Thursday, March 10, 2011  Jane Colden, botanist, New York  The
story of Jane Colden is short. Yet, by the late 20th century her
name and place in American history began to emerge.  Today she
is considered the first female American botanist, or as Asa Gray
himself said in 1843, the “first botanist of her sex in her
country”.   Jane may never have become a botanist without the
urging of her father, Cadwallader Colden, himself a physician
and practicing botanist. Originally from Scotland, Cadwallader
married Alice Chryste in 1715. They moved to the USA and had a
farm in Newburgh-on-Hudson, New York when Jane was born in 1724.
Cadwallader had by then built a successful political career and
was the surveyor general of New York. Newburgh-on-Hudson was a
remote area in the 1700’s. The American outdoors was still wild
and life for the early colonist out of doors was not entirely
safe.  Jane and her siblings (10 in all) were given a basic
education at home by her mother, while her father provided Jane
with knowledge i