skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Davis (1830–1863)
Mary Lua Adelia (Mary) Treat (1863–1923)

1830–1923

American botanist and entomologist. Daughter of Isaac D. Davis and his wife Eliza English; married Joseph Burrell Treat in 1863. In 1868, moved to Vineland, New Jersey, to join the intellectual and agricultural community established by Charles Landis. Wrote many scientific and popular works on plants and insects from 1869. Separated from her husband in 1874 and supported herself by her writing and by collecting plant and insect specimens. Corresponded with CD, Asa Gray, C. V. Riley, August Forel, and Gustav Mayr. Advocate of the theory of natural selection. Her most notable research was on the anatomy and behaviour of harvesting ants, and on carnivorous plants.

Further Reading

For more information see:

https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/mary-treat

Sources

Burstyn ed. 1990

U.S., Find a grave index, 1600s–current (Ancestry.com, accessed 19 October 2022)

Bibliography

Burstyn, Joan N. ed. 1990. Past and promise: lives of New Jersey women. Metuchen, NJ, and London: The Scarecrow Press.

letter