Abstract
THE Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was presented to Dr. E. D. Merrill through a representative of the American Embassy on May 24. When in 1900 the new administration of the Philippines established a scientific service, Elmer Drew Merrill, then fresh from college, was one of those appointed. The botanical position there had been rendered difficult because of two fires; one in 1897 had destroyed the herbarium of the Forestry Bureau, Manila, and the other had destroyed the herbarium of the Guadalupe Convent during the Spanish-American War of 1899. Thus in the space of two years the work of Vidal and of the priests who had followed Blanco was largely obliterated. The problem facing young Merrill was one which would have daunted many much more experienced taxonomists, but he faced it with characteristic energy and common sense. To know what the older explorers had found and described necessitated visiting the same areas and making large collections. Thus not only did he collect in all parts of the Philippines as they became accessible, but also the extensive herbarium he built up contained specimens from all adjoining areas. His first administrative post was that of Director of the Bureau of Science, Philippine Islands, to which he was appointed in 1919. He rounded off his botanical work for the islands by the publication of “An Enumeration of Philippine Flowering Plants”(1925-26) in four volumes.
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Dr. E. D. Merrill. Nature 143, 887 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143887a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143887a0