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Oscar Dana Allen was an American bryologist and father of bryologist John Alpheus Allen. He served on the faculty of Yale University from 1876-1884, and is credited with determining the atomic weight of cesium. During his time at Yale he was quite active in collecting and studying mosses and liverworts in New England, Quebec, Labrador, and Cape Breton Island. He was in correspondence with the prominent bryologists of the day, publishing many new species descriptions. In 1884, with failing health, he retired to California and moved the state of Washington in 1889. There he collected primarily vascular plants, many of which he sold to Harvard University. When his son proposed to distribute a set of exsiccatae titled Mosses of the Cascade Mountains, Washington about 1898, he again became interested in collecting bryophytes. The Allens' personal moss herbarium of some 3000 specimens was purchased by the New York Botanical Garden. It has been noted that specimens attributed to the younger Allen should really be considered to have been co-collected with his father, as they usually worked together. |
