Elias Judah Durand

Elias Judah Durand was born in Canandaigua, New York. He received his bachelor's degree in botany and entomology from Cornell University in 1893 and his Doctor of Science in botany in 1895 under George Francis Atkinson at Cornell.[1] Following graduation he taught botany and mycology[2] at Cornell until 1910, first as a fellow and later as an instructor.[1] In 1910, Durand was appointed professor of botany at the University of Missouri,[3] where he remained until 1918. In 1918, Durand was named professor at the University of Minnesota, where from 1920-1921 he was the Chairman of the Department of Botany.[4] He remained at the University of Minnesota until his death from cancer on 29 October 1922.[1][5][6] Durand is buried in the Durand family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery in Canandaigua, New York.[6] He married Anna Louise Perry on 6 September 1899 and had one child, Anna Louise Durand (d. 1981), on 6 June 1901. Anna Louise died shortly after giving birth to their daughter on 11 June 1901. He married Sue Gertrude Stone (d. 1957) on 24 July 1917.[6]

Durand contributed to a broad range of botanical sciences, ranging from bryology and pteridology to mycology.[5] He was recognized and highly respected as an authority on discomycetes, and was one of the first Americans to study the group extensively.[5][7] His personal collection, numbering 12,087 specimens of discomycetes, including 16 types, 27 paratypes, 2 syntypes, and 6,000 microscope slides, was deposited in the Plant Pathology Herbarium at Cornell University (CUP), helping establish that herbarium as a leading center for the study of discomycetes.[4][5] Durand's collections included 650 types (mostly discomycetes) from other authors and herbaria, currently stored at Cornell University.[4] Additional specimens Durand collected are stored in the herbaria of the Field Museum of Natural History, the University of Kentucky, the University of Minnesota, the New York Botanical Garden, and Pomona College.[8]

E.J. Durand described a total of 25 new species, one new form, one new variety, and made 20 new combinations of species. As of 2014, nine of his species and ten recombinations are still accepted (having not been assigned to another genus or reduced to synonymy under previously published names). Durand also described two genera, Gloeoglossum and Ionomidotis which were both later reduced to synonymy.[9][10]

Durand earned his Doctorate of Science under G.F. Atkinson at Cornell. Durand belongs to the mycological lineage of William Russel Dudley. Dudley was a student and assistant under Albert Nelson Prentiss, who was the first head of the Department of Botany at Cornell University.[7] Dudley mentored G.F. Atkinson who later returned to Cornell when Dudley left in 1892.[7][11] While Durand did not directly mentor any students who would later become professional mycologists, he was well-regarded as an instructor in undergraduate courses.[1][5]

While a student at Cornell, Durand was a member of Sigma Xi, Quill and Dagger, Congress, the Classical Association, and the Natural History Society (of which he was president in his senior year).[6] Durand was a charter member of the American Mycological Society (which merged with the Botanical Society of America in 1903).[12] He was also a member of the American Phytopathological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[3][6]

• Durandia (Peck) Rehm (1913)[13] – nom. illegit. (Article 53.1 ICN). Durandia was previously described as a genus in the Cyperaceae by Johan Otto Boeckeler in 1896.[14]
• Durandiella Seaver (1932)[14]
• Durandiomyces Seaver (1928)[15]
• Sphaerospora durandii Rehm (1904)[16]
• Trichoglossum durandii Teng (1932)[17]

Durand authored or coauthored 30 research publications and one general botany laboratory textbook:[5][8]

• 1894. Durand EJ. "Some rare Myxomycetes of central New York, with notes on the germination of Enteridium rozeanum". Botanical Gazette 19 (3): 89-95.
• 1894. ———, Halsted BD, Bicknell EP. "Botanical notes". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 21 (1): 38-42.
• 1894. Durand EJ. "Sporangial trichomes in certain ferns". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 21 (9): 408-409.
• 1896. ———."Structure of pseudoparenchyma". Botanical Gazette 22 (3): 249.
• 1897. ———. "A disease of currant canes". Bulletin Cornell University Agricultural Experimental Station 125: 24-38.
• 1897. ———. "Outline for use in laboratory practice in a course in general introductory botany". 5 editions.
• 1899. ———. "A washing apparatus". Botanical Gazette 27 (5): 394-395.
• 1900. ———. "The classification of the fleshy Pezizineae with reference to the structural characters illustrating the bases of their division into families". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 27: 463-495.
• 1901. ———, Britton EG. "Some further observations on Buxbaumia". The Bryologist 4 (2): 32-33.
• 1901. Durand EJ. "Dacryopsis ellisiana Massee". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 28 (11): 646.
• 1901. ———. "Studies in North American Discomycetes. 1. The genus Holwaya Sacc." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 28: 349-355.
• 1902. ———. "Studies in North American Discomycetes. 2. Some new or noteworthy species from central and western New York". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 29: 458-465.
• 1902. ———. "The genus Angelina Fr." The Journal of Mycology 8: 108-109.
• 1903. ———. "The genus Sarcosoma in North America". The Journal of Mycology 9: 102-104.
• 1904. ———. "Three new species of Discomycetes". The Journal of Mycology 10: 99-101.
• 1906. ———. "Peziza fusicarpa Ger. and Peziza semitosta B. & C." The Journal of Mycology 12: 28-32.
• 1906. ———. "Sporangial trichomes". The Fern Bulletin 14: 20-21.
• 1907. ———. "The mycological writings of Theodor Holmskjold and their relation to Persoon's Commentatio". The Journal of Mycology 13: 141-142.
• 1908. ———. "The Geoglossaceae of North America". Annales Mycologici 6: 387-477.
• 1908. ———. "The development of the sexual organs and sporogonium in Marchantia polymorpha". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 35 (7): 321-335.
• 1909. ———. "The perithecium of Ascomycetes". Botanical Gazette 48 (1): 67-69.
• 1909. ———. "A discussion of some of the principles governing the interpretation of pre-Persoonian names, and their bearing on the selection of a starting-point for mycological nomenclature". Science 29 (1): 670-676.
• 1909. ———. "The Geoglossaceae or Earth-tongues". Ontario Natural Science Bulletin 5: 22-25.
• 1911. ———. "The differential staining of intercellular mycelum". Phytopathology 1 (4): 129-130.
• 1913. ———. "The genus Keithia". Mycologia 5: 6-11.
• 1919. ———. "Peziza proteana var. sparassoides in America". Mycologia 11 (1): 1-3.
• 1919. ———. "Encalypta lacinata in central New York." The Bryologist 22 (2): 13.
• 1919. ———. "Peziza proteana var. sparassoides in America". Mycologia 11 (1): 1-3.
• 1921. ———. "New or noteworthy Geoglossaceae". Mycologia 13 (3): 184-187.
• 1922. ———. "The genus Catinella". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 49: 15-21.
• 1923. ———. "The genera Midotis, Ionomidotis, and Cordierites". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 59 (1): 3-19.

• Works by or about Elias Judah Durand at Internet Archive