Cyrus Guernsey Pringle was a botanist and horticulturalist from Charlotte, Vermont. He is among the most prolific collectors of botanical specimens. By the time Pringle passed away in 1911, he had distributed to various herbaria (including his own), some 500,000 sheets of about 20,000 species. These include 29 genera new to science, 1,200 new species, 100 new varieties, and 4 new combinations, more than almost any other collector.

In 1885, through a combination of funding from the Harvard Botanical Museum and the Gray Herbarium, Pringle was hired to begin cataloging the plants of Mexico, because little botanical work had ever been done there. This work would continue over the next 26 years, years in which he ended up botanizing 21 of the 27 states of Mexico. On his trips to and from Mexico, Pringle always made a point to take different routes; he was thus able to further enrich his collections as he passed through a diversity of terrains in both the U.S. and Mexico.

Pringle’s notebooks record his itinerary and daily activity throughout the year including details of plant collecting and specimen preparation.