Herbert Louis (né Lewis) Mason (1896–1994) was an American botany professor, plant collector, and herbarium director. After graduating from high school, Herbert Mason and his identical twin brother matriculated at Stanford University. Their education was interrupted when they both volunteered for military service in WW I and served in a U.S. Army hospital in Beaune, France. After the end of the war, Herbert Mason returned to Stanford University and received his bachelor's degree there in 1921. He became a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley (U.C. Berkeley) and received an M.A. there in 1923. From 1923 to 1925 he taught at Mills College. From 1925 to 1931 Mason was employed as an associate in Willis L. Jepson's Phenogamic Laboratory. In 1932 he received his Ph.D. from