racemo'sa/racemo'sum/racemo'sus: with flowers in racemes.

racemulo'sa: growing in very small racemes.

radia'ta: spreading out like rays, usually the petals of florets, but sometimes other features.

rad'icans: with rooting stems, from Latin radicans, present participle of radicare, "to take root," from radix, "root."

rad'ula: scraping, rough, rasping, like a rasp, from Latin radere, "to scrape."

rafinesque'anum: named for Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (1783-1840), a 19th century botanist and friend of

James J. Audubon. The following is quoted from Wikipedia online: "[Rafinesque was] a nineteenth-century polymath who led a chaotic life. Many would call him a genius, but also an eccentric, sometimes close to insanity. He was very successful in various fields of knowledge; zoologist, botanist, malacologist, meteorologist, writer, evolutionist, polyglot, translator. He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics; but was honored in none during his lifetime. Today, it is generally recognized that this genius was far ahead of his time. Rafinesque was born

Galata, a suburb of Constantinople. He spent his youth in Marseilles, France and was mostly self-educated. By the age of twelve, he knew Latin and had built a herbarium. At the age of nineteen, he went to America but in 1805 left again to Palermo, Sicily, where he became a successful businessman, mostly in the trade of medicinal plants. He was also secretary to the American consul. During his stay, he collected flowers and took an interest in fish, naming a few. In 1815, after his common-law wife left him and his son (named after Carl Linnaeus) had died, he returned to America. He lost all his books (50 boxes) and all his specimens, with more than 60,000 shells, when the ship foundered near the coast of Connecticut. In New York he became a member of the newly established "Lyceum of Natural History". By 1818, he had collected and named more than 250 new species of plants and animals. Slowly he was rebuilding his collection of objects from nature. In 1819 he became professor of botany at Transylvania University, Lexington (Kentucky), teaching French and Italian as well. He started at once describing all the new species of plants and animals he encountered. In 1825 his book Neogenyton, drew much criticism from fellow botanists, causing his writing further to be ignored. In the spring of 1826 he was dismissed from the university, for either having an apparent affair with the university president's wife or for attending even fewer classes than his students. He left for Philadelphia without employment. He gave public lectures and started publishing again, mostly at his own expense. His book Medical Flora, a manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America (1828-1830) became his most important work. In Herbarium rafinesquianum, he described numerous new plants. He also became interested in the collections of Lewis and Clark. Among them, he gave a scientific name to the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus), the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). In the books he published between 1836 and 1838 he proposed hundreds of new genera and thousands of new species. However most of these names were not accepted by the scientific community. He even discovered an unnamed bat in John J. Audubon's house no less. He developed a theory of evolution much earlier than Darwin. In 1836 he also created a 19th century hoax, when claiming, in a document "Walam Olum," to be able to translate the writings of the early Delaware Indians. He died of stomach cancer unnoticed and penniless in an attic in Philadelphia. He was buried there at Ronaldson's cemetery. His considerable collections were sold as junk or destroyed. In 1924 his remains (or what was thought to have been his remains) were brought back to Transylvania University to rest in a place of honor, in a tomb marked by the epitaph 'A life of travels'. But most likely, Rafinesque lies in an unmarked grave in Philadelphia. In 1841 Thomas Nuttall proposed, in his honor, the genus name Rafinesquia, (family Asteraceae), with two species Rafinesquia californica Nutt. (California Plumeseed, California Chicory) and Rafinesquia neomexicana A.Gray (Desert Chicory, Plumeseed). Rafinesque himself had proposed this name twice, but was each time turned down. Asa Gray named in 1853 the second species. His scientific work has been gaining more and more recognition in recent years. He was an overly enthusiastic, but accurate observer driven by a monomaniacal desire to name every object he encountered in nature."

ramo'sa: branched, from Latin ramus, "branch."

ramo'sior: more branched, comparative of ramosus.

ramosis'sima/ramosis'simum: very branched.

ramulo'sum: Harris and Harris's Plant Identification Terminology says that 'ramulose' is the same as 'ramose,' that is, "with many branches," and Jaeger gives the derivation as from ramulosus, "full of branches." However, with other words such as 'strigulosa,' 'lanulosa,' 'spinulosa' and 'tomentulosa,' the suffix -ulosa has a sense of "slightly or minutely," so perhaps this would more correctly mean "slightly branched." On the other hand, people apply names and use forms of names with different things in mind, so this is not certain.

rand'ii: named for Edward Lothrop Rand (1859-1924), an American botanist and lawyer. He was born in Dedham, Mass.

as Edward Sprague Rand IV, but changed his name to Edward Lothrop Rand on July 2, 1878 after his father’s disgrace (more on that later). Edward Lothrop Rand became a noted botanist, like his father, famous on Mount Desert Island as one of the driving members of the Champlain Society, first Chairman of the Path Committee on Mount Desert Island, the author of "Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine" in 1894 and the early maps of what would later become Acadia National Park he produced with Waldron Bates. A website of the Harvard Library says: “He attended the Hopkinson School before entering

Harvard College in 1877. At Harvard Rand joined a group called the Champlain Society. Formed under the leadership of Charles Eliot, the eldest son of Harvard President Charles William Eliot, the Society spent summers camping and carrying out field studies on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. It was during the group's excursions that Rand developed an interest in nature studies and botany in particular. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1881, and continued at Harvard, receiving both A.M. and LL.B. degrees in 1884. The following year he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar and began an independent law practice in Boston. He continued to study the flora of Mt. Desert Island during his summer vacations, collaborating with botanist John Howard Redfield, another summer resident of the island. Rand was also a founding member and the first Corresponding Secretary of the New England Botanical Club. He held this position for 25 years and remained active in the club for the rest of his life, attending meetings and collecting trips and helping to launch the club’s journal, 'Rhodora.' Rand donated his herbarium of over 15,000 specimens to the Club in 1914.” His father was Edward Sprague Rand III (1834-1897), a highly respected lawyer, accomplished botanist, and author. He travelled extensively in the Southern states and made several botanical trips to Brazil. He was the author of numerous studies of South American orchids. In 1977 he became involved in a series of financial improprieties, was arrested and jailed, and forbidden to leave the country. Somehow he managed to book passage on a steamer to Brazil, following which he was disbarred from the legal profession. He had been a member of the firm that his father, Edward Sprague Rand II, had founded, and in 1884 his father, mother and brother were all lost in a maritime wreck off Massachusetts. The international botanical and horticulture world simply chose to overlook Rand’s disgrace as he continued to write for magazines from Australia to England and to send seeds, cuttings and pressed flowers and leaves to fellow enthusiasts and institutions all over the world, and his fame continued for many years. He also apparently returned to the States on a couple of occasions, but toward the end of his life, he was in ill health and chose to commit suicide by ingesting strychnine. (Southwest Harbor Public Library's Digital Archive)

ranunculo'ides: like genus Ranunculus.

Ranun'culus: from the Latin rana, "little frog," because many species tend to grow in moist places. The genus Ranunculus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called buttercup, crowfoot and spearwort.

ra'pa: an old Italian name for turnips or rapes.

raphanis'trum: like a wild Raphanus.

Raph'anus: from the Greek raphanos for "quick-appearing" because of the rapid germination of the seeds. The genus Raphanus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

rapunculo'ides: resemblng genus Rapunculus, the name of which is a diminutive of the Latin rapa (turnip) and means 'little turnip', which refers to the shape of the root.

rariflor'a: with scattered flowers.

raven'nae: from the valley of Ravenna, Italy.

resino'sa: resinous.

Rati'bida: a name used by C.S. Rafinesque. Stearn says meaning obscure and FNA says derivation unknown.. David Hollombe sent me the following: "Rafinesque's brief description in a paper in 'Journal de physique, de chimie et d'histoire naturelle et des arts' in 1819 mentions the rays as being bifid, although that explanation does not account for the 't'." Rafinesque often assigned unexplained names to plants. It is curious that about 60 sites online use the spelling Ratidiba rather than Ratibida. The genus Ratibida was published by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1817.

raveneli: named for Henry William Ravenel (1814-1887), an American planter, mycologist and botanist. He was born on

		his grandfather’s Pooshee Plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina. It now lies beneath the waters of Lake Moultrie, which was created in 1939. The plantation had been in his family since before 1716. His father was a physician and planter, and his mother died when Henry was only two. His early education included private tutors but also included exploring the lowcountry’s natural environment and enjoying the stories and folklore told by the plantation slaves, by his family, and most certainly by visiting naturalists. He began attending the nearby Pineville Academy at the age of six and in 1829

left Pooshee to attend the school of James M. Daniels in Columbia in order to prepare for admission to South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) that fall, graduating in 1832. At the time the college was the only one aside from Yale that offered a course in geology. Ravenel’s father dissuaded him from a medical career, thinking a country practice too arduous for his son's constitution, so Henry followed family tradition and became a plantation planter, while at the same time developing his interest in collecting, identifying, and pressing/preserving plants, which included all levels of plants from fungi to flowering plants. He made a critical study of fungi and cryptogams in South Carolina, discovering a large number of new species. Ravenel, though a South Carolina slaveholder and a devout Episcopalian, was also one of a small group of leaders in antebellum American botany. In 1851 his health began to decline and he decided to move to Aiken, S.C. Between 1852 and 1860 Ravenel published the five volume Fungi Caroliniani Exsiccati which was a collection of over 6,000 dried plants. During this early period of his career, Ravenel's residence in the South, ownership of slaves and religious piety presented no impediment to his pursuit of botany. The Civil War nearly bankrupted the once-wealthy man and while he invested heavily in the Confederacy, his age and frail health prevented any active service in the Confederate army. In 1859 he had begun to keep a journal with records of his botanical collecting and correspondence, and his observations have proven to be a rich resource to both historians and botanists. Ravenel returned to botany after the Civil War to earn money by selling collections. He no longer had time to study the theoretical foundations of taxonomy nor the money to purchase botanical books. In addition, for the first time Ravenel suffered some discrimination from northern botanists. The postbellum period, then, is revealed as the time when residence in the South first became a liability to Ravenel's pursuit of botany, but he was credited with being the only American after the Rev. Moses A. Curtis, who knew specifically the fungi of the United States. He was also botanist of the government commission to Texas in 1869 and was agricultural editor of the Weekly News and Courier. The University of North Carolina gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1886. He was a familiar correspondent to such other top American botanists as Asa Gray, Edward Tuckerman, William Sullivant, Moses Ashley Curtis and Alvan Wentworth Chapman. He corresponded with a number of European scientists, particularly Miles Joseph Berkeley. To Berkeley he sent specimens of fungi together with detailed notes and descriptions. Berkeley would examine his collections and name new species, sometimes sharing authorship with Ravenel. He also published Fungi Americani Exsiccati in eight parts in London with the English mycologist M. C. Cooke between 1878 and 1882. Together, these works afforded mycologists in America and in Europe a unique opportunity to see fungi native to the southeastern United States. He was married twice, the first marriage producing five daughters and a son, and the seond producing five more daughters. The genus Ravenelia is named after him, along with many of the species he discovered. He died on July 17, 1887 in Aiken, South Carolina.

ra'venii: named for Peter Hamilton Raven (1936- ), a leading botanist and environomentalist, advocate for the preservation

of biodiversity and the global ecosystem, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Director for the past 30 years, President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University, co-editor of Flora of China, a joint Chinese-American project to describe all the plants of China, author of Origin and Relationships of the California Flora with Daniel Axelrod, Biology of Plants with Ray Evert and Susan Eichhorn, Native Shrubs of Southern California, and Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains with Henry Thompson and Barry Prigge.

He has also written many scientific and popular articles, especially on the family Onagraceae, and is well-known for his Butterflies and Plants: A Study in Coevolution, co-authored with Paul Ehrlich. Raven is typical of contemporary botanists who spend more time in laboratories and boardrooms than in the field, but his ambitious goal is to try to save some of the hundreds of thousands of plant species that he believes will disappear because of habitat loss. Raven was born in Shanghai, China to American parents. The jailing of his uncle and Japanese aggression against China caused the family to move back to the U.S. in the late 1930’s. He graduated with a B.Sc in biology from UC Berkeley in 1957 and a Ph.D. in botany from UCLA in 1960. He taught at Stanford and while there he and Paul Ehrlich coined the term coevolution to describe the process by which plants and their pollinators evolve in tandem, each developing traits and characteristics that allow them to utilize and benefit from the traits and characteristics of the other. He then became Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1971. The great significance of Peter Raven’s life work has been not to describe particular species or genera, but to study and analyze the evolution of plants and their relationships with pollinators, predators, and fungi, the hybridization of plants, endemism, and the biogeography of plants, in other words, the big picture of plants on earth. He has made immeasurable contributions to our understanding of the plant kingdom. Few other American botanists have been able to relate in such a knowledgeable fashion the flora of California and North America with that of other parts of the world. The genus Ravenella was published in 2020 by Nancy Ruth Morin.

raven'nae: from the valley of Ravenna, Italy.

reclina'tum: bent backward.

recogni'ta: recognized, authentic, the true one, examined.

rec'ta: upright.

recurva'tus: same as recurvus.

recur'vus: from the Latin re-, "back, again," and curvus, "curved," curved backward, bent back.

reflex'a/eflex'um: bent or turned sharply backwards, reflected, from Latin reflecto.

refrac'ta/refrac'tus: broken, from Latin refractus, past participle of refringere, "to break open, break up."

reg'inae: of the queen. The species Cypripedium reginae has been called queen's lady's slipper or showy lady's slipper and is reputed to be one of the most beautiful of the slipper orchids, but the specific epithet does not refer to any particular queen as it does when used with some other taxa.

regular'is: uniform, standard, actinomorphic (characterized by radial symmetry), from Latin regularis "having rules, containing rules for guidance," from Latin regula, "rule, straight piece of wood."

remo'ta: scattered, remote, far-flung, at a distance, from Latin remotus.

renifor'me/reniform'is: reniform, kidney-shaped.

repan'dum: with slightly wavy margins.

re'pens: from Latin repo, "to creep or crawl," having creeping and rooting stems.

rep'tans: see repens.

resil'iens: recoiling, springing back, resounding.

retroflex'a/retroflex'us: turned backwards or downwards.

retrofrac'tus: twisted back.

retror'sus: reflexed or turned backwards.

revolu'tum: rolled back from the margin or apex, revolute.

Reynout'ria: named for Karel van Sint-Omaars (1533-1569) aka Charles of Saint-Omer, wealthy Flemish botanist and humanist, and Lord of Moerbeke, Dranouter, Merris, Oudenem, Moerkerke, etc. He undertook studies at Leuven but it is not known which studies and whether he completed them. He apparently would have pursued a military career but had to give up that idea for health reasons. He first married Françoise de Bloiss and after her death Anne d'Oingnies, but both marriages were childless. As a botanist, he put a lot of work into describing the native fauna and flora. He created one of the most beautiful gardens of that time around his castle in Moerkerke near Bruges. The Italian politician Luigi Guicciardini thought it worthwhile to mention the garden of Karel van Sint-Omaars in his description of the Netherlands, and Flemish Catholic cleric and historian Antonius Sanderus praised him in his Flandria Illustrata and wrote that he possessed s knowledge of plants and animals like no other. He employed the Bruges painter Jacob Van den Coornhuuse who made more than 1,600 watercolors for him, of which more than 1,400 gave reproductions of the then known plants and flowers. Charlemagne wanted to devote a large publication to this, for which he already had a name, the Centuriae plantarum rariorum, and Carolus Clusius stayed with him in Moerkerke to prepare the accompanying texts, but unfortunately this plan was thwarted by the early death of Sint-Omaars. This collection of botanical watercolors is now considered one of the most important botanical collections from the Renaissance period. He also maintained a small zoo at Moerkerke which is considered one of the first in Flanders. Karel was a member of various militia guilds. He was a member of the guild of Saint George in Ghent, of the archers' guild of the city of Ghent, of the crossbowmen's guild, of the crookers and of the archers of the city of Bruges, of the Saint Sebastian guild of Moerkerke and of the guild of the crossbowmen of the city of Damme. He was only about 36 when he died. The genus Reynoutria was published by Maarten Houttuyn in 1777 and is called knotweed.

reznice'kii: named for Anton Albert Reznicek (1950- ), German-born American plant systematist. He was born in

Plöchingen, Germany, and is known for his  development of new hypotheses for evolution in sedges. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Guelph in 1971, a Master’s degree from the University of Toronto in 1973, and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Toronto in 1978. He says in his CV: “My major research interest is the systematics and evolution of sedges (Cyperaceae), especially the large and complex genus Carex. I emphasize a multi-level approach concentrating on several aspects, including development of new characters useful in systematics, monographic studies of

major groups, and processes and patterns of evolution. I am also conducting research on the biogeography of the northeastern North American flora, concentrating on the Great Lakes region. My primary interests here are plant migration and colonization, the origin and persistence of relict plant species and communities, and the biogeography and conservation of rare species.” He is a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, the Michigan and New England Botanical Clubs, the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society, and the Botanical Society of America. Since 1992 he has been Curator of the University of Michigan Herbarium. He has taught at an astounding number of places including Eagle Hill Wildlife Research Station, Steuben, Maine, the Milwaukee Field Station of the University of Wisconsin, the Humboldt Field Research Institute, Steuben, Maine, the Institute for Wetland and Coastal Training and Research, the Gun Lake State Park, Michigan, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, Fairbanks, the Delta Institute of Natural History, Bowdoin, Maine, the Crane Hollow State Nature Preserve, Ohio, the Sprinkler Lake Education Center, Glennie, Michigan, the Rice Creek Field Station, State University of NY, Oswego, New York, the Ojibway Nature Centre, Windsor, Ontario, and at many other universities and other places. He has done field work in Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, Ontario, Mexico, southern Florida, southern Michigan, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, Colorado, South Carolina, Georgia, northern New England, Alaska, Arizona and Utah, and Venezuela. The list of positions held and papers presented is vast. He is honored by the names Carex reznicekii and Eleocharis resnicekii.

rhabar'barum: an interesting website called the History of Rhubarb says "The ancient Romans imported rhubarb roots from unknown, barbarian lands. The lands were beyond the Vogue river, sometimes known as the Rha River. Rha was first adopted to mean rhubarb. Imported from barbarians across the Rha the plant became Rha barbarum and eventually rhabarbarum, Latin for the rhubarb plant.

Rham'nus: an ancient Greek name rhamnos and Latin rhamnus for the buckthorn and meaning "a prickly bush" and referring to a number of such shrubs or small trees. The genus contains well over a hundred species native mostly to east Asia and North America, but found throughout the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, and also more locally in the subtropical Southern Hemisphere in parts of Africa and South America. The genus Rhamnus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called buckthorn.

Rhe'um: rhubarb. Stearn says "The Greek name for the roots and rhizome imported from Iran was rheon or rha, whence the names Rhaponticum, meaning the rha of Pontus, and Rhabarbarum, the rha of the foreigners or barbarians. These names probably derive from Iranian rewas. Many species have considerable medicinal value. In the palmy days of the China trade (1800-1850), the best medicinal rhubarb was exported from Canton." Another etymology of rheum is from Greek rheuma, "bodily humour," from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to flow," and then from Latin rheuma, in turn from Greek, literally, "flow, flux," from rhein, "to flow," referring to a watery discharge from the eyes or nose, and is the root of rheumatism.

Rhex'ia: Stearn says: "Name used by Pliny, of uncertain origin, for some other plant," and Flora of North America gives this: "Greek rhexis, "rupture," alluding to reputed astringent property to cure wounds." Rhexia virginica has been called Handsome Harry. The genus Rhexia was published by Johan Frederik Gronovius in 1753 and is called meadow beauty.

rhizoma'ta: with rhizomes, having dorsiventral over-or-underground rooting stems.

rhizomato'sa: with many rhizomes.

rhizophyl'lum: root leaf.

Rhododen'dron: from the Greek rhodos or rhodon, "rose," and dendron, "tree." One source however says Latin rhododendron is for oleander. The genus Rhododendron was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called rhododendron or azalea.

Rhodoty'pos: from the Greek rhodon, "a rose," and typos, "a type or model," alluding to its resemblance to the genus Rosa.

rhoe'as: there are a number of suppositions about this name but nothing certain. One source says the specific name rhoeas derives from the Greek word rheo, "it will run away," indicating that the petals are soon fallen. Apparently rhoeas in Greek means to flow or fall off, but other sources say it is a word meaning "red." This latter explanation accords with what SEINet says that rhoeas is the Latin name for the common red poppy.

rhombifo'lia: with diamond- or rhombus-shaped leaves.

rhomboid'ea: diamond-shaped.

Rhus: derived from rhous, an ancient Greek name for Sumac. The genus Rhus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

Rhyncho'sia: from Greek rhynchos, "a beak." from the beaked keel of the flowers. The genus Rhynchosia was published by João de Loureiro in 1790 and is called snoutbean.

Rhynchospo'ra: from the Greek rhynchos, "horn, beak, snout," and spora or sporos, "seed, spore," thus "beaked seed." The genus Rhynchospora was published by Martin Vahl in 1895 and is called beaksedge or beakrush.

Ri'bes: from Latin ribes, "currant," from the Arabic or Persian ribas, meaning rhubarb or acid-tasting and undecorated, unattractive." The genus Ribes was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called currant or gooseberry.

Richar'dia: named for Richard Richardson (1663-1741), an English physician, botanist and antiquarian. He was born,

brought up, and lived most of his life at North Bierley, on the outskirts of Bradford, a district at the heart of Yorkshire’s textile industry. Wool had long been crucially important for England’s balance of trade, and in the days before banks existed merchants had to be literate and numerate in order to correspond and trade with people elsewhere. This combination of wealth and literacy created the opportunity and inclination to take up natural history, which explains why the textile industry bred a remarkable number of prominent botanists, not only in Richardson’s time, but also during the remainder of the 18th century

and throughout the 19th. He and his brother and sister lost their father when Richard was only four, and his father died intestate, so that Richard as the eldest, inherited the estate. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School, and in 1681 matriculated at University College, Oxford, but left without a degree. In November 1681 he was entered as a student at Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court of London, membership in which was requied before being called to the bar to become a barrister. He enrolled at Leiden University in September 1687, and lodged for three years with Paul Hermann, the professor of botany; Herman Boerhaave was among his fellow students. When he returned to England and settled on his property, he practised as M.D. Most of his professional services were free. Having ample means, Richardson travelled in England, Wales, and Scotland in search of botanical specimens, particularly cryptogams. Richardson took particular interest in mosses and lichens, as well as vascular plants. He dealt with collectors such as Samuel Brewer and Thomas Knowlton. His renowned garden on his estate at North Bierley was well stocked. He planted a seedling cedar of Lebanon, sent to him by Sir Hans Sloane, at Bierley Hall. His garden had noted water features, and an early hothouse, possibly the first in England, where he grew exotic fruits.  On close terms with Ralph Thoresby, Richardson corresponded with Sloane, Johann Jacob Dillenius, Jan Frederik Gronovius, James Petiver, and other prominent botanists and antiquarians. Richardson also created a valuable library of botanical and historical works, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1712.  Richardson died at Bierley Hall on 21 April 1741, and was, as he had directed, buried in Cleckheaton Chapel in Birstall, which he had rebuilt. A monument with a Latin inscription was erected to his memory. The genus Richardia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called mexican-clover or pusley.

Ric'inus: from Latin ricinus, a tick, from the resemblance of the seeds. The genus Ricinus was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

riddel'lii:named for John Leonard Riddell (1807-1865), a science lecturer, botanist, geologist, medical doctor, inventor,

		chemist, microscopist, numismatist, politician, and science fiction author in the United States. He was born in Leyden, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. and M.A. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from professor Amos Eaton and his M.D. from Cincinnati College in 1836. Prior to receiving his M.D. Riddell was in Marietta, Ohio to study with Dr. Hildreth of Marietta College. As there were not many opportunities for a paid lecturer or a trained botanist he put out 'advertisements in local newspapers' publicizing that he would collect plants for sale. He eventually published, in the Western Republican,

one of the first botanical collections made in Ohio by a professional botanist. The specimens were donated to Marietta College and the Hildreth Herbarium. Unfortunately he collection was not adequately preserved and has been destroyed but the lists themselves remain. He lectured in Ogdensburg, New York, and then in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. From 1836 until his death in 1865, he was Professor of Chemistry at the Medical College of Louisiana (now Tulane University) in New Orleans. While there, he developed the first practical version of a microscope to enable binocular viewing of objects through a single objective lens. In 1850, he also undertook one of the earliest and most extensive American microscopic investigations of cholera. Riddell published a science fiction story giving an account of a fictional former student named Orrin Lindsay, who traveled to the moon and Mars. Following his botanical explorations of Texas, he was appointed melter and refiner of the New Orleans Mint, a position confirmed by President John Tyler following an internal mint dispute. He discovered the microscopical characteristics of the blood and black vomit in yellow fever, he first brought to notice the botanical genus Riddellia, which was named for him. He contributed to the London Microscopical Journal, the American Journal of Science and Arts, and other periodicals, and published Synopsis of the Flora of the Western States (Cincinnati, 1835), Memoir advocating the Organic Nature of Miasm and Contagion (1836), A Monograph on the Silver Dollar (New Orleans, 1845), A Memoir on the Constitution of Matter (1847), and a Report on the Epidemic of 1853 (1854). He also was appointed Postmaster of New Orleans, which position he held even during the Civil War despite Confederate appointments intended to displace him. Active in local and state politics, he seems to have claimed to have been elected Governor of Louisiana in November, 1863 and sworn in by a justice of the peace in January, 1864. During this time the military Governor George F. Shepley was still in actual power. His governorship was rejected in the course of a Congressional inquiry into a contested election in the House. He died in New Orleans. (Mostly quoted from Wikipedia)

rig'ida/rig'idus: rigid, inflrexible, referring to the stiff leaves.

rigid'ior: same as rigida.

rigid'ula: quite stiff, diminutive of rigida.

rin'gens: from the Latin for "gaping, snarling," ringens, present participle of ringi, "to open the mouth, show the teeth," referring to the appearance of the corolla.

ripar'ia/ripar'ius: of or growing near river banks.

Ripid'ium: from the Greek rhipis or riphidion, "fan," for the shape of the inflorescence.

riva'lis: growing by streams, from the Latin rivalis, “a rival,” (originally, “one who uses the same stream”), from rivus, “brook or channel,” with the Latin adjectival suffix -alis meaning "belonging to or pertaining to something."

roanoken'se: called Roanoke panic grass, the epithet roanokense refers to the area of Roanoke, Virginia.

roanen'sis: referring to Roan Mountain, Tennessee.

robbins'ii: named after James Watson Robbins (1801-1879), an American physician and botanist. He was born in Colebrook, Connecticut, and graduated  with a B.A. degree from Yale College in 1822. For a few months after graduation he taught in Enfield, Connecticut, and then went to Virginia, where he was similarly employed for some three years, in the family of Hon. Wm. L. Brent, and in the Peyton family at Warrenton, and at Arlington, where Robert E. Lee, afterwards general-in-chief of the Confederate army, was prepared by him for West Point. Returning to New Haven in the latter part of 1825, he began the study of medicine, graduating from Yale Medical School in 1828. In 1829 he spent six months in a botanical exploration of the New England states for William Oakes, and in this way formed the acquaintance of Dr. George Willard of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who induced him to settle in that town. He practiced medicine in Uxbridge (at first in partnership with Dr. Willard) for thirty years, until 1859 when he accepted an appointment as physician and surgeon of several copper mining companies near Portage Lake, Lake Superior, Michigan. During his professional life he had devoted himself largely to botany, gathering a valuable library which was second, it is believed, to no private botanical library in the country. In the four years of his residence near Lake Superior he made extensive botanical researches, and these were followed by a three-month tour in 1863-1864 down the Mississippi to Texas and finally to Cuba, which resulted in more very valuable collections. He then returned to Uxbridge, where he spent the remainder of his life, mostly retired from medical practice and devoting his leisure to his favorite pursuit of botany. Robbins’s major focus was aquatic phanerogamic plants, particularly the genus Potamogeton. He was a mentor to Thomas Morong, who carried on his studies into Potamogeton and Najadaceae. Several species are named in his honor, including Potamogeton robbinsii, named by Asa Gray, and Eleocharis robbinsii, named by William Oakes. He never married, and died there in his 78th year, as a result of a disease of the kidneys caused by the presence of trichinae, parasitic roundworms that cause trichinosis.

robertia'num: called herb-robert, the species Geranium robertianum is apparently not named for anybody whose last name is Robert, but rather who first name was Robert. Given that it is such a common name, suppositions include Saint Robert of Molesme, an herbalist, or after the notorious Robert Goodfellow, also known as Robin Hood. Another possibility is that the name stuck after it was used in Germany to treat Ruprechts-plage, a disease named after Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and father of William the Conqueror. Despite the above, another source says it was named for a French botanist, Gaspard Nicolas Robert (1776-1857), and yet another suggests Saint Rupert of Salzburg. We will probably never know for sure. Other common names include red robin, death-come-quickly, stinking Bob, squinter-pip, and mountain crane's bill.

Robin'ia: named for Jean Robin (1550-1629) of Paris, French botanist, herbalist, gardener to Henri IV and Louis

XIII, curator of the botanical garden of the Paris Faculty of Medicine who first cultivated the locust tree in Europe in the 16th century after receiving plants from Canada. His son, Jean Robin, Jr., also called Vespasien, (1579-1662) was appointed a lecturer in what would become the Jardin Royal des Plantes, travelled abroad to collect plants, and added significantly to the Paris gardens. Robin Sr. had constructed a private garden at the downstream end of the Île de la Cité in Paris which contained rare plants from the Orient, Africa, the West Indies and some from North and

South America. He carried on an exchange of plants, sending specimens to John Gerard and John Tradescant the Elder in England and Gaspard Bauhin in Switzerland, and receiving Virginia plants from England. He published a number of works including Catalogue of plants local or exotic cultivated in Paris in 1601, The garden of the good christian King Henry IV in 1608 and The garden of King Louis XIII in 1623. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the best known species of Robinia, pseudoacacia, was introduced into Europe at the Jardin du Roi at Paris in 1636. Henry IV's queen personally visited Robin's garden on the Île de la Cité and promoted flower painting and flower embroidery as well as gardening. The genus Robinia was originally named in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus and is called locust. 

robus'ta/robus'tus: stout or strong in growth.

roemeria'nus: named for Karl Ferdinand von Römer (Roemer) (1818-1891), German geologist, botanist, paleontologist and university teacher. He was born in Hildesheim in Lower Saxony. His father was a lawyer and counselor of the high court of justice, and his older brother, Friedrich Adolph Römer, was also a geologist. He first went to the Andreas Gymnasium in Hildesheim where he showed great interest in natural history and met the geologists Friedrich August Quenstedt, Friedrich Hoffmann and Wilhelm Dunker. After graduating from high school, he was educated for the law at the University of Göttingen from 1836 to 1840, and he also attended the mineralogy and geology lectures by Johann Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann. He gave up law in 1840, and took up the  natural science at the University of Berlin, where he studied minerology, crystallography, geognosy, chemistry and geology, and  graduated with a doctorate in 1842. He was employed by the Prussian Mining Authority for extensive geological researches of the Rhine region and other places. Two years later he published his first work Das Rheinische Ubergangsgebirge (The Rheinische Mountain Transition), in which he dealt with the largest rocks and fossils. In 1845, he paid a visit to the United States, and spent a year and a half in careful study of the geology of Texas and other southern states. The results of his investigations of Cretaceous rocks and fossils were published three years later in a treatise Die Kreidebildungen von Texas und ihre organischen Einschlusse. By 1848 he was living in Bonn, continuing to work for the Mining Authority, evaluating the results of his trip to America, and beginning to lecture on fossil science and the geognosy of north-west Germany. In 1855 he was appointed full professor of minerology and director of the Mineralogical Museum at the University of Breslau, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took over the editing of the "Paleozoic" section of Lethea germanica edited by Heinrich Georg Bronn. In addition, he provided a comprehensive overview of the Paleozoic flora and fauna, which also included references to other parts of the world. A second part he started, which was to include the systematic description|of stratigraphically relevant fossils, was completed by Fritz Frech. In another study (The Silurian fauna of western Tennessee, 1860), he compared the finds there with the European fauna of the same period. During his time in Breslau, he dealt with the geological investigation of Silesia. In 1862 he began working on mapping the geology of Upper Silesia, work that was published in 1870. His treatise on the "Geology of Upper Silesia" (3 vols. with maps), published in the same year, was for a long time an indispensable tool for the study of this area rich in natural resources. In addition he dealth with mammalian fossils of the Schleswig-Holstein Pleistocene period, and published works  about the woolly rhino, the musk ox, the cave bear and the mammoth. He was also able to show that the moraines of the Ice Age came from the Baltic and described their route of transport. He died in Wroclaw, which was the historical capital of Silesia and Lower Silesia, and now part of Poland.

rolf'sii: named for Peter Henry Rolfs (1865-1944), a prominent American agronomist who worked primarily in Florida and

Brazil. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, and spent his early years on his father’s farm. He attended Iowa State College of Agriculture and received a BS degree in 1889 and an MS in 1891. He also received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Florida in 1920. From 1891 to 1899 he was a researcher and Professor of Natural Science teaching botany at the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and the Agricultural College in Lake City. From 1899 to 1901 he was a botanist and bacteriologist at Clemson College, South Carolina. He returned to Florida in 1901 as a plant pathologist and head of the USDA's

Plant Introduction Station and Subtropical Laboratory in Miami, and in 1906, he was asked to serve as the Director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station and remained there until 1921. From 1915 to 1920 he was Director of Agricultural Extension in Florida, and also Dean of the College of Agriculture. In 1921 The US Department of State asked him to go to Brazil to establish an agricultural college and he founded the Escola Superior de Agricultura e Veterinária of the state of Minas Gerais and was its head until 1928 when he became Consultor Agricultura Estado de Minas Geras, a position which he held until his retirement in 1933. During his stay in Brazil, Rolfs was assisted by his daughter, Clarissa, who functioned as his personal secretary, translator, and advisor. After 1932, Professor Rolfs and Clarissa traveled throughout Brazil, South America, and the United States studying agricultural education. He was a life member of the Botanical Society of America and the Florida Horticultural Society. Rolfs was the first to describe a common plant pathogen called Southern Blight, or Sclerotium rolfsii. He was a prolific author of dozens of bulletins and papers, and works such as Florida Lichens, Founders and Foundations of Florida Agriculture, Vegetable Growing in the South for Northern Markets, and The Avocado in Florida. He was honored with the names of Quercus rolfsii and Asclepias rolfsii. The avocado industry of central Brazil owes its success to his importing into that country better varieties of Guatemalan avocados  which had been developed in the States. He was considered the world’s foremost authority on the Flacourtiaceae, now a defunct family whose members have been reassigned to other families. He travelled extensively and had been in all but two American states and all but three Brazilian states. He died in Gainesville, Florda. Much of this information came from an obituary in the Florida Entomologist (Vol. 27, No. 4, 1944) and the photo credit is to the same.

Rorip'pa: Latinized from a Saxon vernacular name rorippen which was mentioned by Euricius Cordus but whose meaning has been lost. Euricius Cordus born Heinrich Ritze (1486-1535) was a German humanist poet, physician, botanist and naturalist. He is considered one of the founders of botany in Germany. An alternative derivation is suggested by several websites including SEINet which is that "Rorippa possibly comes from the Latin roro, meaning "to be moist," and ripa, meaning riverbank." The genus Rorippa was published by Joannes Antonius Scopoli in 1760.

Ro'sa: an ancient Latin name whose meaning has been lost, from rosa, literally "rose." The genus Rosa was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

ro'sea: roselike.

rostella'ta: from the Latin rostellum, "a little beak, a small snout," in turn from rostrum, "the beak of a bird."

rostra'tum: beaked.

rosula'tum: with leaf rosettes.

Rota'la: from the Latin rota, "wheel," and rotalis, "wheeled, wheel-like," referring to the whorled leaves. The genus Rotala was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1771 and is called toothcup.

Rottboell'ia: named for the Danish botanist Christen Friis Rottbøll (1727-1797), a Danish physician, traveller, Director of

the Copenhagen Botanic Garden and pupil of Linnaeus. He was born at Hørbygård, Denmark. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus and studied first theology and then medicine at the University of Copenhagen, taking his doctoral degree in 1755. From 1757 to 1761 he travelled to Holland and France to continue his study of medicine and also to study chemistry and botany. The latter subject he undertook at Uppsala University in Sweden. From 1761 he was at the Botanic Garden in Copenhagen and became its Director in 1770. In 1776 he was appointed professor at the Chair of Medicine and received a title of ‘royal

advisor.’ Smallpox was one of his main preoccupations and he reformed the vaccination program that was in effect in Copenhagen. He published the first comprehensive list of the flora of Greenland. The genus Rottboellia was named in 1781 by Carl Linnaeus the Younger.

rotundifo'lia/rotundifo'lium: with rounded leaves, from Latin rotundus, "round," and folium, "leaf."

rotun'dus: rounded.

rubel'la/rubel'lus: pale red, becoming red.

ru'bens: red.

rubifo'lia: with leaves similar to those of Rubus.

rubigino'sa: possibly having reddish brown hairs on the plant parts or reddish brown color.

ru'bra/ru'brum: from the Latin ruber or rubra meaning "red."

Ru'bus: a Latin name for "bramble" or "blackberry" from ruber, "red." The genus Rubus is a large and complex group that was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It likely has a North American origin with fossils known from the Eocene-aged Florissant Formation of Colorado. Rubus expanded into Eurasia, South America, and Oceania during the Miocene.

Rudbeck'ia: named for Swedish professor of botany and advisor and mentor of Carl Linnaeus, Olaus (Olof) Olai Rudbeck

(1660-1740), Rudbeck the Younger, and for his father Olaus (Olof) Johannis Rudbeck (1630-1702), Rudbeck the Elder. Rudbeck the Younger was a physician, a keen ornithologist, and a professor of anatomy as well as botany at Uppsala University, a position he took over from his father, and was the author of De fundamentali plantarum notitia. He was the botany professor of Carl Linnaeus. He specialized in anatomy, botany, zoology, and pharmacology. Later in his life he turned his attention to the study of languages. His sister, Wendela, married Peter Olai Nobelius from whom was descended Alfred

Nobel of the Nobel Prize fame. Rudbeck the Younger was born in Uppsala who travelled abroad as a youth for several years, was taught botany and anatomy by his father and and aided him in the organisation of his Campus Elysii (an ambitious project to describe and illustrate all plants known at the time, which was unfortunately largely destroyed in the great fire of Uppsala in 1702), published his doctoral thesis Propagato Plantarum botanico-physica in 1686, and got his doctor’s degree in Utrecht in 1690. Succeeding his father as chair of botany and medicine at Uppsala University in 1692, he remained in this position until his death in 1740. He travelled to Lapland in 1695, joining an expedition commissioned by the King, for which his mission was to study nature, the mountains in particular. He returned with an impressive album of colored plant and bird illustrations but regrettably his manuscripts and collections were all but destroyed in the same fire in 1702 that took his father’s Campus Elysii. He had 24 children with three different wives. His son Johan Olof Rudbeck (1711-1790) became a well-known natural scientist. Rudbeck the Elder was born in Västerås and graduated from Uppsala

University in 1648. He travelled to Holland in 1653 and it was in the botanical garden at Leiden that his love of botany was born. With the seeds and plants he brought back from Holland, he established the first botanical garden in Sweden at Uppsala, which was originally called Rudbeck's Garden but was renamed a century later for Linnaeus. He became a professor of medicine at Uppsala University in 1660 and was for several periods rector magnificus of the same university. Wikipedia says: “Rudbeck's research led to the Queen's support of his career. To facilitate his studies of human anatomy, he had a cupola built on top

of Gustavianum, a university edifice, and in it was built an arena-like Theatrum anatomicum, where dissection could be carried out in front of students. The cupola still remains and is a landmark in Uppsala. The "Gustavianum" stands in front of the cathedral, and is still part of the university.” Rudbeck is known mainly for his contributions in the fields of human anatomy and linguistics, but he was also accomplished in many other fields including astronomy, music and botany. Over a 20-year period he wrote a massive 2,500-page tome in four volumes called Atlantica purporting to prove that Sweden was the historical Atlantis and that Swedish or Sami was the original language of the Bible's Adam from which Hebrew was descended. He was also one of the pioneers in the study of lymphatic vessels. Al Schneider sent me a quote from Wilfrid Blunt’s The Compleat Naturalist: A Life of Linnaeus which he has in his wonderful website "Wildflowers, Ferns and Trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah": “So long as the earth shall survive and as each spring shall see it covered with flowers, the Rudbeckia will preserve your glorious name. I have chosen a noble plant in order to recall your merits and the services you have rendered, a tall one to give an idea of your stature, and I wanted it to be one which branched and which flowered and fruited freely, to show that you cultivated not only the sciences but also the humanities. Its rayed flowers will bear witness that you shone among savants like the sun among the stars; its perennial roots will remind us that each year sees you live again through new works. Pride of our gardens, the Rudbeckia will be cultivated throughout Europe and in distant lands where your revered name must long have been known. Accept this plant, not for what it is but for what it will become when it bears your name.” This was in a letter which Linnaeus sent to his mentor Rudbeck, and I think is evidence that Linneaus originally at least intended the name to honor Rudbeck the Younger. However in Hortus Cliffortianus, published in 1737, Linnaeus says: "I have named plants of this genus [Rudbeckia] for the most noble Rudbecks, their knowledge of genera renowned throughout the world." The genus is called yellow coneflower or black-eyed susan.

Xrudkin'ii: a hybrid oak species with parents Q. marilandica and Q. phellos, named for William Henry Rudkin (1836-1896). He was born in Carlow, Ireland, and came to New York in 1851 with his father who was a chemist. He became a chemist and by 1876 with his brothers Joseph and George he had established William Rudkin's Sons dealing in essential oils. He was a member of the Torrey Botanical Club and is listed in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club as an author of several articles. No further information available.

Ruel'lia: named for Jean Ruel (1479-1537) (aka Jean de la Ruelle or Jean du Ruel), physician and one of the earliest French botanists. He was physician to Francis I and a translator of Dioscorides.He went on plant-hunting expeditions and questioned peasants and mountaineers about the vernacular names they used for their local flora. These names he incorporated into his major work, De Natura stirpium libri tres, published in Paris in 1536 and based on the works of Theophrastus and Pliny, in which he described about 600 plants. He was also Regent of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris and became the Canon of Notre Dame. The genus Ruellia was dedicated in his honor by Charles Plumier.

rufid'ulum: somewhat rusty red.

rugel'ii: named for Dr. Ferdinand Igantius Xavier Rugel (1806-1879), a German-born American pharmacist, botanist, surgeon, plant collector and farmer who was born in Baden-Württemberg. He was trained in Germany and married Laura Catherine Bell in Tennessee in 1843. He applied for US citizenship in 1844, becoming a naturalized citizen. He explored Florida and collected nearly 1,000 specimens for herbariums. He made a botanical expedition to Switzerland and southern Europe, and also visited Cuba. Later he farmed in Tennessee where was living when he died.

rugo'sa: wrinkled, rugose.

rugosper'ma: no listing that I can find anywhere but presumably derive from ruga or rugula, "a wrinkle, a crease," and sperma, "seed."

Ru'mex: the ancient Latin name for the docks or sorrels. The genus Rumex was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and is called dock.

rupes'tre/rupes'tris: growing among rocks.

Rup'pia: named for Heinrich Bernhard Rupp (or Ruppius) (1688-1719), a German botanist and writer. He was born in Giessen and first studied medicine in 1704. He met Johann Jacob Dillenius and studied in Jena in 1711, in Leiden in 1712, and then again in Jena in 1713. He wrote a flora entitled Flora jenensis about plants around Jena and part of Thuringia. The first two parts were published, but the work was finished after his death by Albrecht von Haller. The genus Ruppia was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

rustica'na: pertaining to the country, relating to the countryside or made in imitation of rustic styles.

Ru'ta: the classical Latin name for the rue plant derived from Greek. The genus Ruta was published by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

ruta-murar'ia: roughly means "rue of walls," name given by Linnaeus from Latin ruta, "rue," and murus, "a wall," because this species grows mainly on walls or limestone rock.

ruth'ii: named for Albert Ruth (1844-1932), an American botanist and educator who was one of the earliest botanists based in Texas and collected extensively, mostly in the southern states of North America. He was born in Leipsic, Delaware, but spent most of his life in Tennessee and Texas. The following is quoted from the JSTOR website: "He worked for ten years at the University of Tennessee before taking on the role of Superintendent of City Schools in Knoxville in about 1890, all the while collecting plants from the eastern part of the state. He remained in this position for 26 years before retiring and moving to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1907. He took with him a great personal collection of more than 8,000 specimens collected from Tennessee and beyond, and acquired through exchange with other botanists. In total, he collected more than 50,000 specimens which were dispersed to various herbaria, chiefly in the United States. He is noted for being the first and last person to find the twinflower, Linnaea borealis, in Tennessee, which he stumbled across on a woodland mountain trail in Sevier County in 1892. However, he did not recognise the specimen as such, labelling it instead Mitchella repens. Its identity was only later discovered when Ruth's daughter sent a shipment of her father's specimens to the university in Knoxville in order to replenish its herbarium, which had been destroyed by fire in 1934. Doubt surrounds the true locale from which the specimen was collected by Ruth, who could be somewhat amateurish in his methods. He inventively pressed his plants using an old printing press and his collections treated in this way have been useful for later botanists, but lamentably he put only vague localities on the labels of his finds. After his move to Texas, Ruth continued to collect prolifically. In 1930 he sold his collection of nearly 10,000 specimens to the Botanic Garden and Park Board of Fort Worth for $500, a fraction of its real value. The Albert Ruth Herbarium was transferred to Texas Christian University and was displayed at the Carnegie Public Library before being moved to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in 2006."

rydberg'ii: named for Per Axel Rydberg (1860-1931), a member of the New York Botanical Gardens in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries, who wrote the first book on the flora of the Rockies from Canada to Mexico, and several other floras. "P. A. (Per Axel) Rydberg, the first curator of The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium, was a plant taxonomist whose specialty was the flora of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains areas. He began working for The New York Botanical Garden in the summer of 1897 as a member of the first Garden field expedition, and joined the permanent staff in 1899 when they were first organized. In the course of his career, he was to publish over 7,000 pages of research, making him one of

the most productive scientists at The New York Botanical Garden. Born in Sweden, Rydberg emigrated to America in 1882. He first worked in the iron mines of Michigan where he hoped to become a mining engineer but he suffered a serious accident which left him with a lifelong limp and forced him to turn to intellectual pursuits. From 1884 to 1890, he taught mathematics at the Luther Academy in Wahoo, Nebraska, while he studied at the University of Nebraska. He received his B.S. in 1891, and the strong influence of his botany professor, Charles Edwin Bessey, helped to determine his lifelong devotion to plant studies. Soon after he graduated, Rydberg received a commission from the United States Department of Agriculture to undertake a botanical exploration of western Nebraska. He received another one in 1892 to explore the Black Hills of South Dakota, and in 1893 he was in the Sand Hills, again in western Nebraska. During this time he continued to teach at the Luther Academy. In 1895, Rydberg received his M.A. from the University of Nebraska. The University published his monograph on Rosales, one of only three parts published of a projected 25-part series on the flora of Nebraska. That summer, he was collecting once again for the United States Department of Agriculture in Montana with Cornelius Lott Shear. When autumn arrived, he moved to New York to pursue a Ph.D. degree at Columbia University under the guidance of Nathaniel Lord Britton. During this time he also was teaching natural sciences and mathematics at the Upsala Institute (later Upsala College) in Brooklyn and in Kenilworth, New Jersey. In the summer of 1897 he was sent to collect in Montana and the Yellowstone Park region with Ernst Athearn Bessey, son of his mentor Charles Edwin Bessey. The two men were part of the first field program expedition of The New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Rydberg received his Ph.D. in 1898 and during that summer was employed once again by the Garden to process the collections obtained from the Montana and Yellowstone park expedition. Early in 1899, the Garden organized its first permanent staff and he became one of the nine original members. His title initially was Assistant Curator and this was changed in 1908 to Curator of the Herbarium. He would hold that title until his death in 1931. In 1900 Dr. Rydberg conducted field work in southeast Colorado with King Vreeland. In 1901 he visited Kew Gardens in England and made a return trip to Sweden as well. In 1905 he was collecting in Utah with visits to the University of Wyoming, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In 1911 he undertook an exploration of southeast Utah with Albert Osbun Garrett and in 1925, the Allegheny Mountains with John Tuttle Perry. A trip in 1926 took him to Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas. His final field expedition was in 1929 to Kansas and Minnesota but it was cut short due to illness and only included work in Kansas. Dr. Rydberg was elected to membership in the Torrey Botanical Club in 1896. In 1900 he joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a Fellow the following year. Also that year, he was chosen as an Associate of the Botanical Society of America. In 1907 he became a member of the American Geographical Society and the Ecological Society of America. The family of Dr. Rydberg destroyed most of his personal papers at the time of his death. The few that remain consist of miscellaneous correspondence and research notes, along with the manuscript proofs for several papers and publications, including his dissertation, Monograph of the North American Potentilleae, and the first edition of one of his most well-known works, Flora of the Rocky Mountains. Also included in this collection are a group of research materials related to the publication of a bio-bibliography of Dr. Rydberg written by Arnold Tiehm. This appeared under the title Per Axel Rydberg: a biography, bibliography and list of his taxa. It was published in 1990 as volume 58 of the series Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Rydberg’s field notebooks have been removed to the Collectors’ Field Notebooks series." (Quoted from a website of the New York Botanical Gardens) (Photo credit: University of Maryland)