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Frances Theodora Parsons (née Smith, 1861 - 1952), usually writing as Mrs. William Starr Dana was an American botanist and author active in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Her birth year is listed in some sources as 1862.) Her first husband, William Starr Dana, was a naval officer. He died circa 1890, and she later married James Russell Parsons, a politician in the state of New York and later a diplomat. They had a son, Russell. She was an active supporter of the Republican Party as well as the Progressive Party. She was also an advocate of women's suffrage. Her most important botanical work was How to Know the Wild Flowers, which went through several editions in her lifetime and has remained in print into the 21st century. It was something of a sensation in its day, the first printing selling out in five days. It garnered favorable responses from Theodore Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling, among others.
Published works by Frances Theodora Parsons (writing as Mrs. William Starr Dana) include:
- How to Know the Wild Flowers (1893). New York: Charles Scribner's Son's. Illustrations by Marion Satterlee.
- Plants and their Children (1896)
- How to Know the Ferns (1899). Author listed as Frances Theodora Parsons. Illustrated by Marion Satterlee and Alice Josephine Smith. The first printing by Toronto: The Publisher's Syndicate Limited; at least seven more printings, 1899-1925 by New York: Charles Scribner's Son's; at least two printings by New York: Dover Books; and one printing, 2005, by Kessinger Publishing.
- According To Season (1902)
- Perchance Some Day (1951) autobiography, privately printed.
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