Editing Liberty Hyde Bailey (section)

== Palm studies ==
Bailey made significant contributions to the taxonomic study of [[Arecaceae|palms]]. His interest in the plants reportedly stemmed from his inability to answer his wife's questions about the plants during a family trip to [[Jamaica]] in 1910.<ref name="Dorf1956">{{Cite book|title=Liberty Hyde Bailey; An Informal Biography|last=Dorf|first=Philip|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1956|location=Ithaca, New York}}</ref>{{rp|182}} After retiring as dean of the [[Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences]] in 1913, he devoted the better part of three decades to finding, collecting, and writing about palms.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Moon|first=Mary H.|date=June 1958|title=Botanical Explorations of Liberty Hyde Bailey 2. The Caribbean Islands and Bermuda|journal=Baileya|volume=6|pages=73–82}}</ref> He developed a detailed method of collecting palm specimens that included photographing the tree in its entirety, preserving flowers and fruits in alcohol, pressing flower clusters, and carefully folding sections of the leaves to fit [[herbarium]] sheets.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bailey|first=Liberty Hyde|date=July 17, 1946|title=The palm herbarium - with remarks on certain taxonomic practices|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035572612&view=1up&seq=11|journal=Gentes Herbarum|volume=7|pages=151–180|via=Hathi Trust}}</ref>

Bailey traveled extensively in search of palms and other plants. In the 1920s, he was often accompanied by his daughter and scientific collaborator, [[Ethel Zoe Bailey]].<ref name=":1" /> Already in his fifties when he began studying palms, Bailey continued to collect into his 90s. He was frequently abroad on his birthday, March 15. Thus, he could recall spending his 79th in [[Port-au-Prince|Port-au-Prince, Haiti]], his 82nd in [[Oaxaca|Oaxaca, Mexico]], his 88th in [[Trinidad]], his 90th in [[Grenada]], and his 91st at sea on a small sailboat between [[Sint Eustatius]] and [[Saint Kitts]].<ref name=":1" /> Friends and colleagues at [[Cornell University|Cornell]] hoped to hold a 90th birthday celebration for Bailey, and they did, but only after their guest of honor returned to Ithaca in May.<ref name=":1" />  

When Bailey began studying palms, about 700 species had been identified. The number reached thousand by 1946, the rise due in large part to his intensive study of the family.<ref name="Dorf1956" />{{rp|219}} Ill health finally forced Bailey to discontinue collecting abroad in 1949, at the age of 91.<ref name=":1" /> He continued to study, compare, and write about his palm specimens. His ultimate goal was to produce an authoritative guide to all palms, titled ''[[Genera Palmarum]]''.<ref name=":1" /> When he died, he left behind a manuscript of the first page of the introduction. ''Genera Palmarum'' was ultimately published by Drs. [[Natalie Whitford Uhl|Natalie Uhl]] and [[John Dransfield]] in 1987.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genera Palmarum: a classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore, Jr.|last1=Uhl|first1=Natalie W.|last2=Dransfield|first2=John|date=1987|publisher=L.H. Bailey Hortorium|isbn=0935868305|location=Lawrence, Kan.|oclc=15641317}}</ref> A second, expanded, edition was released in 2008.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genera Palmarum: the evolution and classification of palms|last1=Dransfield|first1=John|last2=Uhl|first2=Natalie W.|last3=Asmussen|first3=Conny B.|last4=Baker|first4=William J.|last5=Harley|first5=Madeline|last6=Lewis|first6=Carl|date=2008|publisher=Kew Pub|isbn=9781842461822|location=Richmond, Surrey, UK|oclc=265983827}}</ref>