Lucien Marcus Underwood

Background

Lucien Marcus Underwood was born in New Woodstock, New York, the son of John Lincklaen and Hannah Jane (Smith) Underwood. He was descended probably from Joseph Underwood (1614 - 1677) of Hingham and later of Watertown, Massachussets Farm duties greatly hampered Underwood's early education.

Education

Having prepared for college intermittently at near-by Cazenovia Seminary, he entered Syracuse University (1873), where he became greatly interested in geology and entomology, and, self-instructed, began his lifelong study of ferns. He obtained the degree Ph. M. degree, completed graduate studies in geology and received the degree Ph. D. from Syracuse University (1879).

Career

In 1877 Underwood taught school for a year. In July 1878 he published in L. B. Case's Botanical Index an enumeration of the ferns growing near Syracuse, his first paper. During the following school year he taught natural sciences at Cazenovia. He taught in Hedding College, Abingdon, Ill. , the next year, and in 1880 became professor of geology and botany at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he remained three years.

Here he published his first book, Our Native Ferns and How to Study Them in 1881. Here began also his special interest in the Hepaticae, a group upon which he published subsequently more than a score of important papers, the most widely known being his Descriptive Catalogue of the North American Hepaticae North of Mexico (1884). His keen zoological interest at this time is shown by several papers, mainly bibliographical, on spiders, myriapods, and crustaceans.

The organization of the Indiana Academy of Sciences (1885) resulted largely through his efforts. In 1883 Underwood was called to Syracuse University as instructor in geology, zoology, and botany, and in 1886 became professor. He taught here seven years, meanwhile gradually giving up zoology for cryptogamic botany and contributing the text on the Hepaticae to the sixth edition (1890) of Asa Gray's Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.

There followed a year given to study as Morgan Fellow at Harvard and to botanical work in Florida. In 1891 he accepted the professorship of botany at De Pauw University, transferring after four years to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute as professor of biology. He became professor of botany at Columbia University in July 1896, and remained in this position until his death.

In 1899 he published Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms, an introduction to the study of fungi. This and the two synoptical works on ferns and hepatics afford the clew to much of Underwood's effort, an impelling desire to popularize botanical knowledge.

From early boyhood he exhibited genius in classifying not only objects of natural history but historical data of all sorts. He compiled an elaborate genealogy, The Underwood Families of America (2 vols. , 1913), which appeared posthumously.

From 1901 he served as chairman of the board of scientific directors of the Botanical Garden, and in this capacity took a leading part in initiating, in 1905, publication of the North American Flora, a project he had long cherished. Temporarily deranged by overwork and worry, he died by his own hand at his home in Redding, Connecticut.

Achievements

• Underwood's eleven years at Columbia University, the botanical department of which is affiliated with the New York Botanical Garden, left a notable impress. They were given not only to botanical exploration in the West Indies, the examination of fern "types" in European herbaria, and the publication of numerous papers on ferns (chiefly American), but also to the trenchant advocacy of sounder methods in taxonomy and of radical reform in botanical nomenclature. Underwood published numerous papers in botanical journals. His book, "Our Native Ferns and How to Study Them", a synoptical work, passed through six editions in twenty years, serving more than any other agency to stimulate the study of ferns in the United States.

Works

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  • The Ancestry and Descendants of Jonathan Pollard (1759-1821): With Records of Allied Families (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Ancestry and Descendants of Jonathan Pol...)

  • The Geological Formations Crossed by the Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad: Together With a Sketch of the Hydrography and Valley Formations of Madison and Onondaga Counties (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Geological Formations Crossed by the Syr...)

  • Moulds Mildews and Mushrooms, a Guide to the Systematic Study of the Fungi and Mycetozoa and Their Literature (Classic Reprint)

    (The increasing interest that has been developed in fungi ...)

  • Our Native Ferns and Their Allies: With Synoptical Descriptions of the American Pteridophyta North of Mexico, pp.1-147

    ( About the Book Biology is a natural science that examin...)

  • Descriptive catalogue of North America Hepaticae, north of Mexico

    (HIGH QUALITY FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Underwood, Lucien Ma...)

  • Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, 1901-1902, Vol. 11 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, 1901-1...)

  • List of the Described Species of Fresh Water Crustacea from America, North of Mexico: By Lucien M. Underwood, PH. D....

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Underwood families of America Volume 1

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Contributions to the botany of the Yukon Territory Volume 1901

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Progress Of Our Knowledge Of The Flora Of North America...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

In personality Underwood was uncommonly genial and forthright, keen, sympathetic, and imbued with a spirit of unselfish helpfulness.

Connections

Underwood was married on August 10, 1881, to Marie Annette Spurr, of Oakland, California, descended in the seventh generation from Jan Wybesse Spoor of Albany, Ney York.

Father:

John Lincklaen Underwood

Mother:

Hannah Jane (Smith) Underwood

Spouse:

Marie Annette Spurr