“Nestor of the botanists not only of
America but doubtless of the whole world”
Paul Standley
on J.D. Smith
The University of North Carolina Herbarium
(NCU) has about half a dozen specimens – mostly ferns from the southeastern
United States -- collected by John Donnell Smith. Most of J.D. Smith’s herbarium – over
100,000 specimens -- can be found at US.
His name is abbreviated as Donn. Sm. in
botanical literature.
John Donnell Smith, 1st
Lieutenant, Confederate States of America
photograph taken May, 1863
in Richmond, Virginia following the Battle of Chancellorsville 2
John Donnell Smith was born on 5 June, 1829
in Baltimore, Maryland. His
grandfather father, Robert, served as Secretary of the Navy (1802-1805) under
President Thomas Jefferson and as Secretary of State (1809-1811) under
President Madison. 1,7
John Donnell Smith attended Yale College
and was a member of Skull & Bones.
He graduated at age 18 with a B.A. in 1847, and according to an
obituary in the New York Times,
never returned to visit or to attend a class reunion.1, 7 He read law in the office of Brown &
Brule (Baltimore, Maryland) from 1847 to 1850 and was admitted to the bar in
January, 1851, but never practiced law.
He spent several years in Europe, and attended lectures on history and
law at the University of Heidelberg.
In January, 1862 he entered the Confederate Army as an aide-de-camp to
General John B. Magruder. In March, 1862 he was commissioned as a 2nd
Lieutenant of Artillery in Page’s Battery, and rose to 1st
Lieutenant upon transfer to Jordan’s Battery in October, 1862. In February, 1864 he was promoted to
Captain and commanded Battery A, 10th Battalion (Huger’s Battalion), Virginia Artillery. Smith served in every campaign and battle
of the [Confederate] Army of Northern Virginia. He was severely wounded at Gettysburg and
was present at the surrender at Appomattox. 1 He was mustered out
of the Confederate Army on 9 April 1865 at Appomattox Court House, Virginia
at age 33. 4
“Leaving the life of cotton planter in
Alabama and officer of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad after the war, he
took up botany and devoted thirty years to travel and study, visiting Europe,
Asia and South America to collect rare specimens.”7
In a letter dated 31 December, 1910 to Mrs.
N.L. Britton, in reply to request for information regarding a collecting trip
made by Coe F. Austin and John Donnell Smith in 1878, Smith wrote:
The
thirty-two years that have gone by since Austin and I made our moss-hunting
trip to South Florida seems to have left me with a poor recollection of its
incidents, whether scientific or personal.
At that time the geography of the region bordering the upper Caloosahatchie River was imperfectly understood, and its
botany was, of course, even less known… For several years previously I had
been in active correspondence with that eminent bryologist, Coe F. Austin,
but had not known him personally. I
had been a purveyor to him of much material of Musci
and Hepaticae, and was indebted to him for many
critical determinations. At my
invitation, he joined me at Cedar Keys, Florida, in March, 1878. In a good-sized sail boat of slight draft
of water, and with a man to cook and help, we sailed down the gulf coast,
chiefly keeping inside of the islands and reefs, and landing frequently to
collect. In Charlotte Harbour, Pine Island was our headquarters, and its shell
mounds presented an interesting and novel moss flora… You [Mrs. N.L. Britton] are better
qualified than I am to appreciate the importance of our collections during this
expedition and the value of Austin’s scientific work. But I can certify to his enthusiastic
enjoyment of this introduction to a semitropical world, and to my own
unqualified enjoyment of his society. 9
In 1880 C.F. Austin named a genus of moss, Donnellia, in Smith’s
honor. Donellii floridana Aust. was collected “On the
branches of a Live Oak, Florida, Feb. 1877, Capt. John Donnell Smith.” 10
In 1988, William R. Buck of the New York Botanical Garden re-discovered
a species of Donnellia
in Florida.
Donnellia was
originally proposed by Austin (1880 [Bull. Torr.
Bot. Club 7:15-16]) for the single species, Fabrionia donnellii, that he had described three
years earlier (Austin 1877 [Botanical Gazette 2: 109-112]).
The species was ignored or misinterpreted for a century until Crumm (1977) redescribed it and
illustrated it, and placed it in the synonymy of Meiothecium tenerum Mitt. … I would not have
returned to this problem so soon if not for recently collecting Donnellia commutata
[synonyms Fabronia donnellii
Aust. and Donnellia floridana
Aust.] in Florida. The species has not
been found in Florida since the original collection by Capt. John Donnell
Smith in February of 1877. However,
during a recent trip to Florida I found it in the Ocala National Forest. …
Perhaps the field characters will encourage local bryologists to examine more
closely what appear to be overwhelming populations of Sematophyllum. This may result in the discovery that Donnellia commutata is more frequent
in Florida than the collecting history of it reflects. 11
“Retiring from business in the early eighties
[1880’s], he devoted himself to botanical studies, which already had long
attracted his interest. He botanized
extensively in most of the Southern States as well as in the North, and
finally directed his attention to Central America, then almost unknown
botanically. He made large collections
of plants in Guatemala, and in Costa Rica, where he still is remembered with
affection by the older scientists.” 12
“From 1890 to 1907 Captain John Donnell
Smith of Baltimore took Guatemala and adjoining regions as his special field
of interest, engaging personally in field work from 1890 to 1896 and later cooperating
with other botanists, whose expeditions he financed and whose collections he
studied and distributed. In 1907 he
published the eighth and last part of an enumeration of the plants of
Guatemala (including as well many records from the other Central American
republics) in which he cited 3,736 species...
Captain Smith bequeathed his collections to the Smithsonian
Institution. Baron von Tuerckheim, whose earlier collections, at Kew, were made
as far back as 1878, was Captain Smith’s chief collaborator.”8
Captain Smith was appointed an Honorary
Associate of the Smithsonian Institution in 1905, and served in that capacity
until his death. “He was an authority
on the flora of Central America and gave his extensive herbarium and library,
which contained a fine collection of books on classical botany, to the
Institution during his lifetime.” 5 The Smithsonian Institution
(US) has J.D. Smith’s herbarium of over 100,000 specimens which include
specimens collected by him and others, notably H. von Tuerckheim,
E.T. Heyde, and E. Lux. Regions represented in the J.D. Smith
herbarium include Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the eastern United States.6 According
to Paul Standley, Donnell Smith “did more than any
other single person to make known the rich flora of Central America.” 12
“Tall and of commanding appearance, a
kindly host, a scholar not only in botanical science but in the languages,
John Donnell Smith was the finest type of Southern gentleman.” 12 Smith’s
passport application in December, 1895 describes him as 66 years old, 5’10”
in height, with hazel eyes, an “aquiline” nose, and florid complexion, and
following “no” occupation.3 “Fortunate were the botanists who
enjoyed his hospitality, for he could recont the
most interesting anecdotes of botanists long dead, and of his associations
with them. His life span of nearly a
century tempts one to speculate upon the changes Captain Smith had seen in
his native city of Baltimre and in the botanical
world. It is a matter of great regret
to his friends that it was not granted to him to complete the full hundred
years which lacked just six months of their fulfillment.” 12
Smith never married. John Donnell Smith died of pneumonia at age
99 on December 2, 1928 at the home of his niece, Mrs. James W. Wilson in
Baltimore, Maryland and was buried in Greenmount
Cemetery in that city. 1, 7
PUBLICATIONS (incomplete list):
Smith, John Donnell (1879) Ophioglossum palmatum, Linn.
Botanical Gazette 4(4):
141-142.
--- (1879) Polemonium caeruleum,
L. Bull. Torr.
Bot. Cub 6 (55/56): 329.
--- (1880) Wolffia
(Wolffiella)
gladiata. Bull. Torr. Bot.
Club 7(6): 64-65.
--- (1880) Phegopteris Dryopteris. Bull. Torr. Bot.
Club 7(11): 118.
Smith, John Donnell, Isaac C. Martindale, J.W. Chickering,
Jr., Chas. E. Bessey, A.W. Chapman, R.I. Cratty, J.J. Davis, Chas. F. Johnson, C.E. Smith, and
Gerald McCarthy (1886) Specimens and
specimen making. Botanical Gazette
11(6): 129-134.
Smith, John Donnell (1886)
Desmodium molle DC. Botanical Gazette 11(10): 274.
--- (1887) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. I.
Botanical Gazette 12(6):
131-134.
--- (1888) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. II. Botanical Gazette 13(2): 26-29.
--- (1888) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. III. Botanical Gazette 13(4): 74-77.
--- (1888) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. IV. Botanical Gazette 13(7): 188-190.
--- (1888) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. V.
Botanical Gazette 13(11):
299-300.
--- (1888) Another
station for Rhododendron vaseyi. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 15(6):
164-165.
--- (1889) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. VI. Botanical Gazette 14(2): 25-30.
--- (1889) Dr.
A. B. Ghiesbrecht. Botanical Gazette 14(9): 227-228.
--- (1890) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. VII. Botanical Gazette 15(2): 27-29.
--- (1891) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. VIII. Botanical Gazette 16(1): 1-14.
--- (1891) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. IX. Botanical Gazette 16(7): 191-200.
--- (1893) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. X.
Botanical Gazette 18(1): 1-7.
--- (1893) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. XI. Botanical Gazette 18(6): 197-211.
--- (1894) Undescribed plants from Guatemala. XII. Botanical Gazette 19(1): 1-14.
--- (1894) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other Central
American Republics. XIII. Botanical Gazette
19(7): 255-266.
--- (1895) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XIV. Botanical Gazette
20(1): 1-11.
--- (1895) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XV. Botanical Gazette
20(7): 281-295.
--- (1895) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XVI. Botanical Gazette
20(12): 538-546.
--- (1897) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XVII. Botanical
Gazette 23(1): 1-14.
--- (1897) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XVIII. Botanical Gazette
23(4): 235-251.
--- (1897) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XIX. Botanical
Gazette 24(6): 389-398.
--- (1898) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XX. Botanical Gazette
25(3): 145-157.
--- (1899) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXI. Botanical Gazette
27(5): 331-339.
--- (1899) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXI
(concluded). Botanical Gazette
27(6): 434-443.
--- (1901) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXII. Botanical Gazette
31(2): 109-125.
--- (1902) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXIII. Botanical Gazette
33(4): 249-262.
--- (1903) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXIV. Botanical Gazette
35(1): 1-9.
--- (1904) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXV. Botanical Gazette
37(3): 208-214.
--- (1904) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXVI. Botanical
Gazette 37(6): 417-423.
--- (1905) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXVII. Botanical Gazette
40(1): 1-11.
--- (1906) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXVIII. Botanical Gazette
42(4): 292-300.
--- (1907) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XIX. Botanical Gazette
44(2): 108-117.
--- (1908) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXX. Botanical
Gazette 46(2): 109-117.
--- (1909) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXI. Botanical Gazette
47(4): 253-262.
--- (1909) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXII. Botanical
Gazette 48(4): 294-300.
--- (1910) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXIII. Botanical Gazette
49(6): 453-458.
--- (1911) A
collecting trip in southern Florida. Am. Fern J. 1(3): 51-53.
--- (1911) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXIV. Botanical
Gazette 52(1): 45-53.
--- (1912) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXV. Botanical Gazette
54(3): 235-244.
--- (1913) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXVI. Botanical Gazette
55(6): 431-438.
--- (1913) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXVII. Botanical Gazette
56(1): 51-62.
--- (1914) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXVIII. Botanical Gazette
57(5): 415-427.
--- (1916) Undescribed plants from Guatemala and other
Central American Republics. XXXIX. Botanical Gazette
61(5): 373-387.
Sources:
1.
Bulletin
of Yale University, New Haven. 1
November 1929. Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University, 1928-1929.
Pages 3-4.
2.
The
Photographic History of the Civil War, in ten volumes. Francies
Trevelyan Miller, Editor-in-Chief, Robert S. Lanier, Managing Editor. NY:
The Review of Reviews Co., 1911.
3.
Passport
application. Ancestry.com
4.
Virginia
Regimental Histories Series.
Historical Data Systems, comp. U.S. Civil War Soldier Records &
Profiles. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2009. Original data: Historical Data Systems of Kingston,
MA.
5.
Morton, Conrad
V. and William L. Stern (2010) The history of the US National
Herbarium. The Plant Press, Newsletter
of the Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium, Smithsonian
Institution, National Museum of Natural History, new series 12(2).
6.
“Historical
Collections.” http://botany.si.edu/colls/collect/page.cfm. Accessed 20 November 2012.
7.
J.D. SMITH, 99, DIES; OLDEST YALE MAN: Graduated in
1847--Never at Reunion--A Botanist and Confederate Veteran.". New
York Times: pp. 27. 03
Dec 1928
8.
Bartlett,
Harley Harris (1932)
A biological survey of the Maya area. Bull. Torr. Bot.
Club 25(1): 7-20. (excerpt is from page 9)
9.
Smith, John
Donnell (1911) A
collecting trip in southern Florida.
Am. Fern J. 1(3): 51-53.
10. Austin, C.F. (1880) Bryological
notes. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club
7(2): 15-16.
11. Buck, William R. (1988) Donnellia (Sematophyllaceae)
resurrected and refound in Florida after 110
years. The Bryologist 91(2): 134-135.
12. Stadley, Paul C. (1929) John Donnell Smith. Tropical Woods 18:55-56.
