Biographical note
William Edwin Safford (1859–1926), an economic botanist and ethnologist, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, 14 December 1859, and was the son of Judge William Harrison Safford. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1880 and served in the Navy from 1880 to 1902. He conducted his post-graduate studies in botany and zoology at Yale (1893–1885) and received his Ph.D. in marine zoology from George Washington University in 1920. He served as a botanist for the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S.D.A., 1902–1926. He was also the commissioner to Peru and Bolivia, 1891–1892; vice-governor of the Island of Guam, 1899–1900; and a member of numerous botanical and other scientific societies.

Safford was the author of numerous books and contributions to scientific journals, including Useful Plants of the Island of Guam, 1905; Cactaceae of Northeastern and Central Mexico, 1909; Edible Plants and Textiles of Ancient America, 1916; Notes on the Genus Dahlia, with Descriptions of New Species, 1919; Natural History of Paradise Key and the Nearby Everglades of Florida, 1919; Synopsis of the Genus Datura, 1921; Daturas of the Old World and New, 1922; Ant Acacias and Acacia Ants of Mexico, 1923; and articles on tropical plants in the new edition of Bailey’s Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1914.