Publications of the Arnold Arboretum. No. 3 THE BRADLEY BIBLIOGRAPHY A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE OF THE WOODY PLANTS OF THE WORLD THE TWENTIETH CENTURY COMPILED AT THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY UNDER THE DIRECTION OF CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT I PREFACE N 1897 Miss Abby A. Bradley gave a substantial sum of money to the Arnold Arboretum on the condition that the income of this fund should be used for investigations on the lines of the work of the Arboretum, that the results of these might serve as a memorial to her father, William Lambert Bradley. Mr. Bradley was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, on May 25, 1826, and died in Hingham, Massachusetts, December 15, 1894. Always interested in everything relating to agriculture, the discoveries of Liebig and the results of the experiments of Laws and Gilbert in England convinced him that the part chemistry was destined to play in agricultural development would be an important one; and in 1861 he devoted himself to the manufacture of chemical fertilizers and was the founder in the United States of this important industry. Mr. Bradley's love of trees was real, and the importance of cultivating them as a part of any broad scheme of agriculture was understood by him. He planted trees largely on his estate in Hingham, and the careful cultivation of trees added pleasure to the last years of his life. It was therefore fitting that his daughter, anxious to perpetuate the memory of her father through work useful to the world, should select the Arnold Arboretum to assist her in carrying out these plans. The choice of the investigation to be first undertaken with the income of Miss Bradley's gift was left to me, and I determined on a bibliography of the literature relating to trees and shrubs, for the want of such a bibliography was felt by every one engaged in the study of trees and in their cultivation in the forest and in the garden. At first devoted to the taxonomy of woody plants, the plan of the work has been enlarged, until it now includes works on taxonomy, morphology, physiology, ecology, the economic productions and uses of woody plants, arboriculture and forestry in all languages published before the end of the nineteenth century. The preparation of the Bradley Bibliography has been entrusted to Mr. Alfred Rehder of the Arboretum, who has devoted himself to it for the last ten years with intelligence, industry and enthusiasm. He has explored the principal libraries in the United States for works on these subjects, and has examined all the great botanical libraries in every country of Europe. No bibliography which attempts to record a literature as great as that dealing with the woody plants of the world can ever be made complete; and the Bradley Bibliography, although no effort has been spared in its preparation, will not, I fear, be found an exception to this rule. ARNOLD ARBORETUM. JUNE 1911. C. S. SARGENT. |