“ You found the science of botany barred by a hedge of technicalities against the approach of the common student. You have made it the delight and inspiration of the youth of the land. You have subjected the science of botany in its higher departments to lucid and masterly exposition. Many of the comprehensive and critical reviews of the American flora have proceeded from your pen. The botanical pages of the American Journal of Science reveal labors sufficient in volume and value to fill and honor a lifetime. And those labors are yours. ”

“ We expect you to serve yet many years the cause of education and sacred truth; and we expect to concede you the highest honors of all for the labors which, we trust, are to adorn the last quarter of your century.
With us the pleasure of these congratulations is quite peculiar, since we can hail you as an ex-professor in our University. Your memory readily reverts to the crude infancy of this institution, when your name was chosen, to stand first in its list of professors. You recall your actual participation in the labors of our early organizers ”

“ Few of us there are who do not feel gratefully proud to testify our personal obligations to you for aid and inspiration in our earlier studies; and none of us fail to appreciate the services and honor which you have rendered to education and cultivated scholarship. ”