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Hawaiian Botanical Newsletter - page 32 June 1966
COLIN POTTER, 1906 - 1966
Colin Potter, who was for thirty years the Resident Superintendent of the Foster Botanic Garden, died in Hilo on May 3, 1966. He was born in Onomea, Hawaii, and graduated from Punahou School. Mr. Potter worked as an Assistant in Botany for the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association under Dr. Harold L. Lyon. He was associated with the Foster Garden since 1931 when Mrs. Mary Foster gave her home adjoining the HSPA Experiment Station's Forest Nursery to the city of Honolulu. At that time the city purchased the Forest Nursery where Mr. Potter had been employed, and the result was a public botanical park - Foster Garden.
In addition to innumerable contributions to the preservation and growth of Foster Garden, he was known for his successful breeding of ornamental varieties of "ti". Notable among his introductions was the variety, "Peter Buck". During early years failing eyesight made work difficult. He was a long-time member of the Botanical Society. Our deepest sympathy goes to Mrs. Nora Bush Potter of Volcano, Hawaii, in her loss.
A more detailed article about Colin Potter will be written by Dr. Yoneo Sagawa of the Department of Horticulture, University of Hawaii, and will appear in the Orchid Society Bulletin.
E. E. SHERFF, 1876 - 1966
Dr. Earl Edward Sherff, born in Flint, Michigan, May 18, 1876, died on May 16, 1966 in Hastings, Michigan. He graduated from Albion College and the University of Chicago, where he earned the S., M., and Ph.D. degrees, magna cum laude. In 1923 he became Instructor in Botany at Chicago Teachers College, and from 1929 until his retirement in 1951, Head of the Department of Science.
Though he never visited the far-distant Hawaiian Islands due to his devotion to his invalid son residing at home in Michigan, Dr. Sherff monographed much of the native and endemic flora of this remarkable archipelago. The genera treated are Alourites, Alsinoendron, Antidesma, Bidens, Cheirodendron, Cloaxylon, Dodonaea, Drypetes, Dubautia, Euphorbia s.l., Gnaphalium, Haplostachys, Labordia, Lagenophora, Lipocheta, Munroidendron, Nototrichium, Phyllanthus, Phyllostegia, Pittosporum, Platyesma, Railliardia, Rauvolfia, Remya, Reynoldsia, Schiedea, Sesbania, Silene, Stenogyne, Tetramolopium, Tetraplasandra, and Xylosma. This is an astounding accomplishment for any man. But, in addition to concentrating on elements in the Hawaiian flora, this erudite scholar monographed the huge genus Bidens for the World, and produced numerous taxonomic papers on genera besides those listed above.
The magnificent collections borrowed from the Marie C. Neal Herbarium of the B. P. Bishop Museum was of fundamental aid for his research which was conducted in his office in the Field Museum in Chicago. Many critical specimens, however, were never made available to him during his early studies and hence remain to plague, with provisional or no species identifications, Honolulu workers. B. P. Bishop Museum Directors A. Spoehr and R. W. Force, however, liberalized loan requirements and thus gained hundreds of hours of expert work gratis on genera monographed by Sherff during their more enlightened administrations.
Mrs. Sherff and son Mincr survive. (Otto & Isa Degener)
