July ■ August 1992 Vol. 2, No. 4

Quillwort Quests

Part II. lsoetes e chino spora Dur.
var. braunii (Dur.) Engelm.

In the Herbarium oF lhe^rooklyn Botanic Garden 1
found an unidentified specimen of lsoetes collected by
E. L. Morris from the Carmans River (Morris 11741).
George Kalmbacher kindly lent me the sheet to study,
and I determined Morris's specimen to be I.
echinospora Dur. On July 25, 19701 located specimens
of this species in the Carmens River (Upper reaches of
Lower Lake, Carmens River, Bookout 103). Specimens
were sent to the Gray Herbarium, Brooklyn Botanic
Garden, National Herbarium at the Smithsonian. New
York Botanical Garden, New York Stale Botanist,
Cornell University, and to the American Fem Society,

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Isoeles echinospora var. braunii

On August 7, 1970 1 collected /. echinospora at
West Brook Pond near the conjunction of Sunrise

Highway (27) and Montauk Highway (27 A), North
Great River, Suffolk County ( Bookout 104). All but a
few of nineteen individuals were given to Vernon
Marttala (March 17, 1973) who was then a student at
the New York Botanical Garden,,, Uater, Mr. Martlala
wrote to me (October 29, 1974) that he was leaving this
material with Tom Delendick who might give some to
Joseph Beitel, then in Michigan. Some of this material
was returned to me by P. K. Holmgren. West Brook
Pond was the only station where I observed quillworts
emersed in mud during a dry period.

On August 21 and 22, 1970 I found 7. echinospora
at the north end of Canaan Lake (just south of Ohls
Street), Patchogue (Bookout 147 & 148). C. V. Morton
identified this material as lsoetes echinospora var.
braunii (Dur.) Engelm. Besides the U. S. National
Herbarium, I sent specimens to Dr. John T. Mickel at
the New York Botanical Garden and to Dr. Clausen at
Cornell,

oi i September i, 1973 I found i. echinospora off
the northwest shore of Laurel Lake, Suffolk County,
near Mattituck ( Bookout 225) in water about three feet
deep. Isolated plants grew just offshore in water only
one foot deep. W. C. Muenscher noted that lsoetes
tuckermani [sic] was dredged from Laurel Lake in 1935
(Muenscher, 1939, p, 101). Exploration of Laurel Lake
as well as Lake Ronkonkoma with diving equipment is
needed.

1 believe that it was in Muenscher that I read that 7.
engelmannii had been found at Kellis Pond in
Bridgehampton. I went there several times but never
found a single leaf of quillwort floating in debris nor
found a plant anywhere else.

There is a sheet of 7. braunii Dur. in the Brooklyn
Botanic Garden Herbarium (submerged in shallow water
of pond at Babylon, Oct. 4, 1935, Svenson 6787). I
looked for floating leaves of quillwort at Belmont Lake,
Babylon, unsuccessfully. --Henry Bookout

PROGRAMS

No Programs are scheduled for July or August.

Bibliography

Muenscher, W. C. 1939. Aquatic vegetation of Long Island waters.
V, in "Biological survey of the Freshwaters of Long Island."
Suppl. 28th Ann. Rep‘t N. Y. State Cons: Dcp'i, p. 88-101,

ong Island
Botanical Society

uty - August

SUNSET

I know he's dead

But 'twas not he who, draped in silk and net,

They lowered deep into the narrow grave
And dropped the flowers on.

He was a man

Whose very voice was strong with fire and steel.

No silk for him, no pale and waxy flowers
But oak and granite, ice and questing winds
The restless ocean's roll, the tempest's strength
More god than man to me.

But now he's gone.

They told their grief to all the listening world
They gathered around and praised his many deeds
Recalled his words, his power and his skill.

But I wept in the lonely silences
For he was life to me.

In solemn state

They chanted elegies above his form
To glorify his life, as when the sun
Sinks at day's end into his far-off grave
While on his path flare brilliant reds and gold
And beauty never known by day flows through the sky
To mourn Apollo's death.

As sunset comes,

So did they weep, and mark with gilded brush
His every footstep on the paths of life.

Until his casket sank into the earth.

Then sunset colors faded from the clouds
To leave them gray and damp with leaden weight.

The deepening shadows come, and all alone
I face the endless night.

Mabel AUred Cronquist

[Editor: the above poem was written by the wife of the
late Arthur Cronquist and is printed here withher
permission]

IN MEMORIAM

Arthur Cronquist (1919-1992)

There was never a dull moment when travelling
wih Art Cronquist. If we weren't talking botany, he
would be telling jokes or singing; he could handle both
difficult pieces and plain doggerels with ease. At a

restaurant he would carefully study the menu and then
order a hamburger, plain, and water, "lots of water,
bring a pitcher." He loved to meet people and converse.

He had written profusely, and his writings
profoundly affected the course of botanical thought. He
wrote and spoke with authority, as evident in his
evolution and classification book: "The book presents
taxonomy as seen by Cronquist... I make no pretense of
equal time for opposing views. For other points of
view, read other authors" (Cronquist, 1988).

Arthur Cronquist was bom on 19 March 1919, in
San Jose, California. He was raised by his mother
whose maiden name lie kept for his own. As a teenager
he collected plants in Utah and Idaho, and discovered
several State records which led to his first scientific
publication in 1939: "New plant records in Utah and
Idaho" (Cronquist, 1939).

In 1938 (at the age of 19) he earned his B.S. degree
from Utah Stale University. He began his
undergraduate studies at Idaho State University majoring
in range-management, but his first botany course (taught
by Ray J. Davis) changed all that. One of the course
requirements was the preparation of a plant collection.
Prof. Davis chose the two top students to study the two
largest families: the Poaceae (grass family) and the
Asteraceae (composite family). To determine who
would be assigned each family the two students flipped
a coin and Art got the comps. He would eventually
become a world authority on the family, and among his
many publications was the Compositae treatment in Ray
J. Davis' Flora of Idaho (Cronquist, 1952).

In 1940 Art married Mabel Allred, and during that
same year he received his M.S. degree from Utah State
University. He then went on to the University of
Minnesota to begin work on his Ph.D. His major
professor was Carl Rosendahl, a former student of the
German botanist Adolf Engler. Rosendahl and
Cronquist would latter co-author "The goldenrods of
Minnesota" and "The asters of Minnesola."

In 1943, while still working on his doctorate, An
accepted a position at the New York Botanical Garden.
For one year he worked half-time on the tropical family
Simaroubaceae and half-time on his dissertation,
"Revision of the Norh American species of Erigeron,
north of Mexico" (Cronquist, 1947). After defending
his doctoral dissertation in 1944, Art continued working
another two years at NYBG. However, he did not want
to pursue a career in neotropical botany (which is what
NYBG had in mind); so in 1946 he accepted he
position of Assistant Professor of botany at h e
University of Georgia.

Arthur Cronquist excelled at teaching. He wrote
two college textbooks on botany; both went through two
editions and one was translated into two foreign
languages. His botany courses were always

Long Island July - August 1W2 Page 2

Botanical Society

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field-oriented and some of his "field trips" covered over
5,000 miles in three weeks time. His door was always
open to students (and anyone else), and he never
hesitated to assist students in the field. As my major
professor, he and I traveled together to Utah, Canada,
New England, and the southern Appalachian Mountains.

I probably learned more botany in his pick-up truck than
in any graduate level course.

After teaching two years at Georgia, he accepted
the position of Assistant Professor at Washington State
University. In 1951 he spent a year in Brussels, with
his wife and two children, working on the flora of the
Belgian Congo for the Belgian Government.

After an absence of almost five years, Art returned
to the New York Botanical Garden where he remained
for the next 40 years. One of his first tasks was the
treatment on Compositae for The New Britton and
Brown Illustrated Flora. Other major taxonomic
treatments (authored or co-authored) include:

1952. Compositae. In: Flora of Idaho.

1955-1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest Five volumes.
1960. Senecioneae. In: Illustrated flora of the Pacific states.

1963. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and
adjacent Canada. Edition 1.

1971. Compositae. In: Flora of the Galapagos Islands.

1972 -present Intermountain flora. Vascular plants of the
Intermountain West. Six volumes.

1973. Flora of the Pacific Northwest.

1980. Vascular flora of the southeastern United States. Volume 1.
Asteraceae.

1991. Manual of vascular plants. Edition 2.

The general system of classification of flowering
plants was in a moribund condition when Art published
his early taxonomic works. The popular but archaic
system of Engler and Prantl no longer reflected current
evolutionary thought. In the 1950's Art started to
publish some of his thoughts on a new system of'
angiosperm classification. These thoughts culminated in
his magnum opus, An integrated system of classification
of flowering plants; currently the most widely used
system of classification in North America. Some of his
other publications on the general system of classification
include:

1955. Phylogeny and taxonomy of the Compositae.

1957. Oudine of a new system of families and orders of dicotyledons.
1960. The divisions of classes of plants.

1963. The taxonomic significance of evolutionary parallelism.

1 964. The old systematics.

1965. The status of the general system of classification of flowering
plants.

1967. A consideration of the evolutionary and taxono mi c significance
of some biochemical, micromorphological, and physiological
characters in the thallophytes,

1968. The evolution and classification of flowering plants. Edition 1.

1969. On the relationship between taxonomy and evolution.

1973. Chemical Plant Taxonomy: A generalist's view of a promising

specialty.

1976. The taxonomic significance of the structure of plant proteins: a
classical taxonomist's view.

1977. On the taxonomic significance of secondary metabolites in
angiosperms.

1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants.

1987. A botanical critique of cladism.

1988. The evolution and classification of flowering plants. Edition 2.

It was a great privilege to have had Art Cronquist
as a friend and teacher. He will be sorely missed by all
who knew him.-Eric Lamont

THE joe beitel

MEMORIAL PLAQUE

Skip Blanchard has coinposed the following statement
to be inscribed on a bronze plaque at Big Reed Pond,
Montauk. If anyone would like to propose an
alternative phrase, or rewording of Skip’s, this is your
last chance (please contact Skip at 421-5619).

Joseph M. Beltd
1952-1991

Talented botanist, gifted teacher, repccted friend
We remember him here in one of Ids fiivoriU places
The Long Island Botanical Society

New Members

The Long Island Botanical Society is pleased to
welcome the following new members:

Jess Hanks - Pearl River, NJ; Gary Lawton - NYS
Parks, Oakdale; Mario Cardillo - Syosset; Dennis
Puleston ■ Brookhaven; Pera Gorson - Baldwin; Ted
Gordon - Southampton, NJ; Dr. Robert Smith -
Oneonta, NY; Arthur Mundree - NYC; Gary Kennen -
Stony Brook; Norman Zika - Tonawanda, NY ; Henry
Bookout - Riverhead; Paul Huth - Mohonk Preserve,
New Paltz; James Grimes Landscape Design - Montauk;
TNC Mashomack Preserve - Shelter Is.; Dr. Jon
Greenlaw ■ Dix Hills; Joyce Hyon - NYC; Suzanne
Kilgallen - Northport; Knowlton C. Foote - LaFayette,
NY; Susan Benson - Hampton Bays; David Junkins -
Centerport; Drs. Julie A. & Paul S. Mankiewicz - Gaia
Inst., NYC; Bridget DeCandido - Aquebog; Ronald
Rozsa - Willington, CT

Long Island
Botanical Society

July - August 1WZ

-PagerS

LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY
Founded: 1986; Incorporated: 1989.

The Long Island Botanical Society is dedicated to the
promotion of field botany and a greater understanding of the
plants that grow wild on Long Island, New York.

President
Vice President
Treasurer
Recrd Sec'y
Cor'sp Sec'y
Local Flora
Field Trip
Membership
Conservation

Hospitality

Program

Editor

Eric Lqmont
Chris Mangels
Carol Johnston
Barbara Conolly
Jane Blanchard
Skip Blnnchard
Ai Lindberg
Lois Lindberg
Louise Harrison
John Turner
Nancy Smith
Joanne Tow
Eric Lamonl
Steven Clemants

Membership

Membership is open to all, and we welcome any new members.
Annual dues are $10. For membership, make your check
payable to LONG ISLAND BOTAMCAL SOCIETY and mail
to: Lois Lindberg, Membership chairperson, Welwyn Preserve,
Crescent Beach Road, Glencove. NY 1 1542 .

%

LIBS LOGO? #3

^Y^Icnry Bookoul has sent the following logo sugesuon. He writes
"...Mncn I thuik of L.I. flowers chicory comes first to mind..," and "I
feel L.I. flora is too disturbed to use an endemic as an emblem, but
the motto would point to the interest in discovery and conservation."

He also writes "...a Bot. Soc. ought to have a Latin mottol".
Accordingly he sought the advice of Dr. Jeff Greenberger who
suggested "et advenae et indigcnac" which loosely translates to "both
recent arrivals and native species".

LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL S0$|£TY
P.O. BOX 905
LEVITTOWN, NY 11756

Long Island July - August 1WI 'Page 6

Botanical Society