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 E S
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Narratives of African American Women’s Literary
Pragmatism and Creative Democracy
 Gregory Phipps

Narratives of African
American Women’s
Literary Pragmatism
and Creative
Democracy
Gregory Phipps
University of Iceland
Reykjavík, Iceland

ISBN 978-3-030-01853-5 ISBN 978-3-030-01854-2 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01854-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018957692

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
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now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
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Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For Jessica
 Acknowledgements

This book was researched, written, and edited in several different loca-
tions. For independent scholars and people in the early stages of their
post-Ph.D. lives, ongoing migration is often the norm instead of the
exception. Such experiences can be challenging, but they can also be
beneficial insofar as they afford opportunities to enter into multiple com-
munities and to form relationships with diverse people. It is the commu-
nities I have inhabited and the relationships I have formed over the past
years that have made the present book possible.
I could not have found a better environment for the stretch run of
this project than the University of Iceland. The first person I met here
was Guðrún Björk Guðsteinsdóttir, who answered (and continues to
answer) all of my questions about teaching, research, administration, and
Icelandic culture with warmth and perception. Matthew Whelpton has
been an excellent Chair, colleague, and friend. Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir is
another colleague who has welcomed me with kindness and friendship. I
have enjoyed many conversations about teaching, literature, and sports
with Jay D’Arcy. My deep gratitude also goes to Ásrún Jóhannsdóttir,
Anna Heiða Pálsdóttir, Þórhallur Eyþórsson, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, and
Erlendína Kristjánsson for making me feel at home in the Department of
English.
My colleagues in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures have also
contributed in equal parts to my work and well-being. First, I thank
Auður Hauksdóttir for her leadership and hospitality. From inviting me
into her home to helping me tackle an eleventh-hour tax application,

vii
viii    Acknowledgements

she has been nothing short of magnificent as a colleague, friend, and

Director. I also thank my neighbour in Veröld, Birna Bjarnadóttir, who
never fails to make me smile with her humour, encouragement, and
intelligence. For their time and generosity in arranging our Faculty trip
to China, I thank Geir Sigurðsson and Magnús Björnsson. I also owe
thanks to Sebastian Drude and Valgerður Jónasdóttir for their tireless
work as researchers, organizers, and founts of knowledge. Bernharð
Antoniussen has handled all issues pertaining to administration with con-
sideration and an eagerness to help. Finally, to all the people I have met
in Iceland who have welcomed me, offered assistance, made suggestions,
commiserated about the weather, unlocked the beauty of their land,
and indulged my attempts to pronounce the double L and the rolled R,
thank you.
Before I moved to Iceland, I found a temporary home at the
Rothermere American Institute in Oxford, where I received generous
assistance from many people. Michèle Mendelssohn and Lloyd Pratt
offered warm welcomes and enthusiastic responses to my work. Sally
Bayley and Tessa Roynon were ideal officemates—accommodating,
brilliant, and always willing to exchange ideas. Hal Jones was a perfect
Director, attending all talks and events and always finding time in his
busy schedule to exchange a friendly word. Like many others, I also ben-
efited from Huw David’s versatility as Director of Development. Fellow
American Literature scholar Spencer Morrison provided indispensible
feedback on this project. I thank Alice Kelly for the many conversations
about literature, history, the profession, and everything in between.
Benjamin Hennig and Tina Gotthardt were wonderful neighbours; the
sadness of our parting in Oxford was swept away by the joys of our reun-
ion in Iceland. Most of all, I thank the extraordinary librarians at the
Rothermere American Institute, particularly Jane Rawson, Judy Warden,
and Johanna O’Connor. From finding books to arranging the use of
rooms for interviews, they provided all the assistance I could ever ask for
while also displaying a consistent and genuine interest in my work.
The early stages of this book were written in Montreal, where I
have formed the strongest and most lasting relationships of my life. To
my doctoral supervisor, Peter Gibian, many thanks for the continued
friendship and interest in my work. To my friends Joel Deshaye, Paula
Derdiger, Kelly MacPhail, and Michael Parrish Lee, thank you for stay-
ing with me as we have branched off to different places and lives. I also
thank Kelly Phipps and Sarah Beer for their love and camaraderie. Carl
 Acknowledgements    ix

Murphy, Cathy McIninch, Ali Murphy, Emily Murphy, and Paul Lessard
have inspired me through unwavering support and generosity.
During the past couple of years, I have presented excerpts from this
project at various conferences, so I thank those who have honed my
ideas through their feedback. In particular, my thanks to the people at
BrANCA for organizing reading groups, conferences, and for carving
out a space for nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American studies
in Britain. Portions of Chapter 4 of this book were published in Volume
49 of African American Review as an article entitled “The Deliberate
Introduction of Beauty and Pleasure: Femininity and Black Feminist
Pragmatism in Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun.” I thank the people
at African American Review for granting me permission to republish
this material. Also, parts of Chapter 6 appeared in Volume 42 of English
Studies in Canada as an article entitled “Breaking Down Creative
Democracy: A Pragmatist Reading of Race and Gender in Nella Larsen’s
Quicksand.” I thank the people at English Studies in Canada for permis-
sion to republish this material.
I also thank the people at Palgrave Macmillan for their interest in this
project and for all their hard work in bringing it to publication. Both
Ryan Jenkins and Allie Troyanos have been helpful and informative as
Editors and Rachel Jacobe has done everything to make the final pro-
cess of submission run smoothly. I am also grateful to the two anony-
mous readers who reviewed this book. Their insights, suggestions, and
critiques shaped the current project while stimulating me to work harder
and search deeper.
My parents, Alan and Pauline, have encouraged me over the course
of this project just as they have throughout my life. They have embraced
my decisions, applauded my efforts, and supported my dreams. For this,
I owe them a debt of gratitude that I could never hope to repay in full.
My final thank you goes to the one who has stood at the centre of my
world wherever I have lived and whatever I have set out to accomplish.
She has shared my life in Montreal, Oxford, and Reykjavík and has trav-
elled with me near and far, from Paris to Prague to Athens, from Beijing
to Shanghai to Tokyo. As long as I am with her, each new beginning is
filled with hope, each new adventure is filled with happiness, and each
new day is filled with love. For this, for more, for everything, thank you
to my wife, Jessica Murphy.
 Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Nineteenth-Century Philosophical Pragmatism:

The Black Maternal Archetype and the Communities
of Creative Democracy 35

3 The Narrative of Creative Democracy in the Harlem

Renaissance 77

4 The Search for Beautiful Experience in Jessie Fauset’s

Plum Bun 113

5 Creative Democracy in One Community: Literary

Pragmatism in Jessie Fauset’s The Chinaberry Tree 137

6 Breaking Down Creative Democracy: The Cycle of

Experience and Truth in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand 163

7 Securing the Archetype and the Community: Irene

Redfield’s Resistance to Creative Democracy in Nella
Larsen’s Passing 187

xi
xii    Contents

8 “She Told Them About Her Trips to the Horizon”:

Creative Democracy in the Short Fiction of Zora Neale
Hurston 213

9 Conclusion 239

Bibliography 251

Index 269
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This is a book about African American women who create versions of

democracy different from the ones entrenched in state apparatuses,
constitutions, and mainstream discourses. Focusing on narratives writ-
ten by black women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
the book explores how select philosophers and authors offer alternative
visions of the United States as a democratic society. In the narratives of
these women, democracy is not a system of government or a nationalis-
tic brand name; rather, it is a way of life shaped by cultural experiences
that unfold within communities of African American women. From this
standpoint, democracy involves the participation of individuals in an
array of culture-building practices that bring together storytelling, art,
labour, religion, and activism. Democracy equally constitutes a proces-
sual, open-ended, and fluid set of relations among people which breaks
through social barriers, linking together not only individuals within
marginalized communities but also communities themselves. I refer to
this version of democracy as “creative democracy,” a term that should
call to mind John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy.1 However, creative
democracy existed as a set of ideals and narratives long before Dewey
gave it a name, in much the same way that pragmatism existed within
American letters before William James codified it in his 1907 mani-
festo, Pragmatism. James and Dewey belong to one pragmatic tradi-
tion that melds creative understandings of democracy with concepts
like individualism, pluralism, and experience. This book focuses on a

© The Author(s) 2018 1

G. Phipps, Narratives of African American Women’s
Literary Pragmatism and Creative Democracy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01854-2_1
2 G. PHIPPS

different genealogy of pragmatism which developed through the writ-

ings of African American women theorists and literary writers. It is this
genealogy that offers some of the most robust and sophisticated inter-
ventions against the manifold failures (past and present) of institutional
democracy in the United States. Rooted in both personal experience and
long-standing cultural symbols, committed to the unification of theory
and practice, African American women’s pragmatism exposes the dis-
tortions, betrayals, and manipulations of state-sponsored U.S. demo-
cratic idealism while simultaneously creating spaces for new forms of
democracy.
There are many potential starting points for thinking about African
American women’s literary pragmatism and creative democracy, but I
focus on a trajectory that passes through the nineteenth-century philos-
ophy of Maria Stewart, Anna Julia Cooper, and Mary Church Terrell,
and the interwar literature of Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale
Hurston. One reason for choosing this approach and these authors
is that doing so equips us to chart an evolution of black feminism that
features continuity and yet a diversity of perspectives. As critics like
Kristin Waters (366), Beverly Guy-Sheftall (2), and Patricia Hill Collins
have pointed out, the balance between multiplicity and “thematic con-
sistency” (as Collins calls it [“Politics” 395]) has shaped much of black
feminist history. Case in point, the theological works of the first African
American woman philosopher, Maria Stewart, are profoundly differ-
ent, on the levels of both form and content, from the passing novels of
Harlem Renaissance authors like Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen, but we
can nonetheless identify recurring subjects and themes across them. For
my purposes, these individuals belong to a black feminist tradition not by
virtue of being black female authors, but by virtue of participating in a
shared trajectory of literary pragmatism and creative democracy. For the
pragmatist critic, building an arc in black women’s writing from the early
nineteenth century to the interwar period involves examining a multi-
dimensional narrative that crosses disciplinary boundaries to find modes
of expression at sites of resistance, struggle, and community formation.
The narrative involves a diversity of voices, times, and places, but it also
features a continuity founded on simultaneously pragmatic and creative
reconstructions of democracy.
I say “narrative” to acknowledge that the genealogy of black fem-
inist pragmatism centres on stories which women have shared among
themselves and passed down across the generations. Black feminism in
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

the United States traces its roots to an array of collective enterprises and
political causes, including abolitionism, anti-lynching campaigns, and
club movements, but it also locates its origins in lineages grounded on
storytelling, art, and cultural symbols. Moreover, the transmission of
knowledge among black women has traditionally revolved around mat-
rilineal narratives, specifically stories that mothers and grandmothers
have told to their daughters. Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Toni C. King, and
S. Alease Ferguson use the term “the motherline” to describe such nar-
ratological lines of descent, a concept that brings into focus the symbolic
and practical role of maternity as an anchor in African American wom-
en’s cultural traditions. In this book, I explore one version of a matri-
lineal narrative that extends across multiple generations and is united
through crosscurrents between practical tenets and literary elements. As
many critics have indicated, the tight unity between theory and practice
(as well as between theory and personal experience) has shaped black
feminism from its inception. So too, this unity defines the pragmatist
approach to creative democracy. Yet the narrative of creative democracy
is built around more than a common methodological approach to polit-
ical struggle. It also includes a series of literary components—­characters,
symbols, settings, and thematic concerns—which bring aesthetic vital-
ity to representations of creative democracy while also capturing how
African American women see democracy working as a communal expe-
rience. Therefore, a literary pragmatic approach to creative democracy
begins with the simple but necessary observation that black women’s
constructions of democracy are and always has been concurrently lit-
erary and pragmatic. In a related vein, the literary pragmatic approach
demands a receptivity to the foundational ties that bind together creative
democracy and black feminist culture, most pointedly the centrality of
maternity and the overarching importance of community life.
What defines a literary pragmatic approach to African American wom-
en’s texts? This approach requires an understanding of the principles that
have tied together the many strains of pragmatist thought as well as an
openness to the way black women have developed pragmatist narratives
that speak to their particular experiences. As I have discussed in previ-
ous work, to my mind, literary pragmatist reading begins with the claim
that pragmatism at large reflects in myriad ways an American national
ethos.2 The first self-identified pragmatist, William James, developed
his conception of the distinctly American ethos of pragmatism in writ-
ings such as Pragmatism and The Meaning of Truth.3 At the same time,
4 G. PHIPPS

from the literary standpoint, the American orientation of pragmatism

cannot be located in a common set of ideas that James and others insert
into specific arguments. Rather, the American characteristics of pragma-
tism consist of subtle literary components embedded within a wide array
of novels, stories, poems, and non-fiction texts that cover a range of sub-
jects, from history to metaphysics to biology, from religion to aesthet-
ics to politics. Among the writings of pragmatist philosophers, we find a
variety of commentaries on that most flexible of topics, the relationship
between the individual and society (and, more abstractly, between sub-
jectivity and objectivity); but we also find literary inflections that frame
this relationship in the context of varied locales, time periods, and cul-
tural formations in the United States, from the eighteenth century to
the present day. In the philosophical tradition, pragmatist ideas about
individuality and society work in concert with figurative representa-
tions of pragmatic individuals inhabiting American social settings. Such
representations are built around archetypes, national mythology, and
portrayals of and reflections on U.S. geographical spaces, national insti-
tutions, and sociopolitical transformations.
What emerges through comparative literary analyses of these writings
is not a theory of American identity per se, but a cast of characters and
settings that are products of American society just as much as they are
actors and stages which enliven the fundamental principles of pragmatist
philosophy. These literary components afford multiple portraits of how
theorists incorporate constructions of American culture into their writ-
ing. In the process, these components also provide snapshots of the ways
interactions between the individual and society are delimited by one of
the key tenets of pragmatist thought: the relationship between experi-
ence and truth. Literary pragmatism identifies a reciprocal relationship
between theory (in the widest sense) and literature, exploring how fic-
tion and poetry both enact and revise the themes, characterizations,
motifs, and settings found within pragmatist writing. Literary pragma-
tism is less a lens for reading either theory or literature than a series of
reading practices that track long threads that run across diverse forms of
writing—a method of exploration that does not actively blur disciplinary
boundaries so much as it seeks instances of blurring, opposition, influ-
ence, and synthesis in the narratives that wind throughout the works of
authors, philosophers, essayists, and activists.
Previous critics have examined the writings of black men and
white women in relation to pragmatism, and literary pragmatism has
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

emerged as a field unto itself in recent years.4 Monographs such as

Joan Richardson’s A Natural History of Pragmatism (2006), Walton
Muyumba’s The Shadow and the Act (2009), Lisi Schoenbach’s
Pragmatic Modernism (2011), and Paul Grimstad’s Experience and
Experimental Writing (2013) have joined earlier texts like Richard
Poirier’s Poetry and Pragmatism (1992), Ross Posnock’s The Trial of
Curiosity (1991), and Patricia Rae’s The Practical Muse (1997).5 One
reason for the recent increase in literary pragmatist studies is that prag-
matism itself has grown into one of the most influential schools of
thought in contemporary theory. There are a number of explanations
for the resurgence of pragmatism in the twenty-first century, with anx-
ieties about the current state of American democracy perhaps being
the most poignant of them. Commentaries on the cultural, philosoph-
ical, and political meaning of democracy are deeply entrenched in the
classical pragmatist tradition, not only in the works of foundational
authors like William James and John Dewey, but also in the writings of
thinkers regarded as the forerunners to pragmatism, such as Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Dewey’s works,
in particular, are rightly known for celebrating the intrinsic connection
between democracy and classical pragmatism.6 My book does not revisit
the thematic role that democracy has played (and still plays) in the works
of canonical pragmatists, not least because many critics have already
explored these connections. Rather, the current study seeks to develop
a literary pragmatist approach to a largely ignored narrative of creative
democracy. What is sorely missing in scholarship, I argue, is a compre-
hensive literary pragmatist study of how African American women’s writ-
ing brings forth this narrative.
Aiming to fill this substantial gap, my book works on the premise
that genealogies of African American women’s letters stretching from
the early nineteenth century to the Harlem Renaissance offer some of
the fullest and most provocative representations of how pragmatism
understands democracy creatively. Today this project is more necessary
than ever, for reasons that are both scholarly and sociopolitical (which in
black feminism and pragmatism are not separate domains). In recent dec-
ades, the mechanistic workings of U.S. democracy have steadily degen-
erated into a grotesque menagerie of corporate and institutional status
quos, preservations of racist and misogynistic stratifications, entertain-
ment bonanzas masquerading as public discourses, and rigged elections.
The question of how and when early twenty-first-century American
6 G. PHIPPS

democracy will finally bottom out is an open one, but one positive that
has emerged from the downward spiral is an increasingly fervent grass-
roots resistance to these manifestations of democratic idealism. Following
Donald Trump’s bizarre yet not wholly unexpected victory in the 2016
election, the battle cry among vast numbers of American citizens was
“not my president.” But perhaps a wider and more historical phrase is
required: not my democracy.
To be sure, this is an underlying (and at times explicit) statement
that has found countless modes of expression in the history of African
American women’s letters. The works of nineteenth-century theorists
like Maria Stewart, Anna Julia Cooper, and Mary Church Terrell empha-
size in a variety of ways the massive disjunctions between the promises
of establishment democracy and the experiences of black women in the
United States. They also give voice to different possibilities of demo-
cratic life, not only showcasing how African American women create
organic, cultural, and flexible experiences of democracy within marginal-
ized communities, but also outlining how their approaches to communal
experience harbour the potential to transform the workings of democ-
racy within U.S. institutions. In the next generation, the literary works
of Harlem Renaissance authors like Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora
Neale Hurston depict young African American women enacting their
own versions of creative democracy through mobility among commu-
nities, the traversal of societal barriers, and interpersonal relationships
founded on shared enterprises of art, labour, culture, and amelioration.
One of the consistent thematic concerns across the philosophical and lit-
erary writings is the notion that, for black women, democracy is an expe-
rience that happens outside of and/or in opposition to the mainstream
appendages of the democratic state. In black women’s literary pragma-
tism, “not my democracy” is less a mantra than one half of an experien-
tial truth that grows for individuals over time; the other half consists of
the realization that creative, artistic, and cultural endeavours within com-
munities do bring value to the concept of democracy.
While the social relevance of creative democracy has steadily evolved
in new ways, black feminist criticism has also expanded over the past
four decades, particularly in conjunction with landmark theories of inter-
sectionality. Barbara Smith’s 1977 article “Toward a Black Feminist
Criticism” signalled a new orientation in scholarship, with Smith arguing
for the importance of looking at the “politics of sex as well as the politics
of race and class [as] crucially interlocking factors in the works of Black
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

women writers” (134). This article helped establish a basis for intersec-
tional approaches to literary and philosophical works of black women
authors—approaches that see race, gender, class, and sexuality as fluid
matrices that always work in tandem.7 For many critics, intersectionality
is an ongoing corrective to the notion that African American women are
caught in a double bind in which they experience racism and sexism as
separate forces.8 Consequently, identifying the specificity and uniqueness
of black women’s experience has long been a guiding objective for crit-
ics in the field. Interestingly for pragmatist readers, the status of both
personal and collective experience remains contested in black feminist
scholarship. Some critics argue that the emphasis on experiential under-
standings of intersectionality forms an overwrought attempt to establish
firm boundaries around the field and repel “outsiders.”9 Other scholars
argue that the validation of African American women’s experience works
productively against the assumption that their literature and theory can
fit readily within discourses that tend to privilege white, male voices.10
At the heart of these ongoing discussions reside lively conflicts regard-
ing the dimensions of African American female experience and the means
through which theory should deploy interpretations of said experience to
bring about social change in the United States and the world.
As conversations and debates surrounding black feminist scholarship
have continued to unfold, new issues and points of focus have emerged
in recent years. Vivian May’s 2015 book Pursuing Intersectionality
argues that intersectional thought has brought innovations to theory but
has also endured subtle distortions and subversions, usually at the hands
of those who profess to understand it. For May, misapplications and mis-
representations of intersectionality are especially troubling, considering
that the movement is grounded on “radical resistance politics, particu-
larly in Black feminist, critical race, and women of color theorizing and
praxis” (2). Now the practical, experiential, and transformative thrust of
intersectionality is at risk of falling into disuse, with the theory serving
either as one more tool for grasping race and gender (in isolation) or as
an “intellectual or political relic” (1). Relatedly, in a 2013 article, Sumi
Cho, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall assert, “Intersectionality
has traveled into spaces and discourses that are themselves constituted by
power relations that are far from transparent” (789), a process that often
leaves these power relations (and their roles in upholding established
modes of interpretation and knowledge production) untouched. So too,
some recent critics have wondered whether intersectionality should be
8 G. PHIPPS

supplemented with or replaced by alternative frameworks, if only because

supposedly the “strictures of language require us to invoke race, gen-
der, sexual orientation, and other categories one discursive moment at a
time” (Carbado 7).11 Within these commentaries, one can discern per-
vasive concerns about the simultaneous entrenchment and diffusion of
intersectionality. This is a trend in which the complex lineage that nur-
tured intersectionality—the writings of African American women, from
the early nineteenth century to the present day—is held increasingly in
abeyance in favour of hermeneutic simplicity and the assumption that all
critical reading shares the same basic premises. As May indicates, inter-
sectionality should remain on guard, in a self-reflexive manner, against
potential collusions between strategies of resistance and dominance.
Literary pragmatism features many ways of entering into contempo-
rary debates about intersectionality and the historical roots of black fem-
inism. In recent years, critics like May, Farah Griffin, Mia Bay, Martha
Jones, and Barbara Savage have renewed calls to recognize the existence
of an African American women’s intellectual tradition.12 In this book,
the starting point in this imperative project is the assertion that geneal-
ogies of African American women’s writing form, in their own distinct
manner, narratives of pragmatist thought that cut across disciplinary,
geographical, and generational boundaries. In other words, pragma-
tism is not merely a method of reading to be imposed onto the works
of black women theorists and authors. Rather, reading their works prag-
matically involves excavating narrative undercurrents, philosophical ideas,
and political interventions that together form the foundations of a prag-
matist lineage. This lineage is shaped by experiential representations of
creative democracy. Other critics have located pragmatic orientations in
the works of thinkers like Stewart and Cooper, usually focusing on their
appeals to experiential understandings of philosophy or their emphasis on
the practical applicability of theory.13 Also, scholars like V. Denise James
have presented black feminist reformulations of contemporary pragma-
tism that speak to ideas of creative democracy.14 However, focusing on
the literary pragmatist aspects of black women’s writing illuminates the
extent to which creative democracy is more than a set of principles or
general orientations in their texts. Just as creative democracy is an expe-
riential way of life that is externalized through cultural practices, it is also
a form of writing that knits together aesthetic, philosophical, theologi-
cal, autobiographical, political, historical, and literary modes of expres-
sion and argumentation. Creative democracy is first and foremost an
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

experience, and the textual articulation of experience entails depicting

and harnessing community-based labours and endeavours that capture
democracy in action.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Gene Andrew Jarrett state, “Almost as
soon as blacks could write, they set out to redefine—against already
received racial stereotypes—who and what a black person was” (3). From
the early nineteenth century on, African American women have also
used writing to reshape constructions of black female identity, but this
is not to say that their textual representations have been predominantly
reactive. Their narratives set out to express the uniqueness of African
American women’s experiences, a process that necessitated, from the
start, new styles of writing, new theoretical contexts, and on the liter-
ary level, new characterizations and settings. Nineteenth-century think-
ers like Maria Stewart and Anna Julia Cooper did not simply write into
existence revised versions of black womanhood. They also created an
intricate web of textual relations for portraying them, enlisting and sam-
pling a range of cultural practices in order to assemble frameworks that
would be capable of bringing African American women into view. Such
frameworks emerged through revisionary interpretations of biblical his-
tory, cultural archetypes grounded on African traditions, personal experi-
ence, and samplings of music, oral narratives, and domestic art.15 These
thinkers narrativized the rhythms and movements of creative democ-
racy within communities of black women, but they also positioned their
articulations in relation to U.S. democracy—not just in the sense that
they carved out oppositions to the latter, but also in the sense that they
demonstrated how black women’s communal experiences can and should
radically alter institutional democracy. In this way, African American
women’s literary pragmatism is grounded on varying levels of practice.
It draws upon close-knit cultural formations that tie together communi-
ties, but it also demands macrocosmic sociopolitical transformations in
the American state.
A literary pragmatist approach to black women’s writing includes
the observation that their texts are inherently heterotopic and interdis-
ciplinary. Indeed, these structural aspects help encapsulate the cultural
diversity that defines communal experiences of democracy. To put it suc-
cinctly, the form matches the content. At the same time, a literary prag-
matist approach to African American women’s writing identifies not just
shared philosophical ideas and themes across texts, but also recurring
narratological patterns founded on motifs, characterization, and setting.
10 G. PHIPPS

The unity that emerges within the diversity involves literary elements
that intersperse eclectic writings. Furthermore, these elements ulti-
mately emerge as the aesthetic shapes of pragmatist principles, including
the overarching idea that truth develops through experience (and more
particularly, the notion that the truth of democracy, whatever it may be,
only comes to light through communal experience). In this way, writ-
ing about creative democracy entails more than just enumerating a list of
political or theoretical tenets; it also involves activating a series of ideas
and beliefs that acquire definition through textual reflections of the com-
plex characters, settings, and practices that help capture African American
women’s participation in communities. Such reflections are often at their
most intricate in works of literature, including the novels and short sto-
ries of Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston. However, works of fiction coexist
with theoretical, autobiographical, sociopolitical, and theological texts.
From the literary standpoint, the trajectory from nineteenth-century
philosophy to Harlem Renaissance fiction centres on crisscrossing rep-
resentations of the ways that archetypes, settings, and cultural activities
bring creative democracy to life.

Mothers, Daughters, and the Evolution

of the Black Maternal Archetype

What kinds of literary elements form narrative arcs across the writings of
nineteenth-century philosophers and Harlem Renaissance authors? This
question grows out of a literary pragmatist approach to reading, but in
this context, it also directs attention to black feminist and intersectional
modes of analysis.16 Literary pragmatism locates depictions of American
society and democracy in motifs, characterizations, settings, and other
literary components. A literary pragmatic approach to black feminist
texts demands, in turn, a focus on how African American women rep-
resent democracy through literary elements that reflect their experiential
understandings of democracy at the margins of U.S. society. Examining
their writings as narratives requires receptivity to the way black women
have constructed narratives on their own terms. This point brings
us back to the subject of the “motherline.” Scholars have frequently
invoked matrilineal transmissions of knowledge when assembling gene-
alogies of black feminism.17 The model of mothers and grandmothers
passing on stories to their daughters has served as both a literal and figu-
rative template for these genealogies. Relatedly, it is no secret in criticism
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

that maternity has long been a site of self-actualization and resistance for
women in black communities, or that the cultural significance of moth-
erhood traces a history back to slavery18 and, earlier still, to African cul-
tural traditions.19 It is impossible to provide any summarizing assessment
of the roles maternity and matrilineal storytelling have played in the his-
tory of African American women’s letters, if only because the sheer scope
of their symbolic and practical value precludes definitive conclusions.
However, in part because of this wide-ranging value, it is possible to
begin considering how maternity frames a creative democratic narrative
that extends across the works of philosophers like Stewart, Cooper, and
Terrell and literary authors like Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston.
In the context of written and spoken genealogies, we could say
that creative democracy is a narrative that the foremothers of African
American philosophy passed onto literary writers of the Harlem
Renaissance. This is a narrative peopled with depictions of and commen-
taries on cultural activities that set democracy in motion for black women
within communities, but it also includes characterizations of the trans-
mitter of stories, the black mother. In this sense, the narrative genealogy
of creative democracy features not just mother–daughter transmissions of
stories, art, and culture, but also major transitions in how writers frame
the filial relationship. On a rudimentary level, nineteenth-century theo-
rists like Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell are the mothers of literary pragma-
tism and creative democracy while Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston are the
daughters—a formula that fits well with the valorizations of maternity in
the theory and the critical revisions of it in the fiction. Stewart, Cooper,
and Terrell position themselves as maternal figureheads, not least because
they regard motherhood as the ultimate forum for the actualization
of black women’s leadership. On the flip side, the literature of Fauset,
Larsen, and Hurston generally focuses on daughters: young African
American women protagonists who remain productively ambivalent
about the stories and traditions they stand to inherit from their mothers.
At the same time, the narrative of creative democracy is not purely
dichotomous. For one thing, the genealogy linking nineteenth-century
theorists and Harlem Renaissance writers is complicated, non-linear,
and full of dialectical continuities and oppositions. For another thing,
particular instances of both continuity and divergence in the narrative
exceed classifications founded on disciplines (philosophy versus litera-
ture) or time period (the nineteenth century versus the early twentieth
century). For example, in the philosophy and the literature, the figure
12 G. PHIPPS

of the black mother subsists as a nexus of democratic possibilities, oper-

ating as a guide for, manifestation of, and symbol within the movements
of creative democracy. Thus, notwithstanding some general differences
in their representations of maternity, the philosophy and literature both
posit the black mother as an embodiment of creative democracy. Even
within individual texts, this figure appears in complex and multivalent
ways, functioning alternatively as a highly personal (and thus changeable)
model for self-definition, as an archetypal construct with deep roots in
African mythology and black American cultural traditions, and as a devi-
ant stereotype that pushes back against white mainstream caricatures of
African American women.
In the narrative of creative democracy, the figure of the black mother
is a multiply situated presence. The nineteenth-century philosophers
adopt and celebrate maternity, but in doing so, they call upon a larger
presence in black American and African cultural traditions. So too,
authors of the Harlem Renaissance revisit this presence through por-
trayals of daughters confronting their mothers’ and grandmothers’ leg-
acies. Previous critics have invoked a black maternal presence in African
American women’s letters through different names, including Mother
Africa (Omolade), the Great Black Mother (King and Ferguson 12), the
Southern Mother (Baker 3), and the Artist (Walker). I use the term black
maternal archetype, which is intended to invoke two strands in a vast lin-
eage. The black maternal archetype traces its roots to African mythol-
ogy, but it also takes shape (at least in America) through oppositions to
mainstream stereotypes like the jezebel and the mammy. Importantly, it
is less a character than a conglomerate of different ideas, traditions, and
images. The archetype stands for black women’s leadership, not only in
domestic spaces but also in political life. It personifies the transmission
and dissemination of stories, culture, and art. On one side, such trans-
missions occur between mothers and daughters, but on the other side,
the archetype represents the outward reach and growth of black wom-
en’s culture as a force of transfiguration in U.S. society. In this way, the
archetype embodies a number of interactive dualisms that fuel its vitality
and influence. The archetype is Janus-faced, preserving older traditions
while also heralding future sociopolitical transformations. It is personal
yet communal, fictional yet organic, and intergenerational yet contextual.
It showcases how democracy is at once a broadly conceived way of life
for all people and an individual experience that gains meaning through
intimate cultural exchanges in communities.
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

We cannot locate static binaries in depictions of the black maternal

archetype, but it should be noted that the structural shift in focus from
mothers in the nineteenth-century philosophy to daughters in Harlem
Renaissance literature does speak to some fundamental changes in con-
structions of the archetype. Explicating these changes reveals one avenue
for exploring the development of an African American women’s narra-
tive of creative democracy. As I discuss in the next chapter, various critics
have considered how Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell call upon maternity
when delineating not just the roles of women in communities but also
their methods of social activism. In the writings of these philosophers,
political engagement works in lockstep with ideals of true womanhood.
Thus, the impact black women have (or will have) on society starts
with the exteriorization of virtue, which (in the words of Cooper) usu-
ally shows itself through their ability to raise “nobler men and women”
(137). On one side, this conception of virtue speaks to Stewart, Cooper,
and Terrell’s efforts to combat racist caricatures that position black
women as devoid of femininity, chastity, and even so-called maternal
emotions.20 In this sense, their textual activism is both self-reflexive and
outward reaching: they build personalized images of black mothers while
also deconstructing racist characterizations. This was no small project,
since such characterizations actively fed justifications for slavery, sexual
assault, and murder. In this context, the black maternal archetype func-
tions as a deviation from prevailing stereotypes: a textual creation based
on historical fact and personal experience that is designed to challenge
mainstream discourse.
At the same time, Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell’s deconstructions and
reinscriptions of black maternity gave rise to new textual interventions
that drew material from legacies and heritages active in their own cul-
tural environments. For one thing, the archetype of the black mother
that unfolds across their texts brings to light some of the complexities of
intersectional identity. For much of the nineteenth century, interweaving
forces of racist, misogynistic, classist, and sexual oppression demarcated
the social status of black women (both inside and outside of chattel slav-
ery) while buttressing popular assumptions and stereotypes. The latter
were essentialist and self-serving, peddling the reductive idea that inso-
far as an individual is black and a woman, she must be immoral, degen-
erate, lascivious, or simply lacking humanity, and by extension, destined
to occupy the lowest rungs of the social order. In Stewart, Cooper, and
Terrell’s theory, the black maternal archetype unbundles this hegemonic
14 G. PHIPPS

matrix, exposing the extent to which it is designed solely for the pur-
poses of devaluing and even dehumanizing African American women.
The archetype symbolizes a confluence of race and gender that taps
into ideals of sexuality while also elevating black women to positions of
authority. In these terms, the common thread in Stewart, Cooper, and
Terrell’s writings is the idea that black women’s unique experiences
(which include confronting intermingling forces of racist and sexist
oppression) have fostered within them new and more complete under-
standings of virtue. That is to say, the category of sexuality is reclaimed
from its place in the intersectional web and redeployed in a fresh set of
nesting matrices: because an individual is black and a woman, she has
undergone experiences that have equipped her to better understand vir-
tue and the importance of conveying it to children.
Insofar as the nineteenth-century theorists inhabit the role of the
black maternal archetype, they access a genealogy of mother–daughter
transmission that emerged from within African American women’s cul-
ture. They take up and revamp the black maternal archetype in order
to convey stories, knowledge, culture, and invectives to their “daugh-
ters”: young and future generations of black women. In other words, in
these writings, the black maternal archetype is not merely an argument
against hegemonic constructions of African American womanhood, nor
is it a stock identity assembled in response to intersectional persecution.
Rather, the archetype embodies a reservoir of collective experience that is
based in equal parts on past genealogies, present oppression, and future
potentiality. The black maternal archetype signifies a versatile amalgam
of experiences that far exceed the horrors of chattel slavery—experiences
that involve communal environments, mythology, art, religion, and tradi-
tion. These are experiences that define a singular understanding of virtue
which harbours the power to change the structures of American cul-
ture and politics. In Cooper’s account, for instance, black women alone
understand how to imbue the workings of American democracy with
virtue, a mission that can and should usher in a “reign of moral ideas”
(112) in U.S. society. The growth of these ideals depends as much on
the preservation of black women’s traditions as it does on the destruc-
tion of caricatures of them in mainstream society.
How does the black maternal archetype evolve within a narrative of
creative democracy? I discuss strategies for tracing the continuities (and
discontinuities) between nineteenth-century philosophy and interwar
literature in Chapter 3, but it is worth noting here that scholarship has
 1 INTRODUCTION 15

often struggled with the interdisciplinary and intergenerational transi-

tion. One reason for this struggle is that Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston
frequently are seen as part of the New Negro Movement, which broke
with valorizations of maternity, true womanhood, and virtue. Another
related reason involves the aforementioned point that the protagonists
of their works tend to be daughters—that is, young women strug-
gling to escape their mothers’ and grandmothers’ expectations and
experiences. However, these transitions also speak to the ways Fauset,
Larsen, and Hurston access and revise creative democratic tendencies
in the ­ nineteenth-century theory through the black maternal arche-
type. Among other things, their literature highlights the extent to
which the archetype embodies dialectical conflicts between virtue and
vice, experience and essentialism, and subjection and power. The inter-
actions between these oppositions catalyze one of the animating princi-
ples of creative democracy: the ideal of growth. In the philosophy, the
growth of virtue outward from communities to mainstream society
is one incarnation of this ideal, but in the literature, growth involves
developments in the lives of individual women: the steady expansion of
artistic opportunities, relationships founded on overlapping interests,
individual expressions of independence, and linkages among communi-
ties. Such processes are not teleological. Rather, they emphasize that cre-
ative democracy is oriented perpetually towards further experiences and
interconnections.
In the fiction of Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston, the presence of the
black maternal archetype works in tandem with individual growth
founded on experience. As a result, the archetype loses its basis in
Christian morality and true womanhood. In this sense, part of what
defines the evolution of the archetype in Harlem Renaissance fiction is
the subtle transition from collective experience and influence to individ-
uality. This is not to say that the archetype therefore becomes a char-
acter in the narratives of Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston. It still exists as
a nexus of mythology, cultural experiences, intersectional power, and
resistances to misogynistic and racist brutality. However, the young pro-
tagonists in Fauset’s, Larsen’s, and Hurston’s narratives individualize the
archetype, internalizing, reimagining, and redeploying it as a construct
that is capable of expressing, to them, their emotional life as it unfolds
both inside and outside of African American women’s communities.
For these characters, the archetype of the black mother straddles a com-
plex terrain between familial and communal expectations and between
16 G. PHIPPS

long-standing cultural legacies and opportunities for new self-definitions.

The protagonists are always revisiting the archetype in their minds, not
least because, in many cases, they contemplate becoming black mothers
themselves. Yet this possibility is not grounded solely on giving birth and
raising children; it also involves setting into motion the symbolic valences
of black motherhood through actions that generate new experiences in
unfamiliar communities. In pragmatic terms, the protagonists imagina-
tively rebuild the archetype of the African American mother in the course
of experience. And thus, speaking pragmatically, the archetype remains
for them fluid and processual, gradually accumulating content through
their actions and the consequences of those actions. The fruitful paradox,
however, is that although the archetype develops through the highly per-
sonal endeavours of individual characters, its meaning evolves for them in
concert with its sociocultural role as an embodiment of black women’s
collective experience.

Existing and Possible Communities

of Creative Democracy

As a transmitter of culture, the black maternal archetype personifies var-

ied levels of leadership that extend from domestic spheres to the U.S.
nation-state. However, in black women’s letters, the forum for the
experience of creative democracy has historically been the community.
The model of mother–daughter transmission may begin with filial rela-
tionships, but in the works of Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell, matrilineal
narratives are disseminated within communities of African American
women. So too, for these philosophers, the black maternal archetype is
first and foremost a representative of such communal networks. Thus,
when discussing the literary components that make up a narrative of cre-
ative democracy, it is necessary to include the community as a context
and setting. As with the black maternal archetype, any literary pragmatic
analysis of “the community” as a textual construct invites considera-
tions of its social, historical, and political status in African American
women’s culture. The community is not merely one aspect of the rela-
tionship between black women’s culture and creative democracy or
a platform for a given maternal exponent of creative democracy (i.e. a
leader like Stewart or Cooper who harnesses the role of the black mater-
nal archetype); rather, the community forms the living shape of the fluid
 1 INTRODUCTION 17

interconnectivity between maternal leadership, black women’s culture,

and creative democracy.
As critics like Darlene Clark Hine, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Kathy
Glass, and Farah Jasmine Griffin have discussed, from the earliest days
of slavery, black women have been building communities outside the
mainstream of American society. In doing so, they have established net-
works of support that provide a sense of belonging and mutual respect,
not to mention safety.21 These communities have often taken the form
of organizations and clubs like the National Association of Colored
Women (NACW), of which Mary Church Terrell was the first president
in 1896.22 Such associations accentuate the degree to which, from the
start, black women’s communities have been more than just enclaves
that afford some protection against intersectional oppression. They have
also operated as springboards for collective sociopolitical action. Given
this dual function, it is not surprising that nineteenth-century theorists
like Stewart and Cooper portray close ties between maternity and com-
munity activism.23 Insofar as motherhood is the channel through which
black women’s experiential virtue can extend into society, a community
of black mothers constitutes the shape of their aggregative identity and
influence.
How does the transition in constructions of the black maternal arche-
type from the nineteenth century to the interwar period parallel evolu-
tions in the historical and textual status of the black female community?
This question brings further attention to the ties between literary prag-
matism and sociohistorical circumstances. Just as Stewart, Cooper, and
Terrell’s theory contains characterizations of the black maternal arche-
type, their works also contain representations of communities. In par-
ticular, the philosophers envisage communities of black women that
straddle divides between the actual and the aspirational—between iden-
tifiable clubs and organizations that flourished in the nineteenth century
and hypothetical communities that might nurture the future growth of
creative democracy. The connecting threads between existing and pos-
sible communities rest on the theorists’ samplings of cultural, artistic,
and religious activities that define the workings of creative democracy.
For example, Maria Stewart adopts the identity of a biblical prophet,
Anna Julia Cooper develops her points through musical imagery, and
Mary Church Terrell juxtaposes artistic media (descriptions of storytell-
ing, paintings, and music) and matrilineal heritage. No mere decorative
18 G. PHIPPS

touch, such samplings provide snapshots of how communities of black

women revolve around shared cultural experiences. By weaving the prac-
tices and activities that shape these experiences into their texts, Stewart,
Cooper, and Terrell accomplish two significant tasks. First, they reinforce
their leadership positions as maternal transmitters of culture, conveying
their own versions of stories, music, art, and religion through theoretical
writing. Second, they illuminate how creative democracy operates within
communal environments, but also how it could operate on an even more
expansive, nationwide scale. Their incorporations of and experimenta-
tions with interdisciplinary facets of black women’s culture emerge as
the building blocks of the communities they imagine through writing—
communities they posit as the indispensable foundations of a future
American society. It is only through the vitalizing influence of black
women’s culture on a mass scale, they suggest, that the United States can
be transformed into a nation where democracy is a genuine lived experi-
ence for all people.
To return to the question of transition, how do the “daughters” por-
trayed in Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston’s fiction carry forward the depic-
tion and construction of creative democratic communities? In the literary
works of these authors, young black women’s communities of origin fre-
quently germinate many of the same intersectional webs of oppression
that congeal within and help sustain the interwar mass democratic state.
At first glance, then, their protagonists’ communities are far from rep-
resenting incarnations of the black feminist environments that Stewart,
Cooper, and Terrell portray and assemble in their texts. One obvious rea-
son for this disjunction involves the intentions of the writers. Whereas
the philosophers imagine communities that could spearhead the future
growth of creative democracy, Fauset, Larsen, and Hurston generally
place their protagonists in fictional versions of 1920s and 1930s African
American communities. These are communities riddled with many of the
hierarchical formations that undergird mainstream white U.S. society.
Whether the protagonists reside in black bourgeois communities situated
within urban environments (as do Angela Murray in Fauset’s Plum Bun
and Irene Redfield in Larsen’s Passing) or in rural black communities (as
do Isis Watts in Hurston’s “Drenched in Light” and Missie May Banks in
Hurston’s “The Gilded Six-Bits”), they all become aware, in their own
ways, of the impact that the larger workings of intersectional persecution
in America produce on their homes and lives. In fact, in the novels of
Fauset and Larsen, the remarkable flexibility and pervasiveness of racist,
 1 INTRODUCTION 19

misogynistic, and classist stratifications become leading factors in young

women’s decisions to leave their homes. For these characters, disavow-
ing their African American communities is seemingly the best means for
loosening intersectional casts that inhibit black women’s experiences of
creative democracy.
Disavowals are often represented through acts of passing, a central
concern in Harlem Renaissance fiction and also in the wider scope of
African American women’s writing. In the context of the passing narra-
tive, the black community is a site of departure—a portal that individuals
must pass through in order to liberate action and enter into ostensibly
more heterogeneous spaces. On one side, acts of passing carry a symbolic
value within the narrative of creative democracy because, in the fiction
of Fauset and Larsen, crossing the colour line frequently entails sever-
ing ties with one’s mother or grandmother. Maternal characters usually
emblematize older cultural traditions, standards of virtue, and intersec-
tional constellations—ideals, values, beliefs, and practices that speak,
somewhat ironically, to how Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell see democ-
racy working as a cultural experience. From this standpoint, insofar as
­nineteenth-century philosophical variations of “the community” subsist
in the literature, they appear to do so through filial ties that inadvertently
contribute to young women’s feelings of entrapment. But this formula is
mistaken because it suggests that communal networks of black women
must be founded on the same unifying elements at all times, such as
true womanhood, virtue, and certain aesthetic forms (biblical prophecy,
nineteenth-century music, etc.). However, for Fauset’s, Larsen’s, and
Hurston’s protagonists, departure does not constitute a response against
creative democracy, but rather an attempt to enlarge the experience of it
through new relationships, ideals, values, and cultural pursuits. Thus, the
daughters portrayed in Harlem Renaissance fiction do not merely enact a
figurative abandonment of their black feminist foremothers through the
literal act of leaving behind their mothers and grandmothers. Instead,
through acts of passing, they reinterpret, revise, and update how philos-
ophers like Stewart, Cooper, and Terrell understand creative democracy
as a communal force. In the process, they also diversify the parameters of
black feminist networks, seeking out their own versions of creative dem-
ocratic communities away from their homes.
As critics have indicated, literary depictions of passing bring out a
whole slew of interacting dualisms and paradoxes between (among oth-
ers) essentialism and transgression, secrecy and revelation, pleasure and
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Price 50 cents per year, payable in
advance. To foreign countries, 75 cents.
Single copies, 10 cents.
Editor-in-Chief, James S. Hine.

Associate Editors.

J. A. Bownocker, Geology,
J. H. Schaffner, Botany,
F. L. Landacre, Zoology,
W. C. Mills, Archaeology,
Max Morse, Ornithology,
F. J. Tyler, Ecology.

Advisory Board.

Prof. W. A. Kellerman.
Prof. Herbert Osborn.
Prof. Charles S. Prosser.

Address THE OHIO NATURALIST,

Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
 The Truth, The Whole Truth,

and Nothing but the Truth.

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 The Ohio Naturalist,

PUBLISHED BY

The Biological Club of the Ohio State University.

Volume II. DECEMBER. 1901. No. 2.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Tyler—Meeting of the Biological Club 147

Meeting of the Ohio State Academy of Science 156
Kellerman—Fifty Additions to the Catalogue of Ohio Plants 157
Kellerman—Botanical Correspondence, Notes and News for Amateurs, I 159
Kellerman—Note and Correction to Ohio Fungi Exsiccate 161
Griggs—Notes of Travel in Porto Rico 162
Morse—Salamanders Taken at Sugar Grove 164
Williamson—Fishes Taken Near Salem, Ohio 165
Hine—Collecting Tobanidae 167
Hine—Observations on Insects 169
 MEETING OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB.

November 4th, 1901.

The Biological Club met in Orton Hall and was called to order by
the president, Prof. Osborn. As it is customary to elect new officers at
the November meeting each year, the Nominating Committee
presented the following names: For president, Mr. Mills; for vice-
president, Mr. Morse; for secretary, Mr. Tyler. Prof. Lazenby moved
that the secretary be instructed to cast the unanimous ballot of the
members present for the names proposed. Carried. Messrs. J. C.
Bridwell, M. T. Cook and Harvey Brugger were elected members.
The retiring president, Prof. Osborn, presented a very interesting
address, an abstract of which follows:
 SCOPE OF MODERN BIOLOGY.
It has been the custom in this society, following a mandate of its
constitution, for the president on retiring from the chair to give an
address, and it is presumed that such an address will either bring to
your attention the results of some special investigation, summarize
the work in some field of research or outline the progress and
problems with which biology has to do.
When a year ago you were so kind as to honor me with this office,
two things I think came especially to my mind; one the success of the
club particularly in the new enterprise of publishing a journal; the
other the duty, honor and privilege of preparing an address for this
occasion. I presume you have all had the experience of
contemplating some distance in the future a certain duty, debating
the most suitable theme or method, and perhaps seen the time grow
shorter and shorter with little real accomplishment. If I were to
enumerate the various topics that have come to my mind as suitable
for this occasion it would exhaust quite a part of our time; if I could
reproduce the current of thought that has flowed from time to time
along the pathways of such topics, I am sure you would experience a
weariness that I should regret to occasion.
The parts of biology which we may make thoroughly our own are
very few. It may be profitable, therefore, occasionally to take a
general survey of the field to see what its sphere of influence may be,
what phases of life are being advanced by its discoveries or by the
distribution of knowledge which follows. It has seemed to me
therefore that it would be appropriate this evening to attempt some
such survey of biology, even though it be fragmentary and
inadequate.
For convenience in arrangement we may group this survey along
the lines of practical applications of service to mankind, such as
occur in medicine, agriculture and kindred industries, domestic and
social life, and those which have to do with the acquisition of
knowledge and with education.
 Applications of biology in medical science, in agriculture and in
domestic life have in many cases assumed such intimate and
essential character that we often look upon them as applied sciences
more than in any other way.
While biology has been the foundation of all rational systems of
medicine and the constant servant of this most beneficent of human
professions, the forms of its uses and the wide reach of its service
have so increased in recent years that we almost have excuse in
feeling that it is a modern acquisition.
Could the ancient disciples of Esculapius, with their views of
physiology and anatomy, have seen the present scope of these
subjects and the marvelous results in cure and control of diseases by
the discoveries and applications in bacteriology, I doubt if they
would have recognized it as any part of their biology. Still harder
would it have been to appreciate the relations of malarial parasite,
mosquito and man whereby a serious disease in the latter is
occasioned. Intimate relations of two kinds of life, as evidenced in
the common parasites, must have been familiar from early times and
their effects duly recognized, though their means of access and
necessary life cycles were long misunderstood. But such relations as
are found to exist in the production of malaria, Texas fever and
yellow fever have been so recently discovered that we count them
among the triumphs of our modern science. Indeed the discovery of
such a relationship may be considered as having been impossible
until the methods of modern research and the basis of knowledge as
to life conditions were acquired, and which made it possible to put
the disjointed fragments together. With the fragments thus related
the riddle seems so simple that we wonder it was not solved before,
but we must remember that it is knowledge which makes knowledge
possible.
These direct advantages in medical science are however but part of
the great gift to modern methods of disease control, for the
possibilities in the control of disease by sanitation, quarantine,
vaccination, etc., and other methods are all based on biological data.
In speaking of these recent acquisitions I would not disparage
those important, in fact essential subjects of longer growth. Modern
medicine would be a fragile structure without its basis of
comparative anatomy, physiology, materia medica and therapeutics,
which have for long years furnished a basis for rational methods in
surgery and medication.
With all this knowledge at hand it is grievous to observe how
general the delusion that disease may be eradicated by some much
emblazoned nostrum, that some vile ‘Indian compound’ will be
thought to have more virtue than the most accurately proportioned
prescription which represents the best that modern science can do in
the adaptation of a particular remedy to a particular ailment. That
the patent medicine business is a most gigantic fraud and curse will I
believe be granted by every scientific man who has made himself
acquainted with the subject. Its immense profits are attested by the
square miles of advertisements that disgrace the modern newspaper
and magazine. Fortunes made from the fortunes spent in such
advertising, along with the commissions to the lesser dealers, are
drawn from a credulous people who not only receive no value in
return, but in most cases doubtless are actually injured as a result.
That no student of biology can be deluded by such preposterous
claims as characterize these compounds, in fact by any system of
cure not based on sound biological principles, seems only a logical
result of his training. I do not recall ever seeing the name of a
biologist among the host of those who sing the praises of some of
these rotten compounds. Mayors, congressmen, professors,
clergymen and other presumably educated parties appear along with
the host of those who fill this guilty list, a list that should be branded
as a roll of dishonor. I believe that educated men owe some measure
of effort toward the abatement of this plague. Naturally the medical
profession is thought to be the rightful source for action, but among
the uninformed any effort there is attributed to selfish motive.
Certainly some measure of reform in this direction would be a
service to mankind, and while no sensational crusade may be
necessary, each one who knows enough of the laws of life to
appreciate the monstrous folly of this business has it in his power to
discourage it within the sphere of his individual influence at least.
Newspapers are mostly choked off by the immense revenue derived
from advertising, in fact I have known some which depended upon
this as their main source of support, and have heard the candid
statement that they could not have existed without it. All the more
honor therefore to the few, and there are a few, which absolutely
refuse to allow such advertisements in their columns.
That the modern physician must have a thorough knowledge of
biology has become more and more apparent. He has to deal with
life, and life thus far at least cannot be rendered into mere
mechanical, physical or chemical factors. The activities of the human
machine have much that must be studied from the basis of organic
nature. If we do not know all the factors or forces of life we do know
that there is a complex or combination of forces radically different
from any single force of inorganic nature. Chemical affinity, physical
attraction and repulsion, mechanical forces may furnish many aids,
but the study of life activities must go still further. To do this we
must recognize the laws of organic life, the forces of growth and
nutrition, of reproduction, of evolution, in fact a host of forces which
have no counterpart in the inorganic world.
Modern agriculture and horticulture are so dependent on the
principles of biology that to dissociate them does violence to thought.
Indeed this relation has existed through all recorded history, but in
no period has the utility of biologic laws been so intimately blended
with all the processes of cultivation.
The determination of the zones of greatest productivity for
different crops, their soil requirements, the introduction and
acclimatization of species belonging to other faunal or floral regions,
the essentials of animal and plant nutrition, the control of disease or
abatement of noxious forms of plant or animal, all these and more
are embraced in the service of biologic science to agriculture in its
various forms and thus to human interests.
Among special cases cited, but which cannot be printed here in
detail, were various plant diseases, and particularly various insect
pests, and the discoveries which have brought them more or less
under control.
Aside from the sources of food supply, which come under the
general term of agriculture, we derive many articles of diet from
sources dependent on animal or plant life. The various fishery
industries and oyster culture which have been so wonderfully
promoted by biological investigations are excellent examples of the
service of science to mankind. Game laws for the protection of
certain forms of life of utility to man and the possible sources of food
from various animals or plants not yet utilized may be mentioned
here. Clothing comes in for its share, as in the methods for protection
of silkworms, the saving of fur seals and other fur-bearing animals
from extinction, and the use of various fibre plants. The successful
growth of sponges, of pearls and many other articles of domestic
comfort or ornament are connected in one way or another with
biological problems, and their fullest development dependent on
rational measures possible when the biological conditions are
known.
In another way these questions enter into our social and
commercial life. The rights of property in the migrant or semi-
migrant forms of life have biologic as well as legal basis and some
quite peculiar legal decisions would doubtless have been very
different had the biology been appreciated. The classification of
turtles as ‘vermin’ since they are neither fish nor fowl may be given
as a case in point. Equally absurd and sometimes more disastrous
are some of the rulings by customs officers whose knowledge of
biology was doubtless derived from a Greek lexicon or some equally
good authority. Such quarantine restrictions as have been imposed
upon certain products by some governments show total lack of
knowledge as to the possible conditions of injurious transportation
or else the misapplication of them to serve some special end.
The exclusion of American pork and American fruits from certain
countries, the controversy over the fur seals in Alaska, the
inconsistent laws of states or nations regarding game, are some of
the instances where it is evident that the law-making power and the
agents of diplomacy need to be re-enforced with definite biological
knowledge.
But there is another phase quite distinct from the purely
utilitarian. Biological science opens up to us the facts of life and
solves some of the questions of the greatest interest to mankind.
What is life? What its origin? What are the factors that have
controlled its development and the wonderful complexities which we
observe in its distribution and adaptations? Are the forces that
operate in the living organism merely physical, mechanical and
chemical or are there activities inherent in life itself or that operate
only in the presence of the life containing complex? Certainly, in no
other branch of science are there problems more inviting. In no other
has present knowledge given greater inspiration or greater
intellectual service to mankind.
The field for acquisition of knowledge widens with each new
discovery. We no sooner gain foothold in some hitherto unexplored
realm than we become conscious that beyond this lie still other
realms, knowledge of which has been dependent on knowledge of the
routes by which they may be reached.
Thus structure must be known to understand function, and
function known enables us to interpret structure. Evolution could
not be demonstrated until after there had been gathered the
necessary materials to show relations of different organisms, past
and present. But, evolution known, and vast arrays of structure
become intelligible. Without the knowledge of organic distribution
no laws of distribution could be framed, but without the explanation
of distribution afforded by evolution the facts are an unmeaning
puzzle. So, too, without an effort at systematic arrangement of plant
and animal forms no fundamental law of relationship could have
been discovered, but given a law of relationship and systematic
biology assumes a totally different aspect. Recognition of the
multitudinous forms of nature are but one step then in the
presentation of the vast concourse in their proper relations.
No doubt biologists will persist till every form of life has been
adequately described and some means of designating it adopted. So
much may be expected from the enthusiasm of the systematist. Some
centuries of effort must, of course, be expected to elapse before the
task is done. But it is evident that the modern biology is much less
concerned in the mere recognition of these innumerable forms of
life, these remotest expressions of the force of evolution, than in the
gaining of some adequate conception of their relations, the forces of
adaptation that have fitted them for their particular niche in the
realm of nature, their relation to the other organisms with which
they are associated and which constitute for them a source of support
or a menace to existence. That is, modern biology concerns itself not
only with the elements of structure in the organism, with the means
it has of performing its varied functions with the aggregate of
individuals which constitute its species, but goes on to its relations to
all the influences and forces which have made it what it is and which
sustain its specific existence. Less than this is too narrow a view of
the province of biology. Here is unlimited scope for the student who
pursues knowledge for love of knowledge.
As an inspiration to the general student the field of biology has
always held an important place, and in these modern times its
fascination is as potent as ever. Men have attacked the problems of
life from many different viewpoints with greatly different aim and
great difference in preparation and method in their work. Some of
these have sought merely for inspiration for literary effort, but so far
as their records have been exact and truthful they are contributions
to science, when mixed with “vain imaginings” they become
literature and not science, although their right to rank here may
depend on literary merit. Every gradation from pure fiction to pure
science may be found and every grade of literary merit as well. White
and Goldsmith, Wood and Figuier, Kipling and Seton-Thompson,
with many others that could be cited, illustrate this wide divergence
among writers who have written to the entertainment and the
greater or less profit of their readers. The value of such works as
these is rather hard to estimate, especially from the scientific
standpoint and particularly when one is under the hallucination of a
beautiful piece of literary creation. They furnish entertainment and
cultivate imagination, some of them stimulate observation and
awaken an interest in nature, but unfortunately many of them
contain so much that is inexact or erroneous that they may sadly
encumber the minds of their readers.
But I would like to call attention here to what appears to me a
fundamental condition of scientific work and thereby a necessary
result of scientific training. Science is naught if not exact. Accurate
observation, accurate record, accurate deduction from data, all of
which may be reduced to simple, plain honesty. Anything else is
error, not science. It is not that “honesty is the best policy,” but that
in science honesty is the only possible policy. Hence, scientific
training should give to every student this one at least of the cardinal
virtues, and we may claim with justice this advantage as one of the
results to be derived from pursuing scientific studies. In fact the
relation of science and biological science, no less than any other, to
general schemes of education, has been one of its most important
contributions to humanity.
 Biology has influenced modern education both in the matter
taught and the method of its presentation. It has gone farther and
farther into the mysteries of nature and opened up wider fields of
knowledge. It has insisted that the student should be trained not only
in the facts and the accurate interpretation of facts, but in the
methods by which facts may be obtained, thus providing for the
continuous growth of the substance from which its principles may be
verified and definite conclusions reached.
In recent years there has been a wide demand for the more general
distribution of knowledge of nature, and “nature study” has had a
prominent place in the discussions of educators. I must confess to
some fear for the outcome of well meant efforts to crowd such
studies into the hands of unprepared teachers, though surely no one
could wish more heartily for a wider extension of such work well
done. It is encouraging to note steady progress in this line and we
should be content not to push ahead faster than conditions will
warrant.
Our science is an evergrowing one, and I wish to mention briefly
some of the conditions of biological research and the conditions
essential to its successful prosecution. The time has passed when it is
possible for the isolated individual to accomplish much of anything
of value in the growth of science. Such instances as the cobbler
naturalist can not well be repeated under present conditions, and
biological workers must expect that some part at least of their time is
spent where libraries, museums and scientific workers are to be
found. I recall meeting some years ago in an obscure little village,
with a young man who was following a trade, but whose ardent love
for nature had brought him to take up the study of a certain group of
insects, and in this group he had conceived the idea of preparing a
work covering the geographical distribution for the world. With
scarcely the beginning of a library, with no access to general
collections, apparently with no conception of the stupendous nature
of the task he was so ambitiously undertaking, there was perhaps
little danger of his discovering the hopelessness of his case. He
doubtless gained much pleasure and individual profit in the quest,
but for the progress of science, how futile such attempts. Isolated
work is often necessary, often the only way in which certain data can
be secured, but if isolation be permanent, if it means to be cut off
from the records of what has already been done in one’s line of study,
progress is painfully slow and results of little value. Access then to
the world’s storehouses of knowledge, to libraries and museums
where one may determine the conditions of progress on any given
problem is an imperative condition to satisfactory research.
Another condition almost as imperative is time for extended and
consecutive work. There are comparatively few places where, after
passing the stages of preparation, one may have the opportunity to
give uninterrupted time to pure research, but fortunately such
opportunities are increasing.
Another factor is necessary equipment, a condition varying
indefinitely with the problem undertaken. Studies of some of the
simpler processes of life may be successfully carried on with barely
any apparatus whatever, while others require the most costly and
complex of machinery. Deep sea investigations, for example, are
possible only with a suitable vessel and elaborate apparatus for
dredging and other operations, and such expeditions as that of the
Challenger, the Blake, the Albatross and others involve such vast
outlays that only the liberality of nations or of the very wealthy
render them possible.
However, the modest student without a dollar to invest in these
expensive undertakings may have the opportunity to work as
diligently and effectively as any. So, too, the costly equipments of
marine stations, of universities, of national and state museums are
open to every earnest worker.
Still another condition related to the best effort in research is a
satisfactory outlet for publication. Probably no investigator enters on
an elaborate extended research without the expectation that such
results as he may obtain, especially such as are novel and important
to the growth of science, shall at some time be given a public hearing
and a permanent record in the annals of science. However much this
ambition may be overworked and abused, it must be considered the
logical and legitimate outcome of research, valuable as an incentive
to work, essential to the progress of science.
The output of scientific laboratories is always pressing hard upon
the organs of publication, and though we have numerous periodicals
open to all, many society proceedings and transactions devoted to
their membership, university bulletins intended primarily for the
staff and students of each institution, still adequate publication
facilities are often wanting. Especially is this true regarding the
suitable illustration of papers which depend largely on plates or
drawings for the elucidation of the text. Our own modest effort in
The Naturalist is an attempt to meet one phase of this demand, but
you all appreciate, I think, that it is insufficient for the needs of our
own institution. Some of the more extended papers resulting from
the work of either students or faculty must suffer oblivion, delay or
inadequate presentation. Evidently a publication fund is one of our
pressing needs.
Opportunities for research have been much increased within
recent years, and now it is possible for one to look forward with some
assurance to a career in research pure and simple if that is his desire.
As many of those present doubtless anticipate such career, it may not
be amiss to mention some of the opportunities that now present.
Positions in connection with universities and colleges now as for a
long time past offer some of the most available openings.
Fellowships, and positions as assistants with comparatively light
duties with expectation that the holder will devote himself to
investigation that will advance his branch of science are offered in
many places and their value is shown by the numerous candidates
for each position. Many government positions in Department of
Agriculture, Geological Survey and Fish Commission demand a high
degree of training and offer exceptional opportunities for research.
The first few years following graduation are golden days of
opportunity in the way of research. For the majority, perhaps, these
are the days when the greatest amount of original study may be
possible and under conditions favoring the greatest productivity. As
time passes and duties and responsibilities increase the opportunity
for uninterrupted work grows less and less. Of course original work
should follow necessary preparation but can not be postponed
indefinitely, in hopes of a more favorable season, if the individual
hopes to accomplish anything of value in his chosen science. Too
early publication however is to be discouraged. Most good things will
keep for a time at least, and the opportunity to test and verify
investigations before publishing is desirable. It is unwise to attempt
to harvest a crop of glory, in scientific fields at least, before the seed
has had time to germinate. The extremes of too hasty publication and
indefinite delay are both to be avoided.
But this disjointed address must be brought to a close, I have
indulged in a medley rather than pursuing a connected theme, but it
has been in my mind to show how the influence of modern biology
has been felt in every phase of human life and modified every phase
of human thought. It touches history and illumines it as a record of
human activities, the modifications and adaptations of the most
dominant organism of earth. It touches language and infuses it with
life as the highest evolution of all means of communication among
animals. It enters the sphere of human relations and we see society,
government, law, as the most complex expression of forces operative
all along the line of organic life.
We may gain inspiration in our work from the thought that our
field of labor gives opportunity for the highest service in the
advancement of human interests and the intellectual uplift of the
race.
The club extended Prof. Osborn a vote of thanks for his valuable
address.

F. J. Tyler, Secretary.

The Ohio State Academy of Science held its eleventh annual

meeting at the Ohio State University in this city on November 29th
and 30th. Between thirty and forty papers were given and the
attendance was considerably above the average. On the evening of
the 29th a joint meeting was held with the Modern Language
Association of Ohio, which held its annual session at the University
on the dates mentioned above. The committee arranged an
interesting and appropriate program for the evening and a large and
appreciative audience responded. The Academy meetings have been
held heretofore during the Christmas vacation, therefore holding it at
this time was an experiment, but judging from the program,
attendance, and enthusiasm manifested, the meeting this year may
be said to be one of the best the society has ever held.
 It is of more than ordinary interest to be able to record the taking
of specimens of the European ruff, Pavoncella pugnax (Linn.) in
Ohio. Two male specimens are in the Dr. Jasper collection at the
Ohio State University, one taken April 28th, 1879, at Columbus, the
other November 10th, 1872, at the Licking Reservoir.
 FIFTY ADDITIONS TO THE CATALOGUE OF
OHIO PLANTS.

W. A. Kellerman.

The plants listed below have been found growing in the State
without cultivation. A large number of them are adventive species
but not hitherto recorded in the Ohio list. Three of the names
occurred in the old lists and were noted in the Catalogue of 1893 by
Kellerman and Werner, but were discarded in the Fourth State
Catalogue, published in 1899. These here referred to and which are
below restored to the Ohio list, are Nos. 683a, 1423b, and 1990½a.
No. 893a was included in L. D. Stair’s list of Railway Weeds. All the
others are wholly new to the listed flora. While several persons have
contributed to this increase, special thanks are due to Mr. Otto
Hacker, who formerly as well as at present, contributed largely to a
fuller knowledge of the State flora. Mr. Hacker has furnished
specimens of all the species credited to him below and these are
deposited in the State Herbarium. The rich field for adventive species
in the region of Painesville may be understood when it is stated that
the extensive and long-established nursery grounds of Storrs and
Harrison are located at this place.
1a. Botrychium lunaria (L.) Sw. Moonwort. Painesville, Lake Co.
Otto Hacker.
201a. Apera spica-venti (L.) Beauv. Silky Bent-grass. Wild-straw.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
201b. Aira caryophyllea L. Silvery Hair-grass. Rarely escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
253a. Festuca myuros L. Rat’s-tail Fescue-grass. Painesville, Lake
Co. Otto Hacker.
272a. Hordeum sativum Jessen. Common Barley. Occasionally
escaped.
272b. Hordeum distichum L. Two-rowed Barley. Rarely escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
470a. Lemna cyclostasa (Ell.) Chev. (L. valdiviana Phil.) Valdivia
Duckweed. Richmond, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
557a. Gemmingia chinensis (L.) Kuntze. Blackberry Lily. Escaped.
Franklin Co. J. H. Schaffner.
557b. Crocus vernus All. Crocus. Escaped. Painesville, Lake Co.
Otto Hacker.
568a. Limnorchis hyperborea (L.) Rybd. (Habenaria hyperborea
(L.) R. Br.) Canton. Mrs. Theano W. Case.
670a. Quercus alexanderi Britton. Alexander’s Oak. “Ohio;” N. L.
Britton, Manual of Flora, 336. This was formerly confused
with, or included in Q. acuminata, and like the latter is not
uncommon in Ohio.
683a. Urtica urens L. Small Nettle. Painesville, Lake Co. Otto
Hacker.
754a. Acnida tamariscina prostrata. Uline and Bray. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
762a. Portulaca grandiflora Hook. Garden Portulaca. Sun Plant.
Escaped; Roadsides. St. Marys, Auglaize Co. A. Wetzstein.
775a. Lychnis vesicaria L. Lychnis. Escaped. Painesville, Lake Co.
Otto Hacker.
886a. Fumaria parviflora Lam. Small Fumitory. Painesville, Lake
Co. Otto Hacker.
893a. Sisymbrium altissimum L. Tall Sisymbrium. L. D. Stair in
List of Railroad Weeds. Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
894a. Myagrum perfoliatum L. Myagrum. Painesville, Lake Co.
Otto Hacker.
921a. Camelina microcarpa Andrz. Small-fruited False-flax.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
984a. Rubus neglectus Peck. Purple Wild Raspberry. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
985a. Rubus phoenicolasius Maxim. Japan Wineberry. Escaped
from cultivation; comes freely from seed, and propagates
by tips. Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1004a. Potentilla pumila Poir. Dwarf Five-finger. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1026b. Sorbus aucuparia L. European Mountain Ash. Escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1051a. Prunus mahaleb L. Mahaleb. Perfumed Cherry. Columbus,
Franklin Co. W. A. Kellarman. Painesville, Lake Co. Otto
Hacker.
1054a. Acuan illinoensis (Mx.) Kuntze. (Desmanthus brachylobus
Benth.) Illinois Mimosa. New Richmond, Clermont Co. A.
D. Selby.
1071a. Trifolium dubium Sibth. Least Hop-Clover. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1091a. Coronilla varia L. Coronilla, Axseed, Axwort. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1122a. Vicia augustifolia Roth. Smaller Common Vetch.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1171a. Euphorbia cuphosperma (Englem.) Boiss. Warty Spurge.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1195a. Euonymus europaeus L. Spindle-tree. Escaped. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1265a. Viola odorata L. English or Sweet Violet. Escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1301b. Kneiffia linearis (Mx.) Spach. Narrow-leaf Sun-drops.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1423b. Spigelia marylandica L. Indian Pink or Carolinia Pink. Fl.
M. V. A. P. Morgan. North Madison, Lake Co. D. W.
Talcott.
1502a. Asperugo procumbens L. German Madwort. Catchweed.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1534a. Scutellaria parvula ambigua Fernald. “Ohio,” Nuttall.
Greene Co., E. L. Moseley; Montgomery Co., W. U. Young;
Franklin Co., E. E. Bogue; Gallia Co., J. W. Davis.
1556a. Salvia lanceolata Willd. Lance-leaf Sage. By roadside near
Columbus. W. A. Kellerman.
1586a. Mentha longifolia (L.) Huds. Horse Mint. Painesville, Lake
Co. Otto Hacker.
1600a. Physalis francheti Mast. Chinese Lantern Plant. Escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. D. W. Talcott.
1609½a. Datura metel L. Entire-leaf Thorn-apple. Escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1611b. Kickxia spuria (L.) Dumort. (Elatinoides spuria Wetzst.)
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1690a. Diodia teres Walt. Rough Button-weed. Painesville, Lake
Co. Otto Hacker.
1702a. Asperula hexaphylla All. Asperula. Escaped. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1712a. Viburnum lantana L. Wayfaring Tree. Escaped. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1732a. Valeriana officinalis L. Garden Valerian. Escaped.
Painesville, Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1756a. Arnoseris minima (L.) Dumort. Lamb Succory. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1756b. Hypochaeris glabra L. Smooth Cat’s-ear. Painesville, Lake
Co. Otto Hacker.
1766c. Lactuca virosa L. Strong-scented Lettuce. Confused with L.
scariola according to Britton, being the commoner of the
 two species. (A. D. Selby, Meeting Ohio Academy of
Science, November, 1901.)
1775a. Hieracium pilosella L. Mouse-ear Hawkweed. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.
1990½a. Tanacetum vulgare crispum DC. Tansy. Painesville,
Lake Co. Otto Hacker.