Accomplished amateur botanist and entomologist, Mary Treat (1830–1923), born in Trumansville, New York, on September 7, was a popular chronicler of the plant, insect, and bird life that shared her small Vineland, New Jersey, home. Treat, who was considered a peer and valued correspondent by countless scientists (including Asa Gray (1810–1888), Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Gustav Mayr (1830–1908), and Auguste Forel (1848–1941)), was widely acknowledged as an authority on insectivorous plants, harvesting ants, and burrowing spiders. She is credited with discovering two species of spider, as well as rare fern and plant species. The recognition she received for her scientific research distinguishes her in the history of women in the sciences. It is her investigations into the nest-making actions of birds and insects, however, that illuminates her concern with ethics and the effects of human action in the natural world.

Treat's scientific nature essays, first published in Harper's and the Atlantic Monthly, then...