Cyrus Guernsey Pringle
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Cyrus Guernsey Pringle (May 6, 1838 – May 25, 1911) was an American botanist who spent a career of 35 years cataloguing the plants of North America. He was a prolific collector and accomplished botanical explorer.


Early life

He was born on May 6, 1838 in
Charlotte, Vermont Charlotte is a New England town, town in Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for Queen Charlotte, though unlike Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlottesville, Virginia, and other cities and towns ...
to George and Louisa (Harris) Pringle. He studied in Hinesburg and
Bakersfield, Vermont Bakersfield is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,273 at the 2020 census. Geography Bakersfield is located in southeastern Franklin County, bordered by Lamoille County to the southeast. Vermont Route 108 pas ...
, and later at Stanbridge, Quebec, before entering the
University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...
in 1859. However, the death of his older brother during the first semester made it necessary for him to aid his widowed mother in the management of the farm and to withdraw from college. Later, however, he would be awarded an honorary
Sc.D. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...
from the University of Vermont as well as an honorary
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
from Middlebury College. In the early part of his life he was interested in the Quaker religious doctrine of the Friends, and it was through these meetings that he met Almira Lydia Greene of Starksboro, Vermont. Pringle became a Quaker in order to be with Almira, eventually marrying on February 25, 1863. His first
horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
undertakings were on his mother's farm in 1857, when, at the age of nineteen, he budded a small seedling apple tree with a large, striped, sweet summer apple. In 1858 he started his first nursery, containing a small pear orchard, fruit yards, gardens of currants, cherries, grapes, peaches and potatoes. He made a plan for each orchard or garden, giving the name and location of each plant. By
crossbreeding A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...
, he obtained a new potato variety which he called 'Snowflake'. This potato was introduced to the public in New York. Robert Fenn, an Englishman much interested in crossing American and English varieties of potatoes, recognized Pringle's ability and the two of them worked together on other projects, such as the crossing of 'Snowflake' with 'Rector of Woodstock' and vice versa. Another cross-bred potato of 1870, 'Ruby', gained a first-class certificate from the London Horticultural Society, and, with 'Snowflake', was awarded a silver medal by the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, sometimes abbreviated to MassHort, is an American horticultural society based in Massachusetts. It describes itself as the oldest formally organized horticultural institution in the United States. In its m ...
. Pringle grew and sold seedlings of ''
Gladiolus ''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae). It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''g ...
'',
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
, more than 100 varieties of irises, and nearly all the species of
lilies ''Lilium'' () is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. M ...
known at the time. His Hubbard squash seeds brought a dollar a pound at one time. He also ran a "hospital" for bulbs, to which people would send their sick specimens for rehabilitation.


Civil War

During the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, about five months after his marriage, Pringle was drafted into the
Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...
on July 13, 1863 along with two other Vermont Quakers following the
Confederate Conscription Acts 1862–1864 The Confederate Conscription Acts, 1862 to 1864, were a series of measures taken by the Confederate government to procure the manpower needed to fight the American Civil War. The First Conscription Act, passed April 16, 1862, made any white mal ...
. They shared the Quakers' disapproval of war, and when Pringle's uncle offered to pay the US$300 () necessary for his release, he would not allow this to be done, regarding that solution as a selfish compromise with principle. Refusing to perform all military duty, he was subjected to severe discipline. The Quakers were kept for days in the guardhouse in company with drunks and criminals. On October 3, 1863, at Culpeper, Virginia, Pringle was staked to the ground, with his arms outstretched and his legs racked; he was left in this position for hours, until "so weak he could hardly walk or perform any exertion." He was also threatened with death if he would not give up, but his only reply was, "It can but give me pain to be asked or required to do anything I believe to be wrong." After a day of extreme pain he wrote in his diary, "This has been the happiest day of my life, to be privileged to fight the battle for universal peace." When Secretary of War
Edwin Stanton Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814December 24, 1869) was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during most of the American Civil War. Stanton's management helped organize ...
heard of this treatment, he ordered "the three incorrigibles" be sent to Washington, D.C.
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
, Commissioner of Agriculture, went to President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
about their case, who subsequently asked the Secretary to release them. Stanton refused, claiming that his oath of office stood in the way of discharging them from military service. It was only after President Lincoln had gone personally to Stanton that the parole was granted.


Career

Pringle once again turned his energies to plant breeding in 1868, attempting to hybridize new varieties of various fruits, corn, tomatoes, and grains such as wheat and oats. In 1872, Pringle's wife separated from him to pursue evangelistic work and they divorced on October 16, 1877. Sometime in the 1870s, Pringle began to collect plants throughout Vermont, from deep in mossy woods, by lakesides, or high on mountain summits. On December 13, 1874, he was appointed to the Vermont Board of Agriculture. During three successive years he took boat trips up the lower
St. Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...
to the Saguenay Rivers in Canada, and the St. Francis and St. John Rivers of northern Maine. In 1878, he displayed many of the Vermont specimens which he had been collecting at the Paris World's Fair. In 1880 he received three commissions: collecting wood samples for the Jesup Collection, under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History; exploring American forests and collecting data for a final report for the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of t ...
, working for
Charles Sprague Sargent Charles Sprague Sargent (April 24, 1841 – March 22, 1927) was an American botanist. He was appointed in 1872 as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and held the post until his death. He pub ...
; and general botanical collecting on behalf of Asa Gray. In 1884, he made a botanical survey of the northern portions of
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, under the auspices of the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
. Pringle was appointed to the Gray Herbarium as a botanical collector in 1885, eventually making 39 expeditions to Mexico over the next 24 years. In April 1896, he was elected a member of the newly established New England Botanical Club and attended the meetings when in Boston. He was a charter member and later vice-president of the Vermont Botanical Club. During his 35 years of field work in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Pringle collected over 500,000 specimens which included some 1,200 species new to science. Duplicates of his own collections were distributed widely and can be found throughout many
herbaria A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...
in the United States and abroad.


Death

In the last year of his life Pringle was planning a trip to South America, but became ill. He died on May 25, 1911, and is buried in Morningside Cemetery, East Charlotte, Vermont.


Legacy

Pringle is the namesake of the Pringle Herbarium at the
University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...
. Several genera were named in honor of Pringle, including ''
Neopringlea ''Neopringlea'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Salicaceae. It is native to Mexico and Guatemala. The genus name of ''Neopringlea'' is in honour of Cyrus Pringle (1838–1911), an American botanist who spent a career of ...
'' (
Salicaceae The Salicaceae is the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae ''sensu stricto'') included the willows, poplar, aspen, and cottonwoods. Genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) have greatly ...
), ''Pringleella'' ( Ditrichaceae), ''Pringleochloa'' (a synonym of ''
Bouteloua ''Bouteloua'' is a genus of plants in the grass family. Members of the genus are commonly known as grama grass. Taxonomy and systematics The genus was named for Claudio and Esteban Boutelou, 19th-century Spanish botanists. David Griffiths ...
'' Lag.), and ''Pringleophytum'' (synonym of '' Holographis'' Nees). Likewise, the species ''Clethra pringlei'', '' Cobaea pringlei'', ''Eryngium pringlei'', ''Lupinus pringlei'', '' Pinus pringlei'', ''Rosa pringlei'', and '' Pachycereus pringlei'' were all named after him.


Publications

Pringle wrote many articles in ''
The Country Gentleman ''The Country Gentleman'' (1852–1955) was an American agricultural magazine founded in 1852 in Albany, New York, by Luther Tucker.Frank Luther Mott (1938A History of American Magazines 1850–1865"The Country Gentleman", page 432, Harvard Unive ...
'' from 1869 to 1880, including "Origin of the Snowflake Potato" in 1880. In 1884 he published "Pringle's Reports on Forests of Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia," a section in the ''Report on the Forests of North America (exclusive of Mexico)''. Pringle documented his experience during the Civil War in his diary. ''The Record of a Quaker Conscience: Cyrus Pringle's Diary'' was published posthumously in 1918 with an introduction by Rufus Jones.


See also

*
Draft evasion Draft evasion is any successful attempt to elude a government-imposed obligation to serve in the military forces of one's nation. Sometimes draft evasion involves refusing to comply with the military draft laws of one's nation. Illegal draft e ...
*
History of the Quakers The Religious Society of Friends began as a proto- evangelical Christian movement in England in the mid-17th century in Lancashire. Members are informally known as ''Quakers'', as they were said "to tremble in the way of the Lord". The movement ...


References


External links

* *
Biography
at
University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the United ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pringle, Cyrus Guernsey American botanical writers 1838 births 1911 deaths Botanists active in North America American male non-fiction writers American tax resisters American torture victims People from Charlotte, Vermont American Quakers Converts to Quakerism People of Vermont in the American Civil War American people of Scottish descent Burials in Vermont 19th-century American botanists 20th-century American botanists