Botanist Fernald Succumbs at 77

Merritt Lynden Fernald '97, director of the Gray from 1937 to 1947, died last Friday at his home on Hawthorn Street in Cambridge. Born in Orono, Maine, Fernald died at the age of 77.

He came to Harvard in 1891 as an instructor in botany, working for his degree in the Lawrence Scientific School while teaching. He became an assistant professor in 1905, and in 1915 gained the post of Fisher Professor of Natural History.

Fernald was the honorary president of last summer's International Botanical Conference in Stockholm, and since 1924 was editor in chief of Rhodora, the journal of the New England Botany Club. His major published work was a revised edition of "Gray's Botany." He had also written, in collaboration with Alfred C. Kinsey, "Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America."