Archives
The best archive of Treat's life is available at the Vineland Historical Society. The Harvard herbarium has a selection of Treat's specimens sent to Asa Gray and examples of their original correspondence. The Darwin Correspondence Project has summaries of her correspondence with Darwin, but as yet no full coverage of the contents of their letters to each other. The original letters are, in the main, available to view at Cambridge University Library. The most recently published discussion of Treat's work is in Gianquitto's 'Good Observers of Nature' (2007), however an extensive biography is yet to be written. Despite Darwin writing more letters to Treat than any other female scientific correspondent she is often invisible in contemporary discussions of his life and work.
‘On December 25th I placed tiny bits of raw fresh beef on ten leaves of P. pumila. In six hours the secretion was so copious that the spoon-tipped ends of seven leaves were filled. The secretion had mingled with the juice of the beef and looked bloody, but the meat itself was white and tender. In a little less than twelve hours the fluid had changed colour; it now looked clear, and remained so until it was gradually absorbed ’ (Treat, 1885, p. 169).
The standard author abbreviation Treat is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.Read more about this topic: Mary Lua Adelia Davis Treat