Julia Morton (1912–1996), whose protégé has been economic botany

Abstract

Julia Frances McHugh Morton was the victim in a serious automobile accident on September 10, 1996. She was heading home from her regular work day at her office, the Morton Collectanea on the University of Miami campus, when the accident occurred. Julia never recovered consciousness from the crash. With her death, the world lost one of the pioneers in economic botany, who for exactly fifty years was a major contributor to the relatively new field of ethnobotany. Julia was born April 25, 1912 in Middlebury, Vermont. When she was fifteen her mother and sister died and her brother took her to New York City to live. She worked for several years as a commercial artist, and it was there she met and married Kendal Paul Morton, a Canadian. Together they sought to produce an encyclopedia of information on food, medicinal, and other useful plants. Their collection of data, assembled as copies or clippings from any source available, was filed as single sheets under appropriate topics in file cabinets. The collection was called a collectanea and soon became known academically as The Morton Collectanea. With the outbreak of World War II Kendal and Julia returned to Canada, where Kendal was to enter the service and edit a military camp newspaper. He failed a physical examination because of a heart murmur and chose to move to the Bahamas rather than face civilian life in wartime Canada or the U.S. Their botanical files were placed in storage except for entries on tropical fruits, which would be useful in Nassau. By adding to the files and by learning more about tropical fruits, the Mortons prepared the manuscript for their first publication, "Fifty Tropical Fruits of Nassau." Julia proved to be an excellent photographer and used the talent in nearly all of her publications. At the end of the war the Mortons accepted an invitation to work at the Subtropical Experimental Station in Homestead, Florida, where they were aided by association with George Ruehle and Bruce Ledin. Collaboration with Dr. Ledin produced the manuscript for the book 400 Plants of South Florida. Perhaps it was this publication that led to their association with the University of Miami in Coral Gables. With the approval of President Bowman Ashe and the cooperation of Prof. Taylor Alexander, all of the Collectanea files were assembled on the new campus in a wartime temporary building. In this new spacious location the Collectanea grew in size and in usefulness. Students were available to help with the selection and organization of material, and there was room for visiting scholars, who had free access to the material. The Mortons' interest also became divided, with one portion devoted to poisonous plants and the other remaining on useful plants, edible and ornamental. A suggestion that her photographs of plants would make interesting and useful posters led to the production of two wall charts of "Plants Poisonous to People," one showing plants that primarily cause internal poisoning, and the other, plants that are primarily causes of skin and respiratory irritation. It is no exaggeration to say these are currently in use in classrooms and hospitals in many tropical countries. In the Miami area inquiries about toxic plants were directed to Julia by letter, by telephone, or in person. The Poison Control Center referred most plant poison calls to her. In temperate areas it is possible for a qualified individual to ask the proper questions and receive descriptive details permitting the plant to be iden-