William Edwin Safford (December 14, 1859,

Chillicothe, Ohio Chillicothe ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Scioto River 45 miles (72 km) south of Columbus, Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio. It is the only city in Ross Count ...

– January 10, 1926) 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 ...

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

, and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

employed by the U.S.

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

and

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

. Safford graduated from the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of ...

in 1880 and pursued advanced studies at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He served in the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

. In 1899 he was appointed deputy to the naval governor of Guam,

Richard P. Leary USS ''Richard P. Leary'' (DD-664) was a of the United States Navy. In 1959, the ship was transferred to the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and renamed ''Yūgure''. The destroyer remained in service with the Japanese until 1974, when she ...

. In practice, however, Leary delegated day-to-day administrative and judicial duties to Safford, indicating his preference to directly govern only in emergency situations. While stationed on

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

, Safford compiled a thorough survey of the plants of economic importance to be found on the island. The resulting volume, published as ''The Useful Plants of the Island of Guam'' (Contributions from the United States National Herbarium Vol. IX), remains of interest not only as a pioneering work of

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

but also for its insights into the natural history and folkways of the island. He also wrote a monograph on the

Chamorro language Chamorro (; ch, Finuʼ Chamorro, links=no (CNMI), (Guam)) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000 people (about 25,800 people on Guam and about 32,200 in the rest of the Mariana Islands and elsewhere). It is the native and spoken ...

of Guam. Due to his interest in psychoactive plants and their traditional use, Safford can be considered one of the "fathers" of the ethnobotany of psychoactive plants. He became interested in

peyote The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...

and more generally in all the American psychoactive plants known at that time, and he carried out specific studies on

datura ''Datura'' is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine-flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family Solanaceae. They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil's trumpets (not to be conf ...

s, both of an

ethnobotanical Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

nature than botanical and

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. He was also interested in the problem of identifying the

cohoba Cohoba is a Taíno Indian transliteration for a ceremony in which the ground seeds of the ''cojóbana'' tree (''Anadenanthera'' spp.) were inhaled, the Y-shaped nasal snuff tube used to inhale the substance, and the psychoactive drug that was inha ...

of the ancient Antillean

Taíno The Taíno were a historic Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, indigenous people of the Caribbean whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities. At the time of European contact in the ...

s, being the first scholar to correctly identify this plant as a species of

Anadenanthera ''Anadenanthera'' is a genus of South American trees in the Legume family, Fabaceae. The genus contains two to four species, including '' A. colubrina'' and '' A. peregrina''. These trees respectively are known to the western world primarily as ...

, at that time botanically referred as

Piptadenia ''Piptadenia'' is a genus of tropical shrubs and trees of the family Fabaceae. Species *'' Piptadenia adiantoides'' (Sprengel) Macbr. *''Piptadenia affinis'' Burkart *''Piptadenia anolidurus'' Barneby *'' Piptadenia buchananii'' *'' Piptadenia ...

. He also made some misidentifications, the most important being the identification of the ololiuhqui of the

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

with a species of

(Safford, 1920, op.cit., pp. 550–552), whereas today we know that it was the convolvulacea

Turbina corymbosa ''Ipomoea corymbosa'' is a species of morning glory, native throughout Latin America from Mexico as far south as Peru and widely naturalised elsewhere. Its common names include Christmasvine, Christmaspops, and snakeplant. Description and names ...

(L.) Raf.), and the identification of

teonanácatl Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphyletic informal group of mushroom, fungi that contain psilocybin which turns into psilocin upon ingestion. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include ''Psilocyb ...

from ancient texts with

, while this

Nahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...

name referred to species of

hallucinogenic mushroom Hallucinogenic mushrooms are those mushrooms that have hallucinogenic effects on humans. Such mushrooms include: * Psychoactive ''Amanita'' mushroom * Psilocybin mushroom Psilocybin mushrooms, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are a polyphy ...

s (Safford, 1915, op.cit.). These Stafford errors were corrected by Blas Pablo Reko (1934, 1940).Reko B.P., 1940, ''Teonanacatl'', the narcotic mushroom, ''American Anthropologist'', vol. 42, pp. 368-369. After Leary's term ended in 1900, Safford left the Navy and joined the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

as assistant botanist. In 1920 he achieved a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. He suffered a stroke in 1924 but remained active until his death. Sixteen plant species are named for Safford in honor of his contributions to botany.

Bibliography

* ''The Chamorro Language of the Island of Guam'' (1905)
''Useful Plants of the Island of Guam''
(1905) (Reissue 2009, Guamology Publishing)
''Cactaceae of Northeastern and Central Mexico''
(1909) * ''Edible Plants and Textiles of Ancient America'' (1916) * ''Natural History of Paradise Key and the Nearby Everglades of Florida'' (1919) * ''Notes on the Genus ''Dahlia'', with Descriptions of New Species'' (1919)
''Synopsis of the Genus'' Datura
(1921) * Daturas ''of the Old World and New'' (1922) * ''Ant Acacias and Acacia Ants of Mexico and Central America'' (1923)

References

"William Edwin Safford"
(Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

)
"William Edwin Safford"
(Washington Biologists' Field Club)

External links

William Edwin Safford Papers
from the

Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Safford, William Edwin 1859 births American botanists 1926 deaths American ethnologists United States Naval Academy alumni Harvard University alumni Yale University alumni George Washington University alumni People from Chillicothe, Ohio Governors of Guam