Charles Sprague Sargent

Indeed, had it not been for the accidental injury to his right eye in the month of March, 1867, he probably would have started somewhat earlier than he did.

In a letter written to an Indianapolis friend on the day after the accident, he refers mournfully to the interruption of a long-cherished plan.

for weeks he writes i have daily consulted maps in locating a route through the southern states the west indies south america and europe a botanical journey studied for years and so my mind has long been in a glow with visions of the glories of a tropical flora but alas i am half blind my right eye trained to minute analysis is lost and i have scarce heart to open the other had this journey been accomplished the stock of varied beauty acquired would have made me willing to shrink into any corner of the world however obscure and however remote the injury to his eye proved to be less serious than he had first supposed in june he was writing to a friend i have been reading and botanizing for some weeks and find that for such work i am not very much disabled i leave this city indianapolis for home to-morrow accompanied by merrill moores a little friend of mine we go to decatur ill thence northward through the wide prairies botanizing a few weeks by the way i hope to go south towards the end of the summer and as this will be a journey that i know very little about i hope to profit by your counsel before setting out in a written account after the excursion he says i was eager to see illinois prairies on my way home so we went to decatur near the center of the state thence north to portage by rockford and janesville i botanized one week on the prairie about seven miles southwest of picatonica to me all plants are more precious than before my poor eye is not better nor worse a cloud is over it but in gazing over the widest landscapes i am not always sensible of its presence by the end of august mr moore was back again in indianapolis he had found it convenient to spend the botanical week among his university friends in madison so keen was his interest in plants at this time that an interval of five hours spent in chicago was promptly turned to account in a search for them i did not find many plants in her tumultuous streets he complains only a few grassy plants of wheat and two or three species of weeds amaranth purslane carpet-weed etc the weeds i suppose for a man to walk upon the wheat to feed him I saw some green algae, but no mosses.

Some of the latter I expected to see on wet walls, and in seams on the pavements.

But I suppose that the manufacturer's smoke and the terrible noise are too great for the hardiest of them.

I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.

i first went home to wisconsin botanizing by the way to take leave of my father and mother brothers and sisters all of whom were still living near portage i also visited the neighbors i had known as a boy renewed my acquaintance with them after an absence of several years and bade each a formal good-bye when they asked where i was going i said oh i don't know just anywhere in the wilderness southward i have already had glorious glimpses of the wisconsin iowa michigan indiana and canadian wildernesses now i propose to go south and see something of the vegetation of the warm end of the country and if possible to wander far enough into south america to see tropical vegetation in all its palmy glory The neighbors wished me well, advised me to be careful of my health, and reminded me that the swamps in the south were full of malaria.

I stopped overnight at the home of an old Scotch lady who had long been my friend and was now particularly motherly in good wishes and advice.

And he does.

The first director of the Arnold Arboretum was a man by the name of Charles Sprague Sargent.

He was one of the Boston Brahmin family sergeant and tremendous ambitions, a really remarkable, driven person.

So he wanted to create a scientific institution that studied temperate woody plants.

Indeed, had it not been for the accidental injury to his right eye in the month of March, 1867, he probably would have started somewhat earlier than he did.

In a letter written to an Indianapolis friend on the day after the accident, he refers mournfully to the interruption of a long-cherished plan.

for weeks he writes i have daily consulted maps in locating a route through the southern states the west indies south america and europe a botanical journey studied for years and so my mind has long been in a glow with visions of the glories of a tropical flora but alas i am half blind my right eye trained to minute analysis is lost and i have scarce heart to open the other had this journey been accomplished the stock of varied beauty acquired would have made me willing to shrink into any corner of the world however obscure and however remote the injury to his eye proved to be less serious than he had first supposed in june he was writing to a friend i have been reading and botanizing for some weeks and find that for such work i am not very much disabled i leave this city indianapolis for home to-morrow accompanied by merrill moores a little friend of mine we go to decatur ill thence northward through the wide prairies botanizing a few weeks by the way i hope to go south towards the end of the summer and as this will be a journey that i know very little about i hope to profit by your counsel before setting out in a written account after the excursion he says i was eager to see illinois prairies on my way home so we went to decatur near the center of the state thence north to portage by rockford and janesville i botanized one week on the prairie about seven miles southwest of picatonica to me all plants are more precious than before my poor eye is not better nor worse a cloud is over it but in gazing over the widest landscapes i am not always sensible of its presence by the end of august mr moore was back again in indianapolis he had found it convenient to spend a botanical week among his university friends in madison So keen was his interest in plants at this time that an interval of five hours spent in Chicago was promptly turned to account in a search for them.

I did not find many plants in her tumultuous streets, he complains.

Only a few grassy plants of wheat, and two or three species of weeds.

I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.

i first went home to wisconsin botanizing by the way to take leave of my father and mother brothers and sisters all of whom were still living near portage i also visited the neighbors i had known as a boy renewed my acquaintance with them after an absence of several years and bade each a formal good-bye when they asked where i was going i said oh i don't know just anywhere in the wilderness southward i have already had glorious glimpses of the wisconsin iowa michigan indiana and canadian wildernesses now i propose to go south and see something of the vegetation of the warm end of the country and if possible to wander far enough into south america to see tropical vegetation in all its palmy glory The neighbors wished me well, advised me to be careful of my health, and reminded me that the swamps in the south were full of malaria.

I stopped overnight at the home of an old Scotch lady who had long been my friend and was now particularly motherly in good wishes and advice.