NATHAN COLEMAN, MICHIGAN'S MYSTERY BOTANIST

摘要

Rev. Nathan Coleman (1825-1887) produced a catalogue of Michigan's flora in 1874 under the auspices of the Kent Scientific Institute in Grand Rapids. In this work, he validly published 31 new varieties and four new species from Michigan and effected two new combinations at varietal rank. Because little is known of his life and work, Internet searches of nineteenth century newspapers, periodicals, and books were undertaken to discover additional biographical data. Coleman spent most of his career as ateacher. This included basic education for former slaves in Virginia during the Civil War, employment at a public grammar school in Grand Rapids, founding a private high school in Iowa, and serving on the faculty of an African-American college in Texas.His botanical output, aside from the 1874 Michigan catalogue, comprised a series of short notes in Botanical Gazette during 1876-1878, most of which dealt with "variations" (as he termed them) observed in Connecticut and Iowa. He also provided specimensto other botanists, including Alphonso Wood and James Nathaniel Bishop.