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Jepson Field Book Transcriptions · Jepson Herbarium
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29_4 Berkeley - E.L. Greene Ihave just completed a sketch of Greene's life in California for the Newman Hall Review. It was with great reluctance that I wrote it because I did not want to say anything that would hurt Greene were he living. I was under great obligations to him as a lad, but I could not follow his peculiar botany as I grew older. I regret that I did not keep a record of his unusual sayings and remarks. One was: "If you are going to write a Flora you might want only a few specimens," by which he meant that long series of specimens would unduly delay and hinder clean-cut results. That is you can make clearer species. I do not know that he would accept my interpretation of his remark, since it is not easy to speak for him nor ever was - now my practice |
29_5 Nov. 1918 is just the reverse. I want the longest series possible. My diagnoses rest on as many specimens as possible. I leave out of view only specimens that are abnormal, meager or scrappy or that present a problem that must frankly be left for the future. My work may not be as "final" as Greene's, but my object is rather to present such results as will help those who follow me and to accumulate as much material of value for future work as possible. Another of his sayings was that two species might be distinct and yet no differences might appear to the eye between the specimens. - Calif. Botanical Explorers. See summary of Western explorations in Pac. R. Rep. vol. 11. Also see a map showing the "Rio Buenaventura" extending to the Great Basin |
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