Posts Tagged ‘douglas-fir’
Arthur Koehler: The Forensic Botanist Who Solved the Lindbergh Case
Letters to the Lindbergh’s Today is the anniversary of the death of Wood Expert and xylotomist Arthur Koehler. Xylotomy is preparing little pieces of wood and then examining them under a microscope or microtome. Koehler worked as a chief wood technologist at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. Koehler’s expertise led him to become…
Read MoreDavid Douglas: The Scottish Botanist’s Final Journey and the Mystery of the Hawaiian Pit
Gave His Life for Science On this day, about a month before his 35th birthday, the Scottish plant explorer David Douglas and his little Scottish terrier named Billy arrived at the northern tip of Hawaii. After landing, David met up with a man named Ned Gurney. And I know it’s hard to imagine, but Gurney…
Read MoreMeriwether Lewis and the Douglas-fir: Early Discovery and Botanical Legacy
The Douglas-Fir Today Meriwether Lewis described a tree he referred to in his journal as “Fir No. 5.” The tree in question was the Douglas-fir. Later, on February 9, Lewis added more details about the fir and sketched the distinctive bract of the cone in his journal. On their way back across the northern Rocky…
Read MoreDavid Douglas: Honored at the Site of His Tragic Death in Hawaii
Doctor’s Pit On this day in 2014, the botanist David Douglas was memorialized with a plaque at his death site. The occasion marked the 100th anniversary of Douglas’s death. The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission created the plaque because Douglas was the first scientist to visit the Oregon territory. Douglas scientifically identified hundreds of plants during…
Read MoreThe Remarkable Rise and Tragic Fall of Botanist David Douglas
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 25, 1799 It was on this day in 1799 that the Scottish botanist David Douglas graced our world with his arrival – a man destined to transform our gardens while possessing neither…
Read MoreDavid Douglas in the Athabasca Pass: The Ascent of Mount Brown and the Douglas-Fir’s Journey Home
After breakfast at one o’clock… I became desirous of ascending one of the peaks, and accordingly, I set out alone on snowshoes … The labor of ascending the lower part, which is covered with pines, is great beyond description, sinking on many occasions to the middle. Halfway up vegetation ceases entirely, not so much a…
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