Safford
WILLIAM EDWIN, an American botanist, born at Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1859. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1880 and took post-graduate studies at Yale and Harvard. From 1880 to 1902 he was engaged in collecting for the United States National Museum in the departments of ethnology and ethnobotany. From 1902 to 1915 he was assistant botanist, and from the latter date was economic botanist of the Department of Agriculture. He conducted an expedition to South America for the Chicago Exposition. In 1898-90 he was vice-governor of the Island of Guam. He was a member of many learned societies. His writings include: "A Year on the Island of Guam" (1904); "An Aztec Narcotic" (1915); "Natural History of Paradise Key and the Nearby Everglades of Florida" (1919); and articles on botanical subjects to several encyclopædias.