biology

John Kunkel Small

John Kunkel Small is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Kunkel Small rather than just read about it. In short: John Kunkel Small (January 31, 1869 – January 20, 1938) was a botanist who studied plants in the southeastern United States, published exsiccatae and wrote a book about the deterioration of habitats in Florida. He was from Pennsylvania and brought his family on some of his expeditions.

Key takeaways

John Kunkel Small belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Kunkel Small to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Kunkel Small from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Kunkel Small (January 31, 1869 – January 20, 1938) was a botanist who studied plants in the southeastern United States, published exsiccatae and wrote a book about the deterioration of habitats in Florida. He was from Pennsylvania and brought his family on some of his expeditions.

Early life and education Small was born on January 31, 1869, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He studied botany at Franklin & Marshall College, receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1892. Then he studied at Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1895 and a doctorate in science in 1912.

Career After his first graduation in 1895, he became a special agent for the Georgia Geological Survey. Then, returning to Columbia University, he became the first Curator of Museums at the New York Botanical Garden, a post at which he served from 1898 until 1906. It was mainly at that time of his life when he issued several exsiccatae and exsiccata-like works, among others the series Mosses of the Southern United States, distributed from the Herbarium of Columbia College by John K. Small (1897) and Lichens of Eastern North America (1898). From 1906 to 1934, he was Head Curator, and then from 1934 until his death he was Chief Research Associate and Curator. Small's doctoral dissertation, published as Flora of the Southeastern United States in 1903, and revised in 1913 and 1933, is a detailed floristic reference for much of the South. Assisted by the patronage of Charles Deering, Small traveled extensively around Florida recording plants and land formations. Small was an early botanical explorer of Florida, documenting many species for the first time, although the flora and fauna were well known to the local Seminole people. His first trip to the region was in 1901. Over the next 37 years, Small visited many times "to collect specimens, to study the natural history of the region, and to photograph natural landscapes, tropical plants, Seminoles and other local folk". Small explored by both car and boat, often bringing along his wife Elizabeth, and their four children. In 1928, Small worked with Thomas Edison on a project to study ferns in Florida and determine whether a commercially viable natural rubber could be extracted from them. "Small's botanical research was recorded in 450 published works, mostly articles, and numerous unpublished typescripts. Among his most well-known publications is the book From Eden to Sahara: Florida's Tragedy, which received acclaim in 1929 for documenting the severe deterioration of south Florida's botanical resources that he had observed up to that time."

Death Small died of heart disease on January 20, 1938, at the age of 68, at his home in the Bronx.

References

Citations

Sources

Bibliography Small, John Kunkel (1903). Flora of the Southeastern United States. New York: The author. Retrieved 3 March 2023. Small, John Kunkel (1913). Flora of the Southeastern United States (2nd ed.). New York: The author. Retrieved 3 March 2023.

External links John K. Small Collection: 2,135 images of South Florida 1901-1938

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Kunkel Small

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Kunkel Small claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Kunkel Small before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Kunkel Small ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Kunkel Small

In research: John Kunkel Small appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Kunkel Small in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Kunkel Small is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1869 births, 1938 deaths, 19th-century American botanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Kunkel Small outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “John Kunkel Small” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Kunkel Small in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Kunkel Small means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Kunkel Small out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Kunkel Small in simple terms?

Why does John Kunkel Small matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Kunkel Small?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Kunkel Small.