Autobiography and ReminisceriMs 
 
 □F THE LATE 
 
 AUGUST FENELEH. 
 
 Edited by WM. M. CANBY. 
 
 
 : rv 
 
THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 

Botanical Gazette 
 
 Yol. X. 
 
 JUNE, 1885. 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 An Autobiography and Some Reminiscences of the Late August 
 
 Fendler. I. 
 
 EDITED BY WM. M. CANBY. 
 
 Brief notices of the late August Fendler have appeared in 
 several scientific periodicals, but scarcely such as so excellent a 
 man and one so useful to science deserved. Feeling this, a fuller 
 account, consisting of extracts from his correspondence and some 
 personal reminiscences, was prepared by the writer. After this 
 had been done, it was found that, at Prof. Eaton’s suggestion, Mr. 
 Fendler had written and sent to him the autobiography which 
 has been kindly furnished, and is here given. The former ac- 
 count, revised and enriched with further extracts from his letters 
 to Professors Gray and Eaton, is appended. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 
 
 August Fendler, the only child of Mathias Fendler, was born on the 10th 
 day of January, 1813, at the town of Gumbinnen, in the most eastern part of 
 Prussia. When he was about six months old his father, who by trade was a 
 turner in wood and ivory, died. Two years later his mother married again. 
 Little August’s parents being possessed of but scanty means, could not do much 
 for the boy in the way of education. Hence it happened that his school train- 
 ing was for a number of years confined to the most rudimental establishment, 
 scarcely deserving the name of a school. When about twelve years old he was 
 sent to the “ Gymnasium,” a kind of preparatory school for the University. 
 Here he showed more aptiiude for mathematics than for Greek and Latin, and 
 after a term of four years his parents, becoming financially embarrassed, were 
 obliged to take him from school. Being apprenticed to the town clerk’s office, 
 he soon found that the kind of writing to be done here was to him but a lime 
 and spirit-killing employment, during which the longing for a visit to foreign 
 countries grew daily stronger. 
 
 At the end of his apprenticeship his first chance for traveling presented 
 itself. He received an offer from a distinguished physician to accompany him 
 in the capacity of clerk during a journey of inspection to be made with regard 
 to the quarantine stations along the Eussian frontier of Prussia, which the 
 much dreaded cholera was then, for the first time, fast approaching in its west- 
 ward course through Europe. F. accepted the offer most readily, and as the 
 
9 .86 
 
 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 time of starting on this little trip was fixed upon for the next morning, he could 
 not sleep an hour all night for excitement and joy. They had not been long 
 on their journey when the physician received the alarming news that the cholera 
 had already made its appearance in a large Prussian village on the frontier. 
 To this point they hastened immediately. The cholera made sad havoc among 
 the population of the village, and F. was soon surrounded by cholera patients, 
 an unusually great percentage of whom died. The ravages of the cholera in this 
 place finally abated, and F. went home. 
 
 He was now troubling his mind more than ever with the question what 
 trade or occupation to choose that would give him a good chance for traveling. 
 If he had but known that there was such an occupation as that of a collector 
 of plants, and that from the sale of them he could clear his traveling expenses, 
 how happy would he have been to prepare himself for it, the more so as he was 
 fond of objects of vegetation. But no such information had ever reached him ; 
 he had seen no books describing the species of plants of any locality, and the 
 schools had been silent on the subject. 
 
 Having a preference for a trade based upon chemistry, and having been 
 assured that the tanning and currying trade was the one that would take him 
 safely through all Europe and America, he became an apprentice to it, and 
 during two years of steady hard work learned practically most of the various 
 manipulations, disgusting though some of them are to most persons, and trying 
 as they were to his rather slender and light frame of body. He got over all 
 the objections in a most cheerful manner, looking constantly to the future chances 
 for travel offered by his trade. 
 
 Meanwhile F. found out that there existed in Berlin a kind of Polytechnic 
 school, the Boyal Gewerbe schule ; in which young artisans, who showed an abil- 
 ity for readily acquiring the physical sciences, were to receive not only free 
 instruction, but likewise an annual stipend of three hundred thalers for three 
 years. The candidates for these favors to be selected, after due examination, 
 two or three from each province of the kingdom. Arrived at this school, the 
 pupils found soon that the vigorous and rapid course of instruction tasked all 
 their mental powers. A small proportion of their number only were able to 
 avail themselves of the whole three years’ instruction, all the rest being dis- 
 missed as unfit, either at the end of the first or second year. 
 
 In the fall of 1834 F. was admitted a pupil to the Royal Gewerbe schule, but 
 the continued sedentary life, combined with the strain of mind in studying till 
 late at night, told plainly that this mode of life did not agree with his health. 
 Advised by his physician to desist from any further exertions at this school, he, 
 at the end of the first year, asked for his dismission, which was granted, accom- 
 panied by a testimonial certifying to his “ good and very good progress in all 
 the various branches of instruction.” 
 
 In the autumn of 1835 F., with knapsack on his back, started from Berlin 
 in the capacity of a traveling artisan ( Handwerksbursche ), passing, through parts 
 of Silesia, Saxony to Frankfort, and down the river Rhine, working in several 
 places at his trade, and finally going to Bremen. Thence early in the spring 
 of 1836 he embarked for Baltimore, Maryland, where he arrived with only a 
 couple of dollars in his pocket. In Philadelphia he worked in a tanyard for a 
 few months, but found the work too hard, and after having visited the coal dis- 
 tricts of Pennsylvania, he went to New York late in the fall and withotit money, 
 friends, or employment at his trade, was obliged to go to work in a lamp fac- 
 tory and learn a variety of handicraft more agreeable to him than those of the 
 tanyard. While at New York he witnessed the arrival of the first ocean steam- 
 ers, the Sirius and the Great Western. They were side-wheel steamers, and 
 were hailed most enthusiastically by the people of New York. The great 
 money crisis and panic of 1837 depressed the lamp manufacturing business to 
 such an extent that, one after another, all the journeymen of his shop, as well 
 
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 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 287 
 
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 as the apprentices, had to quit. F. was the last one to leave his employer, until 
 finally in the spring of 1838 the shop was shut up altogether. 
 
 F. having made up his mind to go to St. Louis, Missouri, the then “Far 
 West,” started as early as possible. The best and quickest route he could find 
 at that time was the following: from New York up the Hudson river to Al- 
 bany by steamer; then to Buffalo by canal, which took seven or eight days; 
 thence by steamer to Cleveland, Ohio; thence by canal to Portsmouth, on the 
 Ohio river ; thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi by steamboat to St. 
 Louis. The whole journey from New York to St. Louis required thirty days, 
 and at the most economical rate, by taking deck-passage on the steamers, could 
 not be made for less than thirty dollars. 
 
 At St. Louis, which at that time had but 13,000 inhabitants, F. got em- 
 ployment as lamp maker with a man who had just commenced making spirit- 
 gas for lighting public houses, as the manufacture of coal-gas had not reached 
 so far west. F.’s wages were good, but getting dissatisfied with the poor tools 
 and the cold and open room he had to work in at the approach of^winter, he di- 
 rected his thoughts towards the sunny South, and resolved to leave St. Louis 
 about Christmas time in 1838. As all the river steamers were ice-bound, he 
 took up his staff and knapsack, the same he used to carry in the old country, 
 and crossing the Mississippi, he commenced his solitary walk through the then 
 thinly settled forests of Illinois, the cane-brakes of Kentucky, and part of Ten- 
 nessee, where he fell in with two other men bound for New Orleans. As no 
 steamboats from northern ports had yet been able to break the great ice barrier 
 'below the mouth of the Ohio river, the three wayfarers joined in buying an old 
 skiff, and in it floated down the great river. Towards evening the same day a 
 steamboat, the first to break the ice, was espied by them coming down, was 
 hailed, boarded, and the skiff abandoned. 
 
 Arrived at New Orleans, the talk about Texas induced F. to seek adven- 
 tures still farther west. Embarked in a steamer and arrived at Galveston in 
 January, 1839. Galveston island at that time contained about a dozen poor- 
 looking houses scattered about its low and sandy surface. From Galveston he 
 went to Houston, the capital of Texas. The government of Texas then grant- 
 ing to every immigrant a “headright” of 320 acres of public land, F. applied 
 for one and received it, but in order to have it selected and surveyed he was 
 required, well armed, to join the surveyors, in order to strengthen their party 
 against any premeditated attack from the wild Comanches who, it was feared, 
 might at any time pounce upon them. But having no rifle, he could not join 
 the surveying party, and hence had to leave his grant of land unselected. 
 
 His stay of twelve months in Texas was full of exciting incidents. Having 
 roamed,. for the most part singly, the country as far as to the then uninhabited 
 spot (soon, however, to be surveyed by order of the government) where now the 
 new capital of Austin stands, and suffering from a severe attack of bilious fe- 
 ver, F. returned to the nearest settlement, and subsequently to Houston, just in 
 time to be an unwilling witness to the dreadful and distressing sights of the un- 
 precedented ravages of the yellow fever during a period of four months in 
 the summer and fall of 1839. At last, dissatisfied with the country, nearly 
 empty in purse, and broken down in health, he left for Illinois, where for some 
 time he was engaged in teaching school. 
 
 Autumn in North^ America, and especially in the Western States, always 
 presented more charms to F.’s mind than any other part of the year. Hence 
 in 1841, when autumn winds began to scatter the falling forest leaves, he was 
 seized with an uncontrollable desire for solitary life in the wild woods, removed 
 from the haunts of man, in short, for the independent life of a hermit. In his 
 search for a proper place, he came upon a little village called Wellington, sit- 
 uated on the banks of the Missouri river, three hundred miles above St. Louis. 
 Here he learned that an uninhabited island, two and a half miles long, called 
 Wolfs Island, not very far below the village, was at his service. 
 
 ^ 688 ; 
 
288 
 
 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 Without delay, F. packed his little baggage, including some bed-clothes 
 and cooking utensils, a rifle, an axe and some books, in a canoe, also taking 
 along some provisions, and started for his new home. This island was densely 
 wooded with gigantic trees. On the lower part of it, farthest removed from 
 the village, was an old, dilapidated log cabin, the former abode of some wood- 
 choppers. The upper part of the chimney was gone, so that a tall man stand- 
 ing on the outside of it could look down inside upon the low fire-place, from 
 the burrows of which wild rabbits popped forth at the approach of man; part 
 of the roof was gone, and the door carried off. There was plenty of game, 
 however, especially wild turkeys. These latter had chosen the island as a roost- 
 ing place for the night and as a place of safe retreat in daytime when chased 
 on the mainland by hunters. In a so-called “turkey-pen” they were easily 
 entrapped, and thus an abundance of excellent food secured. To return the 
 borrowed canoe to its owner and to make one of his own was his first aim. So 
 he went to work at a big trunk of a prostrate tree, and with an axe shaped part 
 of it into proper form of a light canoe eight feet long. 
 
 Removed from the crowd, the hum and strife of men, his pastimes consisted 
 alternately in trapping, hunting, reading, musing and meditating, and on mild 
 and sunny days in paddling up a placid arm of the river, then turning round 
 lean idly back in his canoe, thus floating home again. Occupied in this way F. 
 lived for about six months, enjoying the sweets of solitude with a satisfaction 
 of inward peace of mind and bliss higher than he had expected — contented and 
 happy as ever mortal man, similarly situated, can claim to be. His feelings of 
 content would at times culminate into feelings of thankfulness, which then 
 found vent in words akin to the soliloquy of Faust at his forest cave: “Spirit 
 sublime ! Thou unto me gav’st ev’ry thing I pray for.” 
 
 Only once he met on the island with a human being, namely, with its owner, 
 coming to see him. How long F. would have continued to live here is hard to 
 say, if the great spring rise in the Missouri river, which began to overflow part 
 of the island, had not taken place. When its waters rose to within a short dis- 
 tance of his cabin he thought ’twas time to leave, and entrusting himself and 
 baggage to his frail canoe, was hurried along at no mean speed by the precipi- 
 tate rush of the foaming and rapidly swelling stream. Dodging floating logs 
 and broken ledges of ice, he expected every moment to be swamped by the high 
 waves caused by a stiff breeze blowing up stream. To land his tiny craft 
 amidst eddies and whirlpools at Lexington, ten miles below the island, was, 
 however, the most perilous part of the venture. 
 
 In 1844 F. sailed for Europe on a visit home. At Koenigsberg he got ac- 
 quainted with Ernst Meyer, Professor of Botany at the University, who first 
 intimated to him that a certain number of sets of dried specimens of plants 
 for the herbarium might be disposed of at a reasonable price, and advised him 
 on his return to the Western United States to collect and send them on, for sale, 
 to the Professor’s address. 
 
 On his return to America and to St. Louis, F. assiduously began to collect 
 plants, and took the different species to Dr. Engelmann, who furnished him 
 with their scientific names. Different parts of the country, between Chicago 
 and New Orleans, were visited by him for the purpose of collecting. Dr. En- 
 gelmann observing the zeal of F. for his new occupation, recommended him to 
 Dr. Asa Gray in 1846, during the war between Mexico and the United States. 
 The latter being about to send troops to Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dr. Gray fur- 
 nished F. with a letter of recommendation from the Secretary of War, by means 
 of which he got free transportation for himself, his collections and luggage. F. 
 arrived at Santa Fe late in the fall of the year, when vegetation on the most 
 interesting part of his route was already dried up. Collecting during the fol- 
 lowing spring and summer, he was, to his great sorrow, obliged to return to 
 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 289 
 
 St. Louis in the fall of 1847, his means of subsistence having become ex- 
 hausted.* 
 
 In the spring of 1849 F. started on another collecting expedition over the 
 western plains. This time he intended to visit the Great Salt Lake region. To 
 him the year 1849 proved most disastrous, for in crossing the plains, he lost in 
 the Little Blue river, by a flood that came suddenly upon him, all his drying 
 paper, besides many other things needful on his intended' tour, as well as his 
 principal means of transportation, so that he was forced to wait at Fort Kear- 
 ney for a chance to return to St. Louis. Arrived at the latter place, he found 
 that all his worldly goods, all his collections, all his books, and worse still, all 
 the journals of his travels had been destroyed by the great conflagration that, at 
 the same time, laid the best business quarter of St. Louis into ashes during his 
 absence. 
 
 At the close of 1849 F. embarked at New Orleans for Chagres, on the Isth- 
 mus of Panama, and after having collected for four months at and above the 
 mouth of the Chagres river, went by the way of New Orleans to Arkansas, col- 
 lecting plants during the summer at Camden, on the Washita river. The fall 
 of 1850 found him settled at Memphis, Tennessee, introducing and carrying on 
 for three years the camphene-light business in that town and collecting for his 
 herbarium as time would permit. As soon as he found that the introduction of 
 coal gas, in the fall of 1854,t made his camphene business unprofitable, he was 
 on the move again and went by way of New York to La Guayra, Venezuela, 
 then up to Caraccas, and after a few months stay in the latter place to Colonia 
 Tovar, situated 6,500 feet above the sea. Here, unattended by any one in his 
 four years’ botanical rambles, he scaled the lonely crests and explored the hid- 
 den recesses of many a forest-covered mountain range, and through trackless 
 wilds and along the margin of foaming rivulets gathered lots of Phsenogamous 
 plants, as well as Ferns, Mosses and Fungi. He also paid attention to meteoro- 
 logical phenomena, parts of his observations being printed in the annual report 
 of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 1857. 
 
 Having returned to Missouri F. acquired, in 1864, near Allentown, a tract 
 of land densely wooded, which, with the assistance of his half-brother, he be- 
 gan to clear and cultivate. Toiling here for seven years to improve his new 
 homestead, he finally sold it, in 1871, and left for Europe in the spring follow- 
 ing to pay once more a visit to his old home with a view to abide there. America, 
 however, had taken too strong a hold on his affections, the more so as he had 
 been for twenty-four years a naturalized citizen of the United States. He re- 
 turned to its shores in 1873, and, after looking around for some time, settled at 
 Wilmington, Delaware, which he intended to make his final and permanent 
 home. Yet this was not to be. Fearful attacks of acute rheumatism, endanger- 
 ing his life, forced him, four years after, again to break loose and go in search 
 of a more genial climate in more southern latitudes. In June, 1877, he landed 
 in a feeble state of health at Port-of-Spain, on the Island of Trinidad, where he 
 has been busy ever since in making collections of Ferns and Phmnogamous 
 plants, as well as Mosses. 
 
 *About this time (July 25, 1848,) we find the earliest letter to Professor Gray which has 
 been preserved. 1 1 gives a pitiful account of his privations and losses, stating, among other 
 facts, that his brother had been obliged to enlist in the army on account of poverty. Later 
 in the year he wrote again, proposing, if proper pecuniary encouragement was secured, to 
 make a collecting tour on the Isthmus of Panama: and in California. No arrangement was 
 made, however. In a letter dated August 11, 1853, he states that many of the sets of his 
 Santa Fe collections, which had been sent to Europe, were still unsold. Professor Gray’s 
 classic Plantx Fcndlericmx has long since made these invaluable, and many botanists 
 would gladly purchase them now. 
 
 fThis date should be 1853, as we find by his letters that he left Memphis on the 16th of 
 November, 1853, and on December 24, of the same year, sailed from New York for Vene- 
 zuela. The extracts from his correspondence given hereafter illustrate his life at this and 
 subsequent periods. 
 
290 
 
 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 His notes and observations on botanical subjects are scattered in letters 
 to bis correspondents. Besides Botany, Meteorology is one of F.’s favorite 
 studies, and wherever he resided, since 1849, he made daily observations with 
 regard to it. 
 
 While at Wilmington F. published a little work entitled ‘‘The Mechanism 
 of the Universe,” and also translated Goethe’s “Faust” from the German origi- 
 nal into the English language. This translation is yet in manuscript form. 
 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 301 
 
 II. 
 
 Let us now give, by extracts from his letters, a fuller account of his life in 
 Venezuela. In a letter written to Dr. Gray, in December, 1854, he says: “On 
 my arrival * * * * (at Colonia Tovar), I found a chance to buy a small 
 farm, with the produce that was on it and a small cottage, for $47.” One can 
 not help wishing for more definite information regarding the size of the “farm,” 
 the amount of produce, and the style of cottage, all of which could be pur- 
 chased for $47 ! And the place seems like a veritable Garden of Eden, when 
 farther on he discourses thus : “ A visitor who never before lived in a valley 
 
 like this, finds here many peculiarities of vegetation, surface and climate, 
 which make him feel that he is not far off the land of perpetual peace ; for he 
 has entered the happy region of the ferns, the ‘ tierra templada de los helechos.’ 
 There is no scorching summer’s heat, no fearful winter’s cold, neither tornadoes 
 to devastate the country, nor gales to blind the inhabitants with sand or dust, 
 or penetrate their clothes and flesh with piercing frost. Lightnings are rare 
 and rather harmless, thunders merely grumbling. * * * * The mean 
 
 temperature of April was 63.3°; May, 63.9° ; June, 63°; July, 62.4°; August, 
 63.62°; September, 63.5° ; October, 63.44° ; November, 62.52°. Very seldom 
 the temperature gets as low as 50°, and yet more rarely it rises to 78°. These 
 two degrees (50 and 78 F.), seem to be the limits which are never exceeded in 
 these months. The common temperature ranges between 56° and 70°. I am 
 told that in January and February the temperature may be a few degrees lower 
 in the morning, but otherwise about the same as in all the other months. The 
 temperature of this valley therefore is that of a perpetual spring. Yet there is 
 some variety in the climate with regard to moisture, viz.: the dry and rainy 
 seasons. * * * * In the dry season if there is at any time moisture 
 
 enough in the atmosphere to be condensed the mountainous districts are sure to 
 get it. The judicious farmer is therefore enabled to plant and reap at any 
 time the whole year round, for if the rain should fail abundance of spring 
 water, which rushes and leaps down from all sides in numerous rivulets to 
 every man’s field, can be made to restore moisture to the soil. In fact, my 
 brother, who is with me, plants small patches of potatoes once every fortnight, 
 month after month. * * * * My cottage stands on a small hill which is 
 
 projecting from the sloping side of a mountain overlooking the greater part of 
 the colony. On the slopes of this little hill we have made terraces, planted 
 with Musa sapientum, with apple trees, palms (Conocarpus utilis) and a stately 
 tree fern fourteen feet high. Near the brown polished stem of the palm the 
 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 303 
 
 clear arch of a fountain glitters in the tropical sun, sending up unceasingly its 
 sparkling little stream to the top of the young palm.” He then speaks of 
 having already collected about 255 species of ferns as well as other plants 
 “The fine dry weather, which is now approaching, urges me again to renewed 
 activity in the field. The woods here are very dense, and impenetrable without 
 a sabre. The neighboring country is much diversified. In two or three hours’ 
 walk I can be in a region where the tropical fruits in all their luxuriance 
 grow, while the products of the colony are rye, barley, oats, wheat, potatoes, 
 beans, flaxseed, etc. The apple tree here is more shrub than tree-like, blossoms 
 at all times of the year, and bears apples without seeds. * * * * The 
 
 finest strawberries can be gathered a few steps from my door in great abundance 
 during eight months of the year; blackberries are equally abundant. Of 
 palms I have collected six species, of which five grow in the colony; tree 
 ferns nine or ten species. Cruciferse and Umbelliferse are represented only by 
 two or three species.” 
 
 In a letter to Dr. Gray, under date of Nov. 25, 1855, he informs him that 
 he had already collected 314 species of ferns, “ of which at least 290 were col- 
 lected at the colony, or from four to eight miles around it.” He had also col- 
 lected 1,850 species of flowering plants, and thought he might get 800 or 1,000 
 more of these, and perhaps eighty or a hundred more of ferns. 
 
 Late in 1855 or early in 1856 he returned to this country. About May 1 
 of the latter year he again sailed for Venezuela, and by July of 1857 had in- 
 creased his fern numbers to 489 and of flowering plants to : ,541. He busied 
 himself also with Fungi for Dr. Curtis, Lichens for Prof. Tuckerman, and 
 Mosses for Mr. Sullivant. He speaks of there being heavy white frosts in the 
 high mountain regions, “ and yet the stately wax palm on the neighboring 
 heights, with its polished shaft of seventy or eighty feet, rears uninjured its 
 slender form and its leaf-adorned head high above all other trees.” Two state- 
 ments taken from his journal will complete the extracts from his Venezuelan 
 correspondence. 
 
 “In traveling from Victoria towards Valencia we find, about three miles 
 west of Turmero, right in the middle of the road, the famous ‘ Zamang,’ an 
 enormous tree so well described by Alexander von Humboldt. Its head, 
 formed by enormous horizontal branches, is the most remarkable part of this 
 giant of trees. * * * I measured its head in its greatest diameter * * * 
 most carefully, and found it to be 206 feet 11 inches English. Fifty-seven 
 years ago it was found by Humboldt to measure in its greatest diameter 192 
 feet French measure, which would be equal to 204.48 feet English. Hence it 
 follows that this tree, within the last fifty-seven years, has increased the hori- 
 zontal diameter of its head only by 2 feet 5 inches English. The branches are 
 loaded with a wonderful mass of epiphytes and parasites, and it seems surpris- 
 ing that branches of nearly one hundred feet in length, standing horizontally 
 out from the trunk, can support for centuries, besides their own astonishing 
 weight, such an extra load of heavy’plants as Bromeliacese, Orchidese, Cactea;, 
 Loranthacese, Piperacese, etc.” The next relates to the celebrated “ Cow-trees.” 
 “ The space over which they were distributed was but very limited. * * 
 
 Their external appearance, the shape of the trunk and leaves, agree exactly 
 with the description given by A. von Humboldt. Most of them were 
 trees of 1 to 1J feet in diameter, but very tall. In seven or eight of these trees, 
 of different age and dimensions, I made incisions to see the milk flow. Al- 
 though it was about the same season of the year when Humboldt saw the cow- 
 tree between Valencia and Puerto Carbello, I never could elicit from them 
 more than one or two drops in a second of time. There was not much differ- 
 ence in the flow of milk between the larger and smaller trees, and if ever I 
 was disappointed in my expectation, it certainly was on this occasion as to the 
 quantity of the milk. The milk has an agreeable, mild, rather rich taste, 
 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 303 
 
 and becomes somewhat sticky between the fingers. People who live not far off', 
 and have tried these cow-trees, do not praise much their milk-yielding quali- 
 ties. I have neither seen the fruit nor the flower of these trees, but in compar- 
 ing its leaves with those of plants in my herbarium I find the closest resemblance 
 in shape, structure and venation with some species of fig trees. The wood is 
 white and of considerable hardness.* 
 
 Fendler returned to this country and settled again at St. Louis sometime 
 in 1858. It is not necessary to recount his various occupations between this date 
 and the time of his removal to Wilmington. 
 
 About the year 1873 the writer received a note from the late Dr. Engel- 
 mann, giving information that Fendler had settled at Seaford, Delaware, and 
 requesting that some attention should be paid to him. After a short correspon- 
 dency with the writer he determined to remove to Wilmington in the same 
 State, where he purchased a small house and garden. In the latter he and his 
 brother (who required some care) took great delight. At this time Fendler was 
 about 60 years of age, rather tall and spare, dignified and pleasant in address, 
 but very modest and often painfully diffident. The writer frequently took botan- 
 ical excursions with him, and found him to be a devoted lover of nature and a 
 most intelligent and faithful assistant in preparing and arranging specimens for 
 the herbarium. The enthusiam with which he spoke of the wonderful and cu- 
 rious vegetation of the tropics will always be remembered by those who heard 
 him ; and his long and arduous journeys gave him much matter for enter- 
 taining conversation. 
 
 He was scrupulously honest and exact in every duty and business transac- 
 tion, and it is within the writer’s knowledge that he at one time suffered what 
 his friends thought a most unjust loss, because of his determination to avoid a 
 quarrel with any one. 
 
 He was now much engaged in getting ready for publication his “ Mechan- 
 ism of the Universe,” in which he had given his ideas of cosmical phenomena. 
 Nothing would persuade him that this book was not to bring him lasting fame, 
 and no reasoning could discourage him from undertaking the expense of publi- 
 cation. All that could be done was to save him as much as possible. The ex- 
 pense proved to be comparatively small, but, in this respect, was much more 
 than matched by the small sale of the work. The few commendatory letters 
 which he received were treasured and re-read with the greatest pleasure by the 
 gentle and guileless man. 
 
 As he says in his autobiography, it had been his intention to make Wil- 
 mington his permanent home ; but a year or two after he settled there he was 
 attacked by some rheumatic ailments, which not only caused the most acute 
 suffering, but at one time seemed likely to end his career. Finally, when he 
 had somewhat regained his health, he determined to seek a warmer climate, 
 choosing, after some deliberation, the island of Trinidad. He and his brother 
 sailed from New York on the 11th of May, 1877, and arrived at Port of Spain 
 on the 3d day of June following. In a short time he bought a little property 
 at Belmont, a suburb of this city, and at once commenced to plant the ground 
 and otherwise improve his new home. He was more than ever delighted with 
 the tropical flora, and thus wrote his impressions : “The gardens of some of the 
 wealthy men here are of a splendor which, with regard to magnificence of veg- 
 etation, excels everything I have seen. Such beauty in form, such gorgeous 
 colors portioned out among such an abundance of racemes, bunches, and scat- 
 tered masses of flowers, is indescribable. * * * All efforts of the most able 
 
 -The “Cow-tree” (Palo de Vaca of the Spaniards) was described by Humboldt, Bon - 
 pland and Kunth as a genus under the name of Galactodendro’n utile. It is now consid- 
 ered as identical with the older genus Brosimum of Swartz, of which Bentham and Hooker 
 recognize eight species, all tropical American trees with lactescent sap. As Fendler sus- 
 pected they are nearly allied to the fig trees (Ficus), but it is possible, as his trees were 
 such “poor milkers,” that some species have a smaller flow of the milky sap than others. 
 
304 
 
 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 writer can not but fail to give the reader an adequate conception of the bril- 
 liancy of such garden scenery and of the astonishing luxuriance of vegetation. 
 Men and their habitations sink into insignificance beside the enormous trunks and 
 heads of giant trees, and the busy town itself, looked at from the neighboring 
 hills, lies hidden beneath their branches. * * * * Bananas and mangoes are 
 plenty, and sell two for one cent. The mango, which when ripe is a delicious 
 fruit, will be in its perfection in about a week, and will then sell much cheaper.” 
 
 Again, in a letter to Dr. Gray, he writes : “ Here, also, as in North Amer- 
 
 ica, June seems to be the month of flowers, at least as regards the cultivated or- 
 namental shrubs and trees in Port of Spain. At present Poinsettia takes the 
 lead, and shows off in great splendor. Think of specimens of this beautiful 
 shrub 15 feet high, head 10 to 15 feet in diameter, with such an abundance of 
 crimson leaves (4 to 7 inches long) as to hide nearly all the green leaves. The 
 season for mangoes came to a close about the first of August, to be succeeded by 
 what is here called ‘Governor’s Plums.’ Next came the season for bread-fruit, 
 ending about the 24th of October, and now we are entering the season for or- 
 anges.” 
 
 Very soon he commenced collecting specimens for the herbarium, the ferns, 
 as usual, being the first to demand attention. Within five miles of his residence 
 he found, within a few weeks, “about 70 species.” His aim was to make 50 sets 
 for sale, and in the course of two months he had prepared more than 2,800 
 specimens. Those botanists who are so fortunate as to have these specimens 
 can well allow his claim, that “as regards completeness, freshness of color and 
 expression of characteristics” they were “all that could reasonably be desired 
 and expected.” As a demand arose he collected many specimens of mosses, 
 lichens and phanerogamous plants. 
 
botanical gazette. 
 
 319 
 
 III. 
 
 His old habit of meteorological observation was kept up with unfailing 
 regularity. He writes: “ The evenings, mornings and nights are delightfully 
 cool — the thermometer standing at 73°-80°, and generally clear. The heat of 
 the day attains its maximum at noon, when the mercury usually rises to 94° or 
 96°. We make five thermometric observations every day at 5:30 and 7 A. m., 12 
 M. and 2 and 8:30 p. m.” This industry and exactness, traits of character so 
 unusual among the population of Trinidad, combined with the daily drying in 
 the sun of botanical papers, an occupation which, as many botanists know, ex- 
 cites the wonder and amusement cf people claiming a more enlightened civili- 
 zation, soon rendered the brothers liable to a suspicion that they were engaged 
 in counterfeiting or some other illicit business. In consequence their house was 
 taken possession of and searched by the not over-gentle police, who even dug over 
 their garden. It was a severe trial to the scrupulously honest man. “That this 
 little affair weighed heavily upon my mind and gnawed deep into my immod- 
 erately sensitive feelings, you may well imagine,” he wrote soon after. After 
 sometime he again wrote: “Not minding more than I can help the people 
 around me, I go on improving my little property, setting out lots of Yams, 
 Tanias and Bananas, and putting in cuttings of different ornamental shrubs and 
 roses, also a weeping willow; raising from seeds Rondeletia, Coxcomb, Zinnias, 
 Pinks, Petunias, etc., etc., to remind me of my former more northern home.” 
 
 The promiscuous population of Trinidad afforded Fendler much interest 
 and amusement. He contrasted the large Coolie population with the New Mexi- 
 can Indians he had formerly known, finding many points of resemblance in 
 character and habits. Among the latter he notes particularly the well known 
 one of taking a whiff or two from a pipe and passing it on from one to another. 
 But to one so honorable there was much also to cause pain. A short extract 
 will throw some light on his habit of thought. “ The observer of mankind finds 
 in this Island much to interest him, but to me it is a source of pain to see the 
 dense swarms of humanity full of tricks and deception * * * with in- 
 
 decent haste trying to cheat and undermine each other. It is only when get- 
 ting among ‘the high woods,’ in places where the single individual finds him- 
 
320 
 
 botanical gazette. 
 
 self almost lost between the boughs and leaves of nature’s fairest objects, that I 
 feel happy again and forget the folly and rancor of the surging multitudes not 
 far off.” His garden prospered under his loving care, and he wrote enthusias- 
 tically of his flower beds and noted accurately the yield of his fruit trees. “ A 
 few days ago our Mango tree yielded the last of its fruit, giving us in all 426 
 mangoes of about half a pound each.” At another time he says : “ The Mango 
 tree gave 438 mangoes up to August 11, and more to ripen soon. One orange 
 tree furnished 1,006 sweet oranges. Fewer in number were the Plantains and 
 Breadfruits, of which we have become quite fond.” 
 
 Much of his time was given to botanical excursions and collections, often 
 giving him much pleasure. 
 
 He writes to Dr. Gray: “ Let me give you an account of one of these ex- 
 cursions. As the railroad train which is to take me to St. Josephs (six miles 
 east of Port of Spain) does not start before 7 A. M., I need not rise earlier than 
 4 o’clock. Then preparing breakfast, and getting things all right, I start from 
 home at six, walking one and one-half miles to the railroad depot, and arrive 
 at St. Josephs at half-past seven. From St. Josephs I have to walk six miles 
 up Maraccas valley in a northern direction, the road crossing the unbridged 
 river nine times and rising gradually all the way to the foot of the moun- 
 tains (where I get by about ten o’clock), and for three miles farther the road 
 passes through small cacao plantations where nothing is to be collected in my 
 line of business. Where the steep declivities begin the plantations cease and 
 the primeval forests are entered. Searching for specimens to the right and 
 left I reach at length, three miles farther on, the place that leads over the 
 mountain ridge and down the other side towards the Caribbean Sea. By the 
 time I get to the top of the ridge it is about two or three o’clock in the after- 
 noon. By this time the most interesting region has been reached and the search 
 for specimens is redoubled. During the excitement of searching and gathering, 
 the flight of time is not heeded, and before, in scrambling downward, I have 
 made three miles headway, I am reminded by the lengthening shadows, that it 
 were best soon to look for a resting place for the night near some suitable tree 
 or rock. In the dry season, when the sky promises to be serene for the coming 
 night, I make a heap of dry, or nearly dry leaves close to the base of the tree 
 against which I am going to lean. The tree ought not to be far off' from a 
 running stream, so that I may not lack a supply of water which, with a few 
 biscuits steeped in it and a piece of cold meat, makes up my supper. This 
 barely finished, the shades of night settle fast around me, the transition from 
 day to night and from night to day, being so sudden in these latitudes that the 
 darkness of night is upon one before he is aware of it. Horse-flies and mos- 
 quitoes are very eager for attack towards evening, but as soon as it has turned 
 dark they are gone. Nevertheless I do not fail to hang a piece of mosquito- 
 netting over my head and face, to protect myself against the attacks of a species 
 of big bats called ‘vampires,’ and now, with no one to talk to, commences the 
 long, lone watch of the night, for sleep it can not be called. Over head in the 
 tree tops the stars twinkle through a few open places, but all else around is hid 
 in shade and darkness; even the moon’s softening rays are not allowed to enter 
 the dark recess. At times, when the wind rises, the boughs of the higher trees 
 utter a doleful whisper, and from afar comes up the hollow, dull, yet angry 
 moan of the distant surf from some of the coves of the coast, which but a few 
 hours ago glittered so lovely in the glare of the setting sun. But with the 
 night wind dying away all is hushed again, save the low gurgling sound from 
 the rolling waters of the rivulet near by and the never-ceasing notes of the 
 cricket. In this way one long hour is passed after another, and the question 
 suggests itself more than once — what time of the night? Whenever for the 
 second time the subdued voice of the owl is heard answering one another, then 
 there is reason to hope that dawn of day is not far off. * * * * A^ soon as 
 
BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 321 
 
 daylight peeps through the branches, I rise from my heap of leaves, the dry 
 splinters brought with me from home are kindled, and, in addition to a few 
 grains of quinine, a good cup of strong coffee without sugar soon revives my 
 chilly frame. Having packed up my things, I again scramble along river and 
 ravine gathering ferns and flowering plants. Thus occupied I turn gradually 
 homeward in a round-about way. * * * * This is all very well in dry weather. 
 But in the rainy season it is not quite so pleasant. * * 
 
 But these excursions were sometimes not unattended with risk if the fol- 
 lowing is to be believed : “ It is well known that in Trinidad there is no scarcity 
 
 of serpents, but I was not prepared for the following which I read the other 
 day, and which happened in a remote district near a cacao plantation, hidden 
 and isolated in the midst of extensive, low and level primeval forests, where 
 shade and dampness reign forever, and where, at times, I roamed about and 
 had the pleasure of gathering many a rare fern: ‘On the 9th of December some 
 men, at work in a cacao plantation, on the river Manco, belonging to Mr. 
 Augustine, heard cries of alarm. On reaching the spot from whence the cries 
 had come, they saw a man enveloped in the folds of a monstrous serpent. They 
 were not sufficiently armed, but presently returned in larger numbers, and with 
 cutlasses chopping the snake through at several of the folds, killed it and dis- 
 engaged the man’s body. The man was dead and was stretched by the enor- 
 mous pressure of the serpent’s embrace to the length of seven feet.’” Whether 
 Fendler thought this a mere “snake story” or not, he prudently concluded, 
 “ Now, however, if I go to these and similar woods again, I shall take along a 
 more effective knife than the one I usually carry.” 
 
 Here is the relation of another event which may serve to illustrate the char- 
 acter of the people by whom he was surrounded : “ Having ascended one of the 
 highest ridges of the Saut d’eau mountains, about ten miles from town, I took 
 occasion to visit a man known all about as Popo Fernand (though his real 
 name is Joseph Isodore), in order to inquire of him about apiece of land that 
 was offered for sale in his neighborhood. On my way thither I was astonished 
 to fiud that in and beyond the village of Maraval every man, woman and child 
 knew where the man lived, though his cabin was miles away in the mountains 
 in an out of-the-way place. When I at last reached his premises I found no 
 one there, but noticed, as something unusual, a great number of beehives stuck 
 all around his cabin and outhouses, the first beehives I have seen in Trinidad. 
 After a while a woman came up and called aloud Fernand’s name. He soon 
 made his appearance. Neither he nor any of his neighbors could speak Eng- 
 lish and I could not speak their language. * * * * The man seemed, how- 
 
 ever, to be courteously disposed. In order to see how the land lay, I exposed 
 my ‘little pocket compass in his presence, when at once he seemed to become 
 alarmed, and made me understand that he thought the instrument was intended 
 to show the spot where money was hid in the ground. Of this notion I tried to 
 disabuse him. Soon after he invited me into his room and, as is customary 
 here, he asked me * * * to help myself to the contents of a small bottle he 
 set before me. Not to show any signs of distrust, I poured out about two thim- 
 blefuls of the liquor, mixing it with plenty of water, but became somewhat 
 suspicious after drinking it on noticing that Fernand himself had not taken 
 any of the bottle’s contents. About ten minutes later, on my way back, I ex- 
 perienced a strange state of mind such as never before I had happened to be in. 
 There were neither dizziness, stupefaction nor exhilarating symptoms. Visions 
 and strange incoherent thoughts flashed across my mind continually and van- 
 ished at once as quickly as they came. Any theme I made an effort to think 
 upon slipped from my memory, and instead thereof quite a different theme pre- 
 sented itself with the same futile result, until I became frightened at my own 
 thoughts and terrified at my condition of mind. After a two hours brisk and 
 steady walk this unpleasant irritation of mind gradually subsided. * * * * 
 What would have been the result had I taken a little more of that liquor?” 
 
322 
 
 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
 
 Sufficient has been written to show what manner of man Fendler was. It 
 has been more than eighteen months since the writer heard directly from him, 
 and now only the bare fact of his death is known, letters of inquiry directed to 
 persons in authority at Port of Spain remaining unanswered. Those who have 
 been privileged to become well acquainted with him will not soon forget this 
 kindly, simple, honest-hearted man, nor cease to regret that they can no longer 
 enjoy his friendship and correspondence. 
 
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