Lucien Marcus Underwood (October 26, 1853 – November 16, 1907) was an American

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungus, fungi, including their genetics, genetic and biochemistry, biochemical properties, their Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and ethnomycology, their use to humans, including as a so ...

of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Early life and career

He was born in New Woodstock, New York. He enrolled at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1873 and graduated in 1877. He earned his masters in 1878 and finally and completed his PhD in 1879 under

Alexander Winchell Alexander Winchell (December 31, 1824, in North East, New York – February 19, 1891, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was a United States geologist who contributed to this field mainly as an educator and a popular lecturer and author. His views on evol ...

. During his graduate school, he taught at Cazenovia Seminary for two years. After a year's teaching at

Hedding College Hedding College was a college in Abingdon, Illinois, that operated from 1855 to 1927. The school was named after Methodist Bishop Elizah Hedding. Merged with Illinois Wesleyan University in 1930. The campus was used by the Roosevelt Military Academ ...

, in 1880 he was appointed professor of geology and botany in

Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockfor ...

. In 1883, he was appointed professor of geology, botany, and zoology at Syracuse. In 1890, he accepted the Morgan Fellowship at Harvard University to study the Sullivant and Taylor collection of hepatics. In 1891 he became professor of botany in De Pauw University. In 1896, after one year stint as a biology professor at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (''Auburn''), Underwood became a professor of botany at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and joined the staff of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

in 1907.

Works

Underwood published numerous papers in botanical journals, and was the author o
''Our Native Ferns and how to study them''
(Bloomington, Ill., 1881; 4th ed., 1893), ''Descriptive Catalogue of North American

Hepaticae The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

'' (New York, 1884) and “Hepaticae” in

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

's ''Manual of Botany''. He also prepared the

exsiccata Exsiccata (Latin, ''gen.'' -ae, ''plur.'' -ae) is a work with "published, uniform, numbered set of preserved specimens distributed with printed labels". Typically, exsiccatae refer to numbered collections of dried herbarium specimens respectivel ...

work ''An Illustrated Century of Fungi'' with 100 specimens (1889), and together with Orator F. Cook the

work ''Hepaticae Americanae'' with 160 specimens (1887–93). Underwood's papers are maintained at the

LuEsther T. Mertz Library The LuEsther T. Mertz Library is located at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx, New York City. Founded in 1899 and renamed in the 1990s for LuEsther Mertz, it is the United States' largest botanical research library, and the first ...

of the

Personal life

After losing large amounts of money on Wall Street, Underwood attempted to murder his wife and daughter before committing suicide at the family's home in

Redding, Connecticut Redding is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2020 census. History Early settlement and establishment At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present-d ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Lucien Marcus 1853 births 1907 deaths 1907 suicides American botanists American mycologists Auburn University faculty Cazenovia College faculty DePauw University faculty Illinois Wesleyan University faculty People from Madison County, New York Pteridologists Scientists from New York (state) Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States Suicides in Connecticut Syracuse University College of Arts and Sciences alumni Syracuse University faculty Torrey Botanical Society members

Early life and career

Works

Personal life

See also

References

External links