born in 1749, and died in 1804. As a pupil of the great Linnaeus, Vahl became a prominent worker in botany and natural history in Denmark and was an author and writer of note on these subjects, publishing much on botany. He traveled extensively, but it does not appear that he visited North America, though he wrote three large volumes on the flora of tropical America. It is probable that he named and described Vitis palmata from herbarium specimens.
[142] Jean Louis Berlandier was a Belgian pupil of the great De Candolle, but left Europe about 1828 for America and became a druggist in Matamoras, Mexico. He was one of the first botanists to explore northern Mexico and Texas. In attempting to cross one of the small streams south of the Rio Grande in 1851, he was drowned. Many of his papers, plants and some paintings are preserved in the herbarium of Harvard University and his services to botany are commemorated by the genus Berlandiera, dedicated to him by De Candolle, and the species Vitis berlandieri here described.
[143] George Engelmann was born at Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1809. He was educated at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Wurzburg, receiving a doctor’s degree in medicine from the latter institution. In 1832 Dr. Engelmann sailed for America and spent some months in exploring the forests of the Mississippi Valley studying the plants of the region, having become deeply absorbed in botany. He soon after began the practice of medicine in St. Louis where he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1884. Engelmann was one of the most patient and devoted students of natural history of his time. He mastered several difficult genera of plants, doing his work so well that his monographs will long remain, not only authorities on the plants described, but models for the systematic botanist. Among the genera to which he devoted his time was Vitis, upon which he published several monographs. These appeared in various publications, particularly the Proceedings of the Academy of Science of St. Louis in 1860, the American Naturalist for 1868, Riley’s reports as entomologist of Missouri for 1872 and 1874, and the third and all later editions of the Bushberg Catalogue.
[144] George Bentham was born near Plymouth, England, in 1800. His father was a man of considerable wealth and the son was privately educated. Early in life he showed an inclination toward botany, writing a book on The Plants of the Pyrenees and Lower Languedoc which was published when he was only twenty-six years old. For a time he studied law in which he showed considerable talent and where his original views attracted some attention. Later, however, he gave his attention to botany almost exclusively, joined the London Horticultural Society and the Linnaean Society, and was more or less closely connected with the workers at Kew. In connection with J. D. Hooker he wrote the Genera Plantarum. Others of his well-known works are Flora Australiensis and Handbook of the British Flora. Bentham died in 1884.
[145] This name has been spelled “Lincecumii” and “Linsecomii.” Buckley tells us (U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt., 1861:486) that this grape was named in honor of “Dr. Gideon Linsecom” of Long Point, Washington County, Texas. Engelmann changed the spelling to Lincecum without giving any reason for the change. Munson states that a daughter of Dr. Lincecum says that her father always spelled his name Lincecum. It is inconceivable that Buckley did not know how to spell his friend’s name. There is other corroborative evidence that Buckley was either a poor penman, or did not read proof, or both. In his Latin description of this species nearly every other word is misspelled, and the mistakes are those of a printer rather than of one whose Latin is weak, such as “totis” for “lobis,” etc. Munson says that on the different herbarium specimens of this species collected by Buckley, the name is spelled both ways but he is not able to tell which are in Buckley’s hand. As the original error seems to be one by the printer or amanuensis it does not seem desirable to perpetuate it. We have consequently adopted the spelling of Engelmann and Munson.
[146] Liberty Hyde Bailey was born in 1858 in South Haven, Michigan. He graduated from the Michigan Agricultural College in 1882 and then studied botany for two years with Asa Gray at Harvard University. He became professor of horticulture at his Alma Mater in 1885 and resigned in 1888 to accept the Chair of Horticulture in Cornell University, a position which he filled until 1904 when he became Director of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and Dean of the New York State College of Agriculture. In 1907 he was given the degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Bailey is known as a teacher and experimenter but is better known for his horticultural and botanical writings. He has published many popular books on agricultural subjects. The best known of these are: The Nursery Book; The Rule Book; Principles of Vegetable Gardening; Garden Making; The Pruning Book; The Survival of the Unlike; The Evolution of Our Native Fruits. Besides these popular, or semi-popular works he has published two cyclopedias: The Cyclopedia of American Horticulture and The Cyclopedia of American Agriculture. Dr. Bailey’s position in American horticultural literature is unique in that he represents the botanical side of horticulture. He has written monographs on several of our cultivated fruits, notably grapes and plums, both appearing in The Evolution of Our Native Fruits.
[147] Am. Gard., 12:584. 1891.
[148] John Eaton Le Conte was born near Shrewsbury, New Jersey, in 1784 and died at Philadelphia in 1860. In 1817 he entered the army as a topographical engineer, and in 1831 was retired with the grade of major. Le Conte early became interested in natural history and his military expeditions gave him ample opportunity for studying the flora and fauna of eastern America. He published a number of important botanical papers, one of which was The Vines of North America published in 1854-55. His contributions to the genus Vitis will be found under that head.
[149] Augustin Pyramus De Candolle was born at Geneva, Switzerland, 1778, and died at Turin, Italy, in 1841. He came of an ancient French family which had been driven out of Provence in the middle of the sixteenth century owing to their religion. He began his scientific studies at the College of Geneva, but later removed to Paris where he attended courses of lectures on natural science under the greatest scientists of that day. His best known works are: Historia plantarum Succulentarum; Synopsis plantarum in flora Gallica descriptarum; and Prodromus Systematis regni vegetabilis (1824-), this last being only about two-thirds completed at the time of his death.