Flora Nancy Vasey, an actual botanist

  • Title

    Flora Nancy Vasey, an emactual/em botanist

  • Authors

    Luke Sparreo

  • Description

    Flora Nancy Vasey was born in Illinois in 18611. While her father, George S. Vasey, was then practicing as a medical doctor, Flora was born into what would become an esteemed botanical family. After his wife’s death, George S. remarried and headed to the Colorado Territory on a botanical expedition. Although this may seem drastic, George S. had long been a hobby botanist, and this expedition would be the turning point that led him to his best-known work. A few years after the expedition, George S. headed to Washington, D.C., where he was appointed Chief Botanist of the United States Department of Agriculture2. It is likely during this period that their father introduced both Flora and her older brother, George R. Vasey, to botany. All three of these Vaseys were prolific botanists in their own right.

    While the careers of George S. and George R. Vasey are relatively well-documented, the same cannot be said for Flora Nancy Vasey. Like many women in 19th-century science, Flora’s contributions were sparsely documented. But in her case, even her own name worked against her, creating a twofold issue. For one, while belonging to a botanical family may have been useful for Flora’s education, it makes attributing herbarium specimens to her very difficult. For example, in a 1905 work on the orchid family3, herbarium specimens collected by all three Vaseys were cited-but under 5 different names. In this work, the names GR Vasey and JR [sic: Junior] Vasey refer to Flora’s brother, George R. Vasey. The name Geo. Vasey, sans middle initial, likely refers to her father, George S. Vasey. F. N. Vasey can confidently be attributed to Flora. However, the most commonly cited name among these five is “Vasey” alone, challenging to attribute to a single individual. Flora’s first name presents an additional problem, as searching for references to her is extremely difficult. Botanical sources are likely to use the word flora hundreds of times, her name becoming lost in scientific texts.

    Despite these challenges, brief mentions in reports and proceedings begin to paint a picture of Flora as not just a botanist’s daughter, but a capable scientist in her own right. While her collections are now scattered among herbaria, online records trace her collecting from at least 1897-1911 in Kansas, Massachusetts, and the Washington D.C. area4, where she moved alongside her father. In Washington, she began contributing to botanical science beyond her fieldwork. In 1887, she served as secretary of an amateur botanical club she helped establish5. In 1893, she circulated a request for information on women completing actual work in botany, amateur or professional (italics her own)6. From these two brief notices, it seems that Flora had established herself in Washington not just as an amateur collector but as an organizer successfully advocating for botanical outreach and women in science. By 1896, she was noted as clerk of the botany collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History7, a position she may have held earlier.

    The only surviving and digitized writing of Flora’s own is found in the 1898 issue of The Plant World, where Flora provides a lengthy paragraph describing her recent trip to botanize on Nantucket8. There, she was surprised by the diversity of plants that occurred on the “little, hilly, sand-blown island”. Besides serving as documentation of the island’s flora at the time, her writing evokes an almost poetic tone when describing each species:

    The coarse, harsh Seamat-weed grows to within a few feet of the water’s edge. Its roots and shoots are so strong that it takes a hard pull to dislodge them. Among this grass, forming dense patches, is the bladdery-looking Sea-Rocket, while its near neighbor, the pretty little Beach-Pea, grows in thick masses over the dry sand. Perhaps the most attractive grass found in meadows was the Purple Eragrostis (E. pectinacea), its long, graceful, purple plumes being in fine contrast to the surrounding green.

    In addition to a single collection from Kansas, the New York Botanical Garden holds several specimens from Flora’s 1897 trip documenting the plants of Nantucket. Some of these collections were cited in contemporary botanical works9,10. The last trace of Flora’s scientific involvement comes from her personal contribution of funds to the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences as late as 1911 or 191211, suggesting a lifelong dedication to her passion before her death in 191712.

    References:

    1. https://web.archive.org/web/20080514034302/http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/winter2001/vasey.html
    2. Canby, W. M., & Rose, J. N. (1893). George Vasey: A Biographical Sketch. Botanical Gazette, 18(5), 170–183. https://doi.org/10.1086/326929
    3. Ames, O., Ames, B., & Ames Botanical Laboratory. (1905). Orchidaceae: illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae. Houghton, Mifflin. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/58602423
    4. https://idigbio.gbif.us/occurrence/search?recordedBy=F.+N.+Vasey&year=1850%2C1950
    5. Notes and News. (1887). Botanical Gazette, 12(5), 118–122. https://doi.org/10.1086/326129
    6. Notes and News. (1893). Botanical Gazette, 18(7), 280–284. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2464687
    7. Scientific Notes and News. (1896). Science 4(80), 47. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98512#page/73/mode/1up 
    8. Bailey, W. W., & Vasey, F. N. (1898). Notes and News. The Plant World, 1(4), 62–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45484612
    9. Coulter, J. M., & Rose, J. N. (1900). Monograph of the North American Umbelliferae. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium (Vol. 7, Issue 1, p. 118). Smithsonian Institution Press. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/366482
    10. Hitchcock, A. S. (1920). Contributions from the United States National Herbarium (Vol. 22, p. 143). Smithsonian Institution Press. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/381196#page/201/mode/1up 
    11. Report of the Board of Trustees. (1914). Proceedings of the Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences (Vol. 4, p. 80). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/96963#page/98/mode/1up 
    12. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191430603/flora_nancy-vasey#source